police broke door down and won't pay for it

msb5262

I think your mother is trying to hold the police responsible for something they did in good faith!
She should have insurance cover for this and I don't really think public money should be spent on replacing the door.
If the tenant can't be traced or won't pay, it will clearly have to be paid by the insurance company.

nadnad

msb5262 wrote: »

I think your mother is trying to hold the police responsible for something they did in good faith!
She should have insurance cover for this and I don't really think public money should be spent on replacing the door.
If the tenant can't be traced or won't pay, it will clearly have to be paid by the insurance company.

i seriously don't understand these comments. the police may have acted in good faith fair enough - but tell me why should my mum have to pay £590 for a replacement door, for actions nothing to do with her at all! I am at a loss.

Errata

nadnad wrote: »

the point is that they caused damage to my mothers property for reasons nothing to do with her - surely they cannot hold her responsible for this?

They don't. It's for your mother to sort out with the tenant if his tenancy hadn't expired, and if it had expired for your mother to foot the bill from her wear and tear contingency fund.

BitterAndTwisted

Your mum won't have to bear the cost if she makes a claim on her insurance!

nadnad

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Your mum won't have to bear the cost if she makes a claim on her insurance!

insurance have said that the police caused the damage and so they must pay.

Errata

nadnad wrote: »

insurance have said that the police caused the damage and so they must pay.

Perhaps your mum needs to challenge this. The Fire Service doesn't have to pay for the damage it causes to cars after an RTA. Same difference.

suited-aces

Fire service barge cars out of their way?

meritaten

They certainly do! seen it happen when one git wouldnt give way to them! and good for them I wouldnt care how many cars they bumped out the way if MY house was on fire!

Errata

suited-aces wrote: »

Fire service barge cars out of their way?

er, no. The FS often have to tear the roof or a door off a car after an RTA. They don't pay the car ownber for the damage they cause.

vaio

nadnad wrote: »

to answer some of the points raised:-

tenant is a foreign national who has returned to Lithuania - he left the flat 2 weeks before this happened and so got his deposit back.

the Police had the tenants phone number and were able to contact him within 30 mins of breaking the door in.

the neighbours told the police my mums details and a quick phone call could have sorted it out.

the man was supposedly missing for 2 days before the police broke the door down - 5 mins more to make a phone call would surely not have made much difference?

the maintenance man who came out to repair the door temporarily for the police spoke to my mum and told her unnecessary force was used to break the door down - they would have been able to open it without causing quite so much damage and so the door would not have needed to be replaced.

the police have told my mum that they do not pay legal fees - so even if my mum took them to small claims court and won she would have to pay the fees - and she does not have that money available to her.

Seems to me that the reasonable thing would have been to phone the missing person rather than breaking in, even if he wasn’t answering they could have got his phone’s location from the phone company, throw in the allegedly excessive damage and the fact they refused to phone your mother and I’d certainly be lodging a claim

Also, if she does go down the small claims route she’ll have to pay the court fee but will get it back if she wins. Generally neither side will be allowed to claim legal costs for a small claim