Squatters' victim: I could be homeless until Christmas

The owner of a house that was taken over by squatters while she was away for the weekend has been told it is so badly damaged she might not be able to move back in until Christmas.

Julia High was warned the Romanian family caused so much destruction in the few days they were in the terrace property in Leytonstone that it will take contractors weeks just to dry it out thoroughly. The cost has been put at £30,000.

Miss High, 55, is staying in a nearby Holiday Inn while she waits for the repairs to be done. She said: "I'm still doing my best to stay positive.

Because of what has happened I have met some charming people who have been very nice to me.
"One couple from a few streets away, who I'd never met before, offered me a £50 cheque. I told them not to be so silly but they offered me a place to stay, which was lovely of them."

Miss High, an IT project manager for the Immigration Service, said she was still picking through plastic bags of her belongings that were dumped in her garden when the five adults and three children moved in last month.

She said: "You do have a sense of excitement when you find a matching pair of earrings or a photograph that isn't damaged.

"But I had a real low point when I discovered the contents of my freezer in plastic bags which had been in the garden for three weeks.

"All I came to assume is that they wanted to de-personalise the house as much as possible, to make it impossible to say it was mine." Miss High, who bought the £270,000 property 30 years ago, added: "I go through Tesco Home Insurance and the loss adjuster said he had never seen anything like it.

"But they made a perfectly generous offer and I've got to buy everything from new. I've never had £30,000 to spend on just me before and I never will again. I've got to buy myself a whole new wardrobe, totally from scratch.

"However, all the insurance can do is replace things - it can't replace memories."

The Government is considering criminalising squatting, but for now it remains a civil issue.
Miss High claimed she discovered her broken lock amid the rubbish and had handed it in to police, but was waiting to hear back from them.

She said: "Everyone has been very angry but the way the law stands now, nothing can be done."