In the early hours of this morning bailiffs moved in and cleared
the Occupy London protest surrounding St Paul's
cathedral. This followed the Court of Appeal's unanimous
decision to refuse the protestors leave to appeal the possession
order obtained by the City of London.
Occupy London have vowed to continue with their protest and no
doubt will be looking for alternative sites from which to continue
their protest. If Occupy London does take up possession at an
alternative location it could take several weeks, or worse still, a
couple of months, to remove the protest, all of which could incur
substantial legal fees. As the recent occupation of UBS's
Sun Street Property and the area around St Paul's has shown,
Occupy London is a highly organised body. Any claims for
possession will be defended, and an application to appeal should be
anticipated.
If you have an empty building in the City of London you
should take all necessary measures to protect the building,
including a provision of 24 hour security. Whilst this may be
an additional expense, it would be cheaper than having to deal with
any unwanted occupation.
This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq
Law-Now information is for general purposes and guidance only. The information and opinions expressed in all Law-Now articles are not necessarily comprehensive and do not purport to give professional or legal advice. All Law-Now information relates to circumstances prevailing at the date of its original publication and may not have been updated to reflect subsequent developments.
The original publication date for this article was 28/02/2012.