Warrant to enter property?

iced_latte

Hi there,

Got a bit of a strange question regarding a situation from earlier in the week.

Two men came earlier in the week to 'find the electricity meter' but I was in the shower when they were at the door. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I hadn't heard them ringing the bell and when I got out of the shower my front door was being kicked and a folded up bit of paper was being pushed up and down the door frame. (:eek:). Obviously I went straight to the door and opened it to find two men looking at me as if I had ten heads while I looked back in shock. They asked if a certain person lived at this address and I said no. They told me they needed to see the electric meter (my electric meter is outside facing the front door as I live in a basement flat) so I pointed them to the meter and they told me that wasnt the correct one. Anyway I gave them a copy of my recent bill and they confirmed that the meter was correct, apologised and left.

As I thought more about it, I thought something wasn't right about it and so contacted Scottish Power to confirm they had sent people out to the property. The man on the phone confirmed that they had a warrant for the said person and they had her address down as the same number as my flat. However, as we are the basement flat, the flats directly above us are also the same number. I therefore asked why they attempted to gain entry to my flat if they weren't sure if it was the right one and the adviser told me that my flat should have been labelled more clearly. When I said, is it not obvious that it is the basement flat if you are walking down stairs to it, he said "not necessarily."

Anyway, my questions are:

1) Should the representatives not have phoned Scottish Power to check there was no account with the basement flat as address? (Sure enough, the man on the phone told me that my account was in the address of "basement flat" and up to date and therefore could not have been the address they were looking for).

2) Should I take this matter further? I am obviously very annoyed by this as I happened to be off work today but had I not been, my alarm system would have been set off and would have ran from 1000-1830.... would I however, have any rights to take this further?
Sorry for how long this post is... hopefully it is clear enough.

Cheers.

OlliesDad

They probably didn;t call to double check as they were confident that it was the correct address.

What are you expecting if you take this further? You may get a written apology if you write to scottish power, but that is about it.

If_it_can_go_wrong

These men were attempting to break into your flat. I would call the police and let them deal with it.

I would have called the police at the time but definitely still would given the lack of understanding when you phoned up.

OlliesDad

If_it_can_go_wrong wrote: »

These men were attempting to break into your flat. I would call the police and let them deal with it.

I would have called the police at the time but definitely still would given the lack of understanding when you phoned up.

They are legally allowed to gain entry into a property as long as they have a warrant.

There was confusion over which property was which (but judging from the OP it seems like 2 properties have the same number), they started gaining entry to the wrong flat. If they had actually gained entry, the OP may be able to take it further, but it was sorted on the doorstep.

iced_latte

OlliesDad wrote: »

They probably didn;t call to double check as they were confident that it was the correct address.

What are you expecting if you take this further? You may get a written apology if you write to scottish power, but that is about it.

Thanks for your reply

If they were presented with 2 flats with the same number as they say, how could they be confident with which one was correct? I thought it would be reasonable to expect they would be 100% sure before attempting entry into a flat? Fair enough if they were knocking on the door etc. However, to be kicking a door in within 15 minutes and then to admit to me when I opened the door they were unsure if it was the correct address, I feel is unreasonable.

Basically, yes I do want a written apology and further, a guarentee that it will not happen again. I feel that is a reasonable request?

OlliesDad

iced_latte wrote: »

Thanks for your reply

If they were presented with 2 flats with the same number as they say, how could they be confident with which one was correct? I thought it would be reasonable to expect they would be 100% sure before attempting entry into a flat? Fair enough if they were knocking on the door etc. However, to be kicking a door in within 15 minutes and then to admit to me when I opened the door they were unsure if it was the correct address, I feel is unreasonable.

Basically, yes I do want a written apology and further, a guarentee that it will not happen again. I feel that is a reasonable request?

Ok, you didn;t mention that they admitted they were not sure.

Write to the Head Office detailing the complaint and ask what they are going to do to guarantee it doesn;t happen again.

Have you thought about applying to change your house number to add an 'a' to it (i.e 1a) as this is unlikely to be the first time this confusion has happened and you may have not got lots of post/parcels etc.

iced_latte

OlliesDad wrote: »

Ok, you didn;t mention that they admitted they were not sure.

Write to the Head Office detailing the complaint and ask what they are going to do to guarantee it doesn;t happen again.

Have you thought about applying to change your house number to add an 'a' to it (i.e 1a) as this is unlikely to be the first time this confusion has happened and you may have not got lots of post/parcels etc.

Sorry I should have mentioned my electric bill clearly states "Basement flat" and indeed has an A after the number. Any time I give my address I put both parts to the address i.e. Basement Flat, XXXA with the rest of the address. I've been at the same address for over a year now and really never had any problems, apart from the odd letter here and there.

Yeah, when I opened the door they had told me they didn't know which flat was which and said upstairs was also the same number and whoever they were on the phone to was unable to give them the correct address. - This is the part I wondered should they not have seen that there was an account registered at basement flat that was up to date with payments and under a separate name?

Thanks again for your post.

OlliesDad

It is unlikely that the people gaining entry to your flat had access to the database to see that the basement flat had an account.

It seems an honest mistake, although it would be worth sending a letter to head office.

Sponge

I can't believe how blase people are being about this. I would be furious! They can't just attempt to break into a house without knowing 100% that it's the correct address. They should have their facts straight prior to any visit and not need to access any database whilst in the field. And to suggest it's your fault for not having your flat 'labelled correctly'? Shocking. Have they caused any damage? I'd be getting someone out to check your door and frame, it might require work. Then send them the bill.

System

It sounds like they weren't employed for their brains either

unholyangel

Might be different where i am but arent the police supposed to supervise?

Similar thing happened to me many moons ago although it wasnt for debt, was for servicing my gas appliances and just so happened when they visited the first 2 times, i had been on holiday. Obviously when i got home, received a letter not long after saying about forced entry blah blah blah and to call them to confirm if i would be in to grant them access so they could schedule the necessary people to be there or not (ie locksmith, police) - kicker is that it had only been 3 months since my last service nspection and it wasnt due for a further 9 months!

I mean if it were just the energy companies employee's, whats to stop them pocketing costly items?