ANGRY residents who live in luxury homes overlooking Maenporth beach, near Falmouth, are determined to help evict a family of squatters who have taken over a £450,000 dormer bungalow.

The squatters moved into The Bungalow at West Bay in January and many residents assumed the house had been sold as the overgrown garden was suddenly cut back.

The bungalow, which is behind the former West Bay Hotel site, was valued at around £450,000 when it was put on the market over a year ago and has been empty for around 29 years.

Local residents say they are now determined to get the squatters evicted as they do not have the right to take over another persons house without their permission.

A resident who has lived at West Bay for over 30 years, said: "The majority view of people living here is that they have no right to be here. What are they doing in a £450,000 house.

"There really is nothing we can do, we can only hope that when it goes to court they are evicted. We want them to go."

The resident who did not want to be named said another resident had been keeping a diary or everything that had happened at the house since the squatters moved in.

She added: "I must say they have not been rude or impolite to us but they should not be there. They also have two very large nasty looking dogs which I am quite concerned about.

"We thought the house had been sold because they cut the grass and cut back the overgrown garden."

It is unclear who owns the house which was built in the 1960s but a resident said that the ownership was currently being dealt with by a solicitor.

They would not reveal the name of the owner or any other information which they believed could help the squatters case when the matter goes to court on March7.

The resident added: "We do not want to jeopardise our chances of getting these people out of the house. We don't have anything against them as people but no one wants squatters in their area and it is not right to basically steal another persons property."

The squatters, who also did not want to be named, said that they had done everything legally and that they had made significant improvements to the house including clearing the overgrown garden, painting the property and installing a new flat roof.

They also claim to have tried to contact the owner of the property to discuss the possibility of renting the house but they were also unwilling to give any further information until the case had been heard in court.

According to the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 squatting is when someone occupies an empty or abandoned property with the owner's permission, often without their knowledge or any legal right to do so.

But squatters do have rights and can not be evicted from the property without a court possession order or unless the leave voluntarily.

There is a quicker procedure which allows the owners of the property to apply for an interim possession order, pending a judge's decision to grant a full possession order but this must be made within 28 days of becoming aware of squatters in the property.