action against the police..small claims

suzysuzy

Has anyone experience of making a claim against the police for damages to their property.Already been in touch with their legal services and they say they are not liable.

Okell

Some background might help...?

DE_612183

Regardless of who the claim is against, you should send a "letter before action" sating what you expect them to pay you, why and when by.

Once the date passes that you have set, and the have not stumped up, then you can issue a claim.

You need to be able to justify the claim - have estimates, bills etc and some evidence that they are at fault.

You also need to check the amount of the claim - small claims ( it's in the title ) are limited in the value you can use the service for.

Can you give more info / detail?

lisyloo

Need more info.
if they acted reasonably then they aren’t liable e.g. broke the door down to save a life (this happened to my Dad and he claimed on house insurance).
if they were negligent e.g. got wrong address for a drugs bust, then they’d be liable.

Youd need to tell us what happened.

PHK

1st of all this isn’t a legal advice forum and people will give you their best advice. Consumer law doesn’t apply to the police. 

Trespass to property (the term for damaged or withheld property) is one of the limited reasons you can take civil action against the police. 

 Suing the police really needs the advice of a solicitor. For example, some property related cases need a summons in a magistrates court. 

lisyloo

I'm not a lawyer but I know the police weren't liable in my case (door broken down to save a life) because I pursued all avenues at the time. House insurance had no issue paying out.

DullGreyGuy

The law is mainly on the side of the police, unsurprisingly given their job. As long as they have reasonable cause they often will not be liable. As mentioned above, the main reasons you can sue them for a deliberate act is when they mess up and execute a warrant on an address different to the one on the docket, IE they break down the door of 75A but the warrant was for 754. 

powerful_Rogue

lisyloo said:

I'm not a lawyer but I know the police weren't liable in my case (door broken down to save a life) because I pursued all avenues at the time. House insurance had no issue paying out.

Out of interest, why would you try and claim the cost of the door back from the police as when you say they broke it down to save a life?

lisyloo

powerful_Rogue said:

lisyloo said:

I'm not a lawyer but I know the police weren't liable in my case (door broken down to save a life) because I pursued all avenues at the time. House insurance had no issue paying out.

Out of interest, why would you try and claim the cost of the door back from the police as when you say they broke it down to save a life?

I tend to investigate things fully to their final conclusion.
Perhaps it's a character flaw but unanswered questions would go round and round my head for years possibly forever if I did not.

The police wrote off the door and the frame at a cost of £1500 plus about £200 emergency boarding up.
I don't expect them to prioritise cost when they are trying to save a life but  I was surprised at the time that those called our on emergencies do not carry bulk cutters to cut chains. I would have expected them to be equipped for emergencies and this would seem like a useful tool for a variety of scenarios.
I realise they can't carry everything but I still think a pair of cutters would be a sensible thing to carry.
So I came here and got educated.

I never blamed the police (they were trying to save someone) but I don't see the issue with enquiring whether it's standard to carry cutters or to ask if there are any funds set up for this eventuality.

The biggest problem for us afterwards was getting access for carers to the house whilst the front door was boarded up (I don't live near him).
BTW - we did have a key box, but he left the chain on (as he did when downstairs), fell asleep and is stone deaf.

Of course I got loads of judgmental stuff like "would you have preferred them not to" etc... but I just put up with that as I believe overall the forums are a force for good and I leant some things i.e. the police don't carry cutters as standard, they may go for the frame as it's the weakest point and there are no funds so use your insurance. 

My dad was insured so we had no issue.

DullGreyGuy

lisyloo said:
I never blamed the police (they were trying to save someone) but I don't see the issue with enquiring whether it's standard to carry cutters or to ask if there are any funds set up for this eventuality.

According to the retired met officer in our local... it depends. 

They executed a drugs bust warrant on a neighbouring property a few years ago and those guys came armed with a batter ram, drills and pry bars. After about 45 minutes they still hadn't gotten through the composite door, though it was in a terrible shape, but the occupant came to the bedroom window yawning and then let them in. 

He says they should have done their surveillance, realised it was a composite door and come with a cement cutter which would have cut the door in two in a minute and they'd have been in. No drugs were found, potentially flushed given they had so much warning before the coppers got in. 

Those responding to a 999 call will be much less equipped than those performing a planned raid. If they cannot get it right with planning the hopes that a random set of bobbies that happen to be nearest has a full toolkit for getting in no matter the circumstances is slim. 

user1977

DullGreyGuy said:

lisyloo said:
I never blamed the police (they were trying to save someone) but I don't see the issue with enquiring whether it's standard to carry cutters or to ask if there are any funds set up for this eventuality.

Those responding to a 999 call will be much less equipped than those performing a planned raid. If they cannot get it right with planning the hopes that a random set of bobbies that happen to be nearest has a full toolkit for getting in no matter the circumstances is slim. 

Indeed, you could end up with an expectation that the average patrol car is filled with tools for once-in-a-blue-moon incidents.