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

Vomityspice

You need to ask for an ex-gratia payment from the police for the damage caused. Write them a nice letter giving them 14 days to pay for the damage or you will start an action for damages. If they don't sent to a cheque, fill in your claim form (N1) and make your application.

I'm not sure I would want to have to defend this claim as it is entirely reasonable that the Police rectify the damage they caused.

Voyager2002

Start off by seeing the helpful Inspector: let him know about the problem, and see what he can suggest.

Noddy1

Richard_Webster wrote: »

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

Thanks voyager, I think like you said i will ask my dad to contact the inspector by phone. We already sent a letter a couple of weeks ago.

Also, I was interested to know what contacting an mp does? Someone I know in real life suggested I do the same and it just confused me as I didn't know what an MP would have to do with it, but now i am being told the same here. so there must be some logic to it.

thanks for all your help with this guys.

kelda_shelton

Noddy1 wrote: »

Thanks voyager, I think like you said i will ask my dad to contact the inspector by phone. We already sent a letter a couple of weeks ago.

Also, I was interested to know what contacting an mp does? Someone I know in real life suggested I do the same and it just confused me as I didn't know what an MP would have to do with it, but now i am being told the same here. so there must be some logic to it.

thanks for all your help with this guys.

MPs and candidates have clout and know the right people & cut out the middle man. They can get decision moving and happening much quicker and easier than you could.

BexInLondon

MPs work for you! As well as representing you in parliament and shaping future laws they also write letters, lean on people and generally make a fuss. When I was a kid and we lived in severely crowded housing on the top floor of a block of flats with our disabled dad our MP got us moved. Recently I complained to the ASA about something and they ignored me, so my MP (a different one) got on their case too, and again we got a result. As Richard says, at this time they might all be desperate to look good though they might also all be way too busy pounding the streets!

Noddy1

BexInLondon wrote: »

MPs work for you! As well as representing you in parliament and shaping future laws they also write letters, lean on people and generally make a fuss. When I was a kid and we lived in severely crowded housing on the top floor of a block of flats with our disabled dad our MP got us moved. Recently I complained to the ASA about something and they ignored me, so my MP (a different one) got on their case too, and again we got a result. As Richard says, at this time they might all be desperate to look good though they might also all be way too busy pounding the streets!

Hmmmm....

Actually the person who said to go see an MP was one of my flatmates, both to find out who did this and to get back at them. It didn't make any sense to me, so I responded by saying there was a good chance the MP wouldn't take our side because all he would see is "3 students living in a flat who get police raided for drugs.... there must be something dodgy going on there."

Do you think its true that the MP might not take our side? And would that have any negative implications?

Richard_Webster

I used to work for a local authority and it was amazing the number of letters we got from MPs and candidates at election times. I then had to rattle cages and other departments would either realise a mistake had been made or they were in a position difficult to defend, so they would back down, or would have to come up with some really good reasons for doing whatever it was the complaint was about.

clutton_2

i had one of my properties broken into by the police who would not pay for the damage. the Inspector told me that as long as my tenant was a "known associate" - ie if their phone number was in the phone of a drug dealer - then they could legally break in and not have to pay for the damage....

Noddy1

wrangler5 wrote: »

Just a tip. The Police do not obtain a warrant & execure a Drugs Raid solely on the say so of a malicous neighbour.

They would investigate the allegations first and use thier own intelligence which involves putting your property under serveilance for a certain amount of time until they are satisfied that something illegal is indeed going on inside the property. This can take weeks of gathering evidence.

They then present this evidence to a magistrate in order to obtain a warrant to search the premises for drugs, so you might want to consider what it is about how you conduct your personal life & the comings and goings at your property that has given both the Police and an independent Magistrate good enough reason to believe that something illegal was going on inside your house, rather that worrying about who reported you.

In short this may be a sign that you might want to tone things down a bit because you are drawing attention to yourself.;)

Thanks for your reply, but I dont understand the meaning of your final comment. Is that a suggestion that maybe we are dealing drugs and drawing attention to ourselves? if so, i would be grateful if you could please read through the thread before replying.

The entire point is that there is nothing in our personal lives that would suggest anything of this kind, which makes it perplexing.

Surveillance was impossible because its a block of flats. CCTV may have been used, but we had had no guests for quite a long while and none of us had been to any odd venues that might suggest drug use.

We also have a lengthy letter from the inspector involved stating clearly that nothing was found and that its unfortunate that in the course of police work, law abiding citizens are sometimes mistakenly targeted.

I was a bit offended by this post. I hope I just misunderstood what you mean.

[Deleted User]

Noddy1 wrote: »

Thanks for your reply, but I dont understand the meaning of your final comment. Is that a suggestion that maybe we are dealing drugs and drawing attention to ourselves? if so, i would be grateful if you could please read through the thread before replying.

The entire point is that there is nothing in our personal lives that would suggest anything of this kind, which makes it perplexing.

Surveillance was impossible because its a block of flats. CCTV may have been used, but we had had no guests for quite a long while and none of us had been to any odd venues that might suggest drug use.

We also have a lengthy letter from the inspector involved stating clearly that nothing was found and that its unfortunate that in the course of police work, law abiding citizens are sometimes mistakenly targeted.

I was a bit offended by this post. I hope I just misunderstood what you mean.

I wouldn't take offence at it - I think it's a valid point.

Despite the horror stories you read in the press, there are always very strict procedures that the police go through in executing searches. They don't smash doors down without due cause and process.

The first thing I find odd is that you were IN the house when they conducted the raid. It would seem to be unusual practice to smash the door down without first knocking/banging/shouting and requesting you open it. Did this happen? Police don't just smash doors down when they can knock.

I'm not defending them here, but could there be something you're not aware of in relation to one of your flatmates? Is it possible that they have innocently got caught up in someone else's affairs, as someone else has discussed? Maybe they're on the address book of a known drug-dealer, even innocently?

If this is a mistake on the part of the police then I would consider selling this story to the press, given how bad it is. But I just remain a bit cautious because I would have thought the police wouldn't have acted in the way you described.