Home Invasion law now in effect

The Home In­va­sion (Self-De­fence and De­fence of Prop­er­ty) Act, 2025, is now law af­ter Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Car­la Kan­ga­loo as­sent­ed to the leg­is­la­tion, ac­cord­ing to a me­dia re­lease from the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter.

The Act, num­bered 11 of 2025, es­tab­lish­es the of­fence of home in­va­sion and af­firms the right of law-abid­ing cit­i­zens to de­fend them­selves, their fam­i­lies and their prop­er­ty with­in their dwelling house.

The leg­is­la­tion re­moves any du­ty to re­treat when a per­son acts in self-de­fence or in de­fence of prop­er­ty and al­lows the use of rea­son­able de­fen­sive force, in­clud­ing dead­ly force where nec­es­sary, to pro­tect life and prop­er­ty.

The Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter said the law re­sponds to pub­lic con­cern over vi­o­lent home in­va­sions and aims to strength­en pub­lic safe­ty and pro­tec­tion for fam­i­lies.

The Pres­i­dent al­so as­sent­ed to the Sum­ma­ry Of­fences (Amend­ment) Act, 2025, Act No. 13 of 2025, which amends the Sum­ma­ry Of­fences Act to strength­en mea­sures ad­dress­ing noise pol­lu­tion and the in­dis­crim­i­nate use of fire­works.

Ac­cord­ing to the re­lease, the amend­ments seek to ad­dress the im­pact of ex­ces­sive noise and un­reg­u­lat­ed fire­works on pub­lic health, safe­ty and com­mu­ni­ty well-be­ing, in­clud­ing ef­fects on vul­ner­a­ble in­di­vid­u­als and an­i­mals.

The Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter said the as­sent of both Acts forms part of on­go­ing ef­forts to ad­dress crime, pub­lic dis­or­der and com­mu­ni­ty well-be­ing.