Police broke in for a Drug Raid and won't pay for door repairs!

Noddy1

Fire_Fox wrote: »

I thought the same as Chewmyleggoff about the surveillance, do you have people coming and going a lot with your faith, perhaps to pray? Sorry to sound ignorant I do appreciate not all religious people pray frequently, but you haven't said which faith (and why should you).

Nope, in fact whilst the police were in the house I was quite upset. I said to the police inspector something along the lines of "surely you could have looked at the CCTV images and seen that we've had no guests for the past 1 or 2 months!"

His response was that it's very difficult to prove a negative with CCTV, because they can just say the important bit wasn't in the tape. It's only positives you can get from CCTV.

frank.hopper

chewmylegoff wrote: »

the police don't have to pay for damage caused gaining entry to the property, unless they do something ridiculous and unnecessary (such as driving a police car through the wall of your house or )

Following you on to a tube station and carrying out your execution.

Noddy1

I looked on the IPCC site and it says they only deal with complaints about the behaviour of a police officer. What can I do when the police officer's behaviour was fine?

chewmylegoff

Noddy1 wrote: »

I looked on the IPCC site and it says they only deal with complaints about the behaviour of a police officer. What can I do when the police officer's behaviour was fine?

you're best off asking a solicitor - you can get half an hour free with one.

scottishblondie

If I were your Dad I think I'd be rather concerned about the lack of buildings insurance, which I know is not really the issue you came here to ask about but I think it is an issue to be concerned about. What if the building burned down?

Obviously I don't know all the ins and outs, nor am I an expert on the legalities, but I'm pretty sure there should be a block insurance policy of some kind in case of major disaster. I'd have thought that the freeholder or management company would have to take care of that. If not that then perhaps each flat should have an individual policy? I'm sure someone will come along who knows more on the subject, but I would be very uncomfortable with not having insurance.

TBH the whole leasehold, freehold, management company, ground rent system in England really confuses me. Not quite sure why there has to be such a complex system that, from reading these forums, seems to result in an awful lot of politicking and expense.

brit1234

Ok, the situation is if anything is found or anyone arrested then the police are not liable for costs what soever. If nothing is found or no one arrested then the police are liable for reasonable costs to return to similar state.

Sometimes police make mistakes, sometimes they are given false info but there are police funds to cover these costs.

The police will pay up if the above, it is not a matter of the IPPC. In the Met Police it is the DPS.

Noddy1

brit1234 wrote: »

Ok, the situation is if anything is found or anyone arrested then the police are not liable for costs what soever. If nothing is found or no one arrested then the police are liable for reasonable costs to return to similar state.

Sometimes police make mistakes, sometimes they are given false info but there are police funds to cover these costs.

The police will pay up if the above, it is not a matter of the IPPC. In the Met Police it is the DPS.

Thanks, but in that case why haven't they paid up? We sent the Inspector a letter about the repair costs, and he wrote back confirming that they did not find anything in our flat and that it wasn't their department who deal with damage claims. He then forwarded the following to the correct department (which I'm guessing must have been DPS):

1. A copy of his letter (which stated clearly that nothing was found)
2. A receipt of the door repair
3. Our letter

The police department replied about a month later saying that even though nothing was found, since a warrant was executed the police would not be liable to pay.

Was that not true? Is there anything I can do to get the money back?

butterfly320

Get a lawyer!!! I would love to be in that courtroom when the judge hears that they broke down your door, probably woke you up, and found nothing. Not only will they pay for the door, but probably some more for what you went through. In a normal country like the US and UK the police are responsible for their ACTIONS. Obviously in this case their intelligence was crap, why would you have to pay for it. I assure you that you can find a lawyer that will take this case on contingency. You can file a claim but they will only reimburse you at that point and it will take a cople of months to get that money. tell the judge that you cannot work because you can't afford to leave the house and have to watch it. And you can't sleep at night for fear that somebody will break in to your house.

googler

Get a lawyer, and write to your MP.

Richard_Webster

Get a lawyer, and write to your MP.

Write to all the candidates - in an election time they all will want to be seen to be attending to constituents' concerns!