Please re-read the last couple comments, I feel that I was quite specific and clear about the distinction I made to the point that I am having trouble reading you as acting in good faith.
My prior point was about emotionally manipulative language, which is what I see on display here with you trying to hold me accountable for a hypothetical. Please do not do that, it is very frustrating, I don't ask you why you beat your wife so don't ask me to justify squatting as morally acceptable.
Or, to put it another way, I'm literally saying that we shouldn't use the same language to describe home invasion (behavior that can get you lawfully killed in some places), to describe squatting, because it is emotionally and intellectually dishonest.
I agree that we may be having a problem of definitions, and we may be like the blind men discussing different parts of the elephant.
I am definitely discussing in good faith, as I'm seeing situations where relatively ordinary people have second homes, are in transition, or indeed are trying to add value to a property to resell, and are entirely unfairly losing the right to enjoy their property, and being saddled with the costs of evicting a squatter and repairing their damage.
In particular, at what point is a building "vacant" and at what point is it "unused"? More specifically, at what point do these get to the level where they should be subject to what is effectively confiscation by squatting?
Would you consider that the house I moved out of, but didn't sell during a market downturn and before making upgrades, which was vacant for more than a half year, be "unused" enough that I should have been subject to the whims of squatters? What about if that caused my wife and I to also lose our newer primary residence?
What about seasonal vacation homes? I know people who have them, purchased long ago, with kit houses, and are closed and inaccessible during the winter, but are used extensively other seasons, when extended families and friends travel from across the continent to use the places. Are those sufficiently vacant and unused?
I'll agree that a case may be made for places that are truly abandoned and unused. I might even agree that a 'no-harm-no-foul' rule could work, as in if the squatters may enjoy it and must leave when asked and leave no trace of their presence, it'd be OK/legal.
But I certainly disagree that granting squatters rights to either of the owners-in-transition or seasonal-homes examples is reasonable.
So, please provide more clarity on exactly what you think should be the boundaries.
My prior point was about emotionally manipulative language, which is what I see on display here with you trying to hold me accountable for a hypothetical. Please do not do that, it is very frustrating, I don't ask you why you beat your wife so don't ask me to justify squatting as morally acceptable.
Or, to put it another way, I'm literally saying that we shouldn't use the same language to describe home invasion (behavior that can get you lawfully killed in some places), to describe squatting, because it is emotionally and intellectually dishonest.