Friday 15 January 2010

Persons Unknown VS. The Secretary of State

On Wednesday the 13th of January the collective formally known as Video Basement, went to the Regents Park County Court on bicycles, looking like the cast of Fame after they had been dragged through mud and frozen glitter. They were there to defend their current home, The Bath House no. 96 Dean St. And were being represented by Trevor Love, a member of the commune. They were accompanied by Michaela, one of Pauline’s friends who has lived in the same block for many years and is very angry about the way Crossrail have treated local residents and businesses. The case began with DJ Lightman asking Crossrail to prove how they own the property. He did this after reading the squatters defence which points to a paragraph in crossrail’s case where they state they have freehold f all properties in the block with some exceptions Green King Ltd, 96 Dean St being one of them, Veronica Glass, could respond with nothing but, ‘they just do.’ She looked embarrassed at the major mistake, that her firm (which had won 2009 Law firm of the year award) had made. DJ Lightman said that the best he could offer mistress glass was an adjournment and suggested that Crossrail contact Green King Ltd, the current legal owners, who would need to evict the occupants. The DJ then went on to praise the defendants saying and this is a quote ‘who wrote this case, it’s very good.’ Love replied that it was their handsome housemate Pauline. The judge then looked to make a new date for the case and after looking in his diary muttered 1st Feb, with DJ Lightman, that’s me. One the squatters laughed at this point, to which the judge responded angrily. ‘There is nothing funny about the law.’ But there most certainly is. Before the case was closed, Love requested to ask two questions ‘why was this case private? And, why were some of our friends turned away?’ The DJ said he had not been asked that question in a long time, and needed to look it up. He looked in his book of law and read that ‘since 1998 any case concerning landlord and tenant should be private.’ He then said that this being a squatting case, it should be public and that it was another error on behalf of Crossrail. The second question was 'Did Crossrail have permission from the secretary of state to act on their behalf?' This answer was muddy.They have 2 more weeks til they return to court.

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