police broke door down and won't pay for it

ERICS_MUM

nadnad wrote: »

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

Ask your insurance company to battle it out with the police's insurance co. If a car crash is the fault of the other driver, you would claim on your insurance and they would claim on the other driver's insurance. I assume the same approach can be applied to your mum's situation ?

Linda

suited-aces

SnowyOwl wrote: »

Yes, they are entitled to do this. Roads are meant to be passable by emergency vehicles at all times. If some pillock parks in such a way as to block the path of a fire applicance then there is no one to blame for his/her sh*t parking and causing an obstruction.
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Well OPs mum is not a pillock for leaving a door blocking someone's path, so my point still stands about the invalid comparison.

magpiecottage

Kimitatsu wrote: »

HAve to agree with venture here :T
contact the FSA if you feel their decision is unfair

Actually it would be the Financial Ombudsman Service - but complain to the insurer first.

In theory, if an insurer pays, they can seek to pursue a third party on your behalf but their expense.

Whether they think it worth it in this instance is another matter, though.

DigitalJedi

I think Venture's post explains it perfectly.

At the end of the day, OP's mum is renting a flat out so therefore is running a business. As with any business there is a element of risk involved. Something she should be prepared for and account for.

The police acted in good faith. End of.

ifstar

Still don't believe for a second that the police didn't try and contact the guy or your mum prior to putting the door in. Trust me when I say I'm talking from experience, doors will not be put in unless deemed necessary. Perhaps they tried to contact the guy and your mum and didn't get any response.

The tenant (or ex tenant) is to blame for not updating his employers then going missing. He might be a foreign national but that doesn't just mean that because it would be difficult to get hold of him then the police need to pay up.

Your mums insurance should take it up with police, yeah there will be an excess to pay but as has been pointed out, being a landlord is running a business.

BitterAndTwisted

All this sounds like one of the minor and inevitable expenses that a professional landlord should expect to cover at some point in their career. If there's no profit on the rent and there's no increase in the value of the capital being enjoyed either then the OP's mother shouldn't actually be a landlord and should therefore sell up.

Karen_30

I would suggest that your mum goes back to her insurance company and complains. Its harsh but unfortunately I agree with other comments on here in that the police shouldn't pay for it. What if they'd kicked it in and found a dead body inside? They were just doing their job.

I'm sure the insurance companies deal with this all the time - it's got to be common for such things with emergency services.

Good luck!

timberflake

Errata wrote: »

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.

Its not quite the same is it, in an RTA the fire service know there is someone in the vehicle. In the instance, the police did not know for sure that the "missing" person was in the flat and by the Op's account they could have take other steps to prevent them from having to break the door in.

I would suggest the Op pushes back on their insureres, if someone had broken into the flat your insurers wouldn't expect you to bill the burglers for the damage! I think they're just trying to get out of paying.

maggied_2

BAT- just from another point of view - I let a house out. I don't make any money on it but it wsa the only was I could move area when I needed to.

WRT police - I would usually be on the side of "damned if they do and damned if they don't" - however I once had to stop a couple of policemen barging in my elderly neighbour's door and asked them to wait while I phoned round the local hospitals where I eventually found her. They actually said they were disappointed and had quite looked forward to breaking the door down. I just hope they had a weird sense of humour.....

NAR

Insurance excess is £300, so OP's mum would still be out of pocket, which is what he is aggrieved about.
But, as others have said, I suppose that part and parcel of being a landlord.