Squatting and illegal eviction: how many are prosecuted, counted from Ministry of Justice data

Two crimes sit at opposite ends of the relationship between a landlord and the people living in a home. Squatting in a residential building has been an offence since 2012 (section 144 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012). Unlawfully evicting or harassing a residential occupier has been an offence since 1977 (section 1 of the Protection from Eviction Act 1977).

The Ministry of Justice publishes how many people are prosecuted and convicted for each offence. Read on 6 October 2026 from its criminal justice statistics for the year to March 2026:

• 51 people were prosecuted for squatting in a residential building in England and Wales in the year to March 2026, nearly double the 26 a year earlier and the most in any year since the year to March 2017. 27 were convicted.
• 31 of the 51 were in the Metropolitan Police area, London, and 10 in Northumbria.
• 29 people were prosecuted for unlawful eviction or harassment of an occupier, and 21 convicted, against 68 prosecuted in the year to March 2017.
• In ten years to March 2026, 279 people were prosecuted for squatting in a home and 371 for unlawful eviction or harassment, across the whole of England and Wales.

Ten years of prosecutions

Year to March, England and Wales:

In the year to March 2026, 19 of the 29 eviction or harassment prosecutions were for unlawful eviction and 9 for harassment.

Where the cases were

Prosecutions are recorded against the police force area, year to March 2026:

A year earlier, London accounted for 16 of the 26 squatting prosecutions and 12 of the 34 eviction or harassment prosecutions.

A tenant who stays on is not a squatter

The squatting offence covers someone who entered a home as a trespasser and lives there. Section 144 says plainly that it “is not committed by a person holding over after the end of a lease or licence”. A tenant, or a former tenant, who will not leave is not a squatter, and the squatting offence does not apply to them.

For a tenant, the route is a possession order from the court and, if they still do not leave, enforcement through the court. Changing the locks, removing belongings or cutting off services to make a residential occupier leave can itself be the offence of unlawful eviction or harassment under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977. The steps are in how to evict a tenant after Section 21, and for genuine trespassers in squatters and trespassers: how to remove them.

LetCompliance drafts Section 8 notices on Form 3A from the tenancy’s own records on paid plans, and keeps the possession dates (apply from, apply by, hearing) in the landlord’s calendar.

Where these figures come from

Source: Ministry of Justice, Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly: March 2026, published 30 July 2026 and updated 11 September 2026, outcomes by offence data (the file behind the interactive tool), read on 6 October 2026.

Offences counted: squatting in a residential building is Home Office offence code 12586 (“knowingly as a trespasser live/intend to live in residential building”). Unlawful eviction or harassment is codes 08701 (unlawful eviction of occupier), 08702 (unlawful harassment of occupier), 08703 (protection of occupiers against eviction and harassment) and 19561 (summary offences under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977). “Prosecuted” is the Ministry’s “proceeded against”; convictions in a year can include people prosecuted in an earlier year.

The Ministry counts each defendant once, under the most serious offence they faced, so a squatting or eviction charge brought alongside a more serious one is not counted here. Prosecutions brought by councils are recorded against the police force area, not the council. The ten-year totals are LetCompliance’s sums of the Ministry’s yearly figures. These are prosecutions, not reports to the police or complaints to councils.