Police Forcing Entry - What do I do?

Marktheshark

BigBopper wrote: »

If you bothered to read the thread it's not the police charging.

The police do have certain powers to contract chargeable services, Road traffic act recovery ETC.
They may have some powers to call a contractor to make premises secure under some legalisation.
Until that is explored it should not be ruled out.
Hope this clears your confusion.

BigBopper

Marktheshark wrote: »

The police do have certain powers to contract chargeable services, Road traffic act recovery ETC.
They may have some powers to call a contractor to make premises secure under some legalisation.
Until that is explored it should not be ruled out.
Hope this clears your confusion.

The police haven't charged, are you confused?

greenface

Sorry for your loss . how long after did the police attend the house ? did they try to gain entry soon after . wowza if its almost 4 hours to get into a domestic home . £205 is a lot of money to do this sort of job . A competent locksmith would be in and locks changed in half hour .

societys_child

A competent locksmith would be in and locks changed in half hour .

Call out charge, travelling time, what time of day (or night) etc.

Do you work for nothing?

mumps

I would be more concerned about a 4 hr response time than the money. Have you asked why it took so long?

greenface

mumps wrote: »

I would be more concerned about a 4 hr response time than the money. Have you asked why it took so long?

That's not how I read it . IU thought they were there for 4 hours before deciding to knock the door .

greenface

societys_child wrote: »

Call out charge, travelling time, what time of day (or night) etc.

Do you work for nothing?

Apparently I do . Im on the local police call out team to attend such problems . repairing locks when knocked through . We charge a £35 call out fee once on site anytime of the day inc sundays and xmas & £35 per hour wait/repair time plus materials . so less than £100 + vat . For a standard job . If I had to wait 4 hours like the rest might have then you can explain the huge fee . What do you do ?


Edit to add. We used to have a bit of a competition going to see if we could get in without any damage . Normally when people lock themselves out etc . Getting too old for climbing through small bathroom windows now . still got tools that the local scallys would be jealous of .

Mojisola

graeme.barnes wrote: »

My nan pressed a button on a cord that she kept around her neck, which was linked to the emergency services.

graeme.barnes wrote: »

It took 4 hours from the 999 call to finally force entry, and unfortunately my Nan passed away not long afterwards.

I'd be much more upset about the four hours than the price for the locks!

mumps

greenface wrote: »

That's not how I read it . IU thought they were there for 4 hours before deciding to knock the door .

Well that is even worse, so an elderly person presses an alarm button and police officers stand outside her door for 4 hrs? If they got there and she didn't answer the door then it would be reasonable to assume it is an emergency and you break in asap and what a waste of police time, they stood there for 4 hrs. Everyone is telling us that the police are under pressure/under staffed etc, little wonder if they stand at a door for 4 hrs doing nothing.

The other scenario is they took 4 hrs to attend an emergency, also not reasonable.

I would be asking questions and they wouldn't be to do with how big the bill is.

Has anyone asked if her chances would have been different if someone had acted promptly?

Money_maker

The alarm around her neck calls a response centre not 999. Any number of scenarios could have ensued from her not being able to respond to the 'Mrs Xxxx, are you ok?' to Mrs X saying she pushed the button in a panic and was okay really. These centres usually get the paramedics out in emergencies rather than the police so I would suggest there was a succession of events that perhaps even the OP is not clear about.