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Originally Posted by EMMAh
I have heard that somewhere in Europe (I forget where, because that's what I do) you can squat in a place as long as you have a chair, a bed and a table in there. Obviously the people who own the building you're living in can't care either, and the building had to be unoccupied for a year.
I've heard in Canada that a building must me unoccupied for five years, but I don't know if this is true.
I have never squatted, but I would do it, for sure. I wouldn't really care how dirty I was.
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That's in the Netherlands. You also need to be able to open and close it with a lock. The only thing illegal is the breaking-in part; meaning you'll have to do that without getting seen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squatting#Netherlands
It's usually very difficult to have a squatted house evicted, because the squatters have legal protection meaning the owners pretty much always have to go to court to fight long legal procedures in order to get them out. That's why often when a building becomes unoccupied, the owners will have people living in there for a very low rent to prevent it from being squatted (=anti-squatting).
I don't think I would want to live in one myself (I agree with T&B about it seeming too much of a lifestyle), but I've been to a few that looked pretty great.