Rental Property damaged by Police during a raid! Can I claim from them?

jax2girl

Hi

Hoping that someone on here will know the answer, scenario as follows.

I am the owner of a loss making rental property in Cookstown and it was part of a weekend drug operation by PSNI, where they bust open the front door to gain access. Tenants claim that they are innocent and subject of a hoax (I may be niaive but I imagine that the police would have had some sort of intelligence prior to the raid:().

I rang the police this morning but the officer in charge is off duty and due to Data Protection they say they are unable to tell me anything. Tenants claim they were trying to open the door when Police broke in therefore they don't feel they should have to pay.

Does anyone know if I can claim from PSNI?

PS Is this grounds for eviction?

spendaholiceejit

Im sorry I dont know, but I remember this thread on here a while back:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2466551

it might have some answers for you?

mypie

I would have thought that its the responsibility of the tennant to source getting the door fixed as they are currently responsible for the property at present. Am I wrong in thinking that?

Ballymackeonan

Do you have a tenancy agreement with them? It may specify who is responsible for repairs to the property.

AlwaysWorking

I would be inclined to speak to the occupiers of the properties next door to yours to see how the tenants have behaved themselves. The neighbours will be able to tell you if there have been problems and this will help you decide what you want to do next with regards to evicting them.

bingo_bango

This will be up to PSNI to repair satisfactorily. Under the PACE rules they should have provided a receipt to the occupier detailing the damage caused, and details of how to claim the cost of replacement / repairing the door. Not sure of the exact Article, but will amend the post when I dig it out.

drew2k9

this probably is grounds to kick them out if they are convicted, which could take a while even if they are guilty.

its a bad situation to be in, but no one really knows when things like that will happen. i'd say the police are probably the ones to get the money for the repairs from, failing that the tenant definately is responsible since thir actions caused the raid to occur.

Mathew

Remember seeing something like this before. If it was a successful warrant (ie they found drugs etc) Police don't pay, if however, there was no recovery of anything they will! So if your tenants aren't telling you porkies the Police should cough up!

jax2girl

Thanks to all who replied, this has been very helpful.

R

SamBoyd

Mathew wrote: »

Remember seeing something like this before. If it was a successful warrant (ie they found drugs etc) Police don't pay, if however, there was no recovery of anything they will! So if your tenants aren't telling you porkies the Police should cough up!

This was actually on TV recently ..'The war against drugs' on channel 4 maybe not sure. The police officer definitely said that only if drugs arent recovered then they will pay for any damage caused by ram raid.

Hope this helps.

Sam

BLT_2

Bit of a bummer this one, if they have found the drugs and the occupants are evicted (by the way who provided their references), there is no way the tenants are going to pay for the repairs. It is an inalieable truth that druggies have no sense of moral responsibility. I find it hard to believe that the police would ram raid a house just on a chance, the press implications are pretty bad. Interestingly enough I have no contact with drugs and do not know anyone who takes them and none of the houses around here have ever been ram raided :-)

If the police didn't find anything and are responsible I suspect it will take some time to get your door repaired.