Legal Definition and Related Resources of Forcible Entry

The offense of entering any land or tenements in a violent manner in order to take possession thereof, whether the violence consists in actual force applied to any other person or in threats, or in breaking open any house .

Browse or run a search for Forcible Entry in the American Encyclopedia of Law, the Asian Encyclopedia of Law, the European Encyclopedia of Law, the UK Encyclopedia of Law or the Latin American and Spanish Encyclopedia of Law.

Forcible Entry in Historical Law

You might be interested in the historical meaning of this term. Browse or search for Forcible Entry in Historical Law in the Encyclopedia of Law.

Search for legal acronyms and/or abbreviations containing Forcible Entry in the Legal Abbreviations and Acronyms Dictionary.

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Mentioned in these terms

Reasonable Grounds.

Translate Forcible Entry from English to Spanish

Translation of Forcible Entry , with examples. More about free online translation into Spanish of Toma de posesión violenta and other legal terms is available here.

• Toma de posesión violenta
• Allanamiento de morada
• Violación de domicilio
• Legal English Translation

Forcible entry in Law Enforcement

Main Entry: Law Enforcement in the Legal Dictionary. This section provides, in the context of Law Enforcement, a partial definition of forcible entry.

Resources

See Also

• Law Enforcement Officer
• Police Work
• Law Enforcement Agency

Further Reading

• forcible entry in A Dictionary of Law Enforcement (Oxford University Press)
• forcible entry in the Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement
• A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis

English Legal System: Forcible Entry

In the context of the English law, A Dictionary of Law provides the following legal concept of Forcible Entry : A common-law offence (as amended by various statutes) that applied under certain circumstances when force was used to gain entry to premises. The common-law offence has been replaced by a statutory *arrestable offence of using or threatening violence against people or property in order to secure entry into premises (Criminal Law Act 1977). The offence only applies if there is someone present on the premises who is opposed to the entry and the offender knows of this. The fact that the offender is the legal owner or occupier of the premises is not in itself a defence. However, there is a special defence if the offender can prove that he was at the relevant time a displaced *residential occupier or protected intending occupier who requires the property for his residence and has a qualifying freehold or leasehold interest, tenancy, or licence and was seeking to gain entry or to pass through premises that form an access to his own place of residential occupation. These provisions do not apply to landlords seeking to regain possession and it is a summary offence to make false statements when claiming to be a protected occupier. It is not an offence, however, for a person unlawfully evicted from his own home to use force to re-enter, subject to the common-law rule that the force must not be excessive. The police may use force to enter with lawful authority.

See also adverse occupation.