URGENT - Emergency Joiner/Burglary Advice

redmandarin

Please help. Sorry, I can't think straight - I am too traumatised! I don't even know where to post this!

To explain, briefly. We were awoken at 4am this morning by two masked men, who beat down our front door and ran upstairs to our bedroom. My partner tried to protect us by barring our bedroom door, but one got through. The man was armed with a concrete post and was shouting. My partner fought with him to try and prevent him using the weapon. He wanted the keys to our car. When the intruder was told we didn't have a car he and his accomplice left the premises. Whilst this was going on, I was next to my partner on my mobile phone to the police.

The police arranged for our front door to be temporarily boarded. Now we need a trustworthy joiner to supply us with a new door and frame. Our insurers have informed us that this is not covered by our contents insurance. The house is privately rented and I think the landlord has buildings insurance. We need to contact the landlord as a matter of urgency to get the door secured before the bank holiday.

Please does anyone know if local authorities have a list of approved traders? Also can anyone think of anything else we might need to know or to do?

Thanks so much for your help in advance and a Happy New Year to you all.

Alisonpennypincher

Firstly big hugs to you, and I hope that your partner was not hurt in the struggle, and that you are dealing with the shock of it all.

As I used to worked in rentals I can confirm that you do need to get hold of your landlord who will hold Buildings cover. He may even have a workman that he can use.

Let us know how you get on when you have a chance

redmandarin

Thanks, Alisonpp.

My landlord lives down south. He rarely visits the property and never does any routine maintenance. He is only interested in taking the rent. If there are any repairs that need to be done, I am required to get three quotes, then he accepts the cheapest (but not without complaining about the expense first). I then pay the bill out of my own pocket, get a receipt and deduct the money from my monthly rent payment.

So the landlord doesn't know of any traders. That's why I need help.

WestonDave

Hopefully your landlords building insurers will have retained contractors like Homeserve who do this kind of work, however I would think it unlikely a new door will be fitted for you today if the current boarding is considered to be secure. That may be to your long term advantage if the replacement is a properly fitted door with five point security rather than a hastily fitted wooden replacement from what ever supplier is open today. Most of the main tradesmen will be on Christmas break so be prepared for having to live with what you've got until business restarts on Wednesday and even then you may only get someone out to measure up. When our back door was damaged by an attempted break in (can laugh about it now - the muppett tried to jemmy an aluminium door away from the frame/latch plate but in the process just succeeded in jamming the whole thing solid so even we couldn't open it with the key!) the insurers had someone round to measure within a couple of days and a new UPVC door up to top security spec fitted within a couple of weeks (bearing in mind they had to make it to fit).

What I would say in terms of crumbs of comfort is that whoever did this was clearly targeting cars not personal valuables, and as you don't have a car they are unlikely to come back. It is extremely unlikely that anyone else will try to break in while there are obvious signs of damage from this one around as they will assume anything worth having went this time! However if you can move small valuables etc to a friends house it may give you confidence. Depending on the nature of your doorway and whether you need it for access you may be able to make it feel a bit more secure by putting something heavy, noisy prickly etc there to make it unattractive for anyone to approach.

I'm sorry you have had this very unpleasant end to the year, and hope that the new one is a lot better.

PasturesNew

Aww. How awful!

If you have the Tenant insurance for contents through Endsleigh, one of the small extras they try to flog you is for this sort of event. They'd pay out/send out immediately somebody to fix a door/window etc. This part of the policy is so it is dealt with immediately and not subject to any delays in Landlord intervention.

I opted for this little extra.

If you're with Endsleigh and have a Tenant Policy, it's worth a quick look

redmandarin

Thanks a lot for your replies and for your words of comfort - it means a lot. Luckily, my partner only sustained a few bruises and scratches, mainly to his arms. We know it could have been A LOT worse. Our contents policy is not with Endsleigh, unfortunately, its with morethan.

I know that it may be likely that further burglars may be put off by the boarding, however, we are concerned that there could be another break-in from some opportunistic yobbo with a crow bar! As you may expect, we are feeling quite vulnerable at the moment and don't have a very clear sense of perspective. We feel unable to leave the house, as the front door (what's left of it) is insecure, but we feel so traumatised that we don't want to stay at home either, and don't feel able to (go to) sleep here.

We've been busy with visits and calls from police officers, CID and CSI etc, since this happened, so I need to phone the landlord asap. Just to clarify - I'll need to ask the landlord to get his insurers to send someone to measure up, will I, rather than being able to deal with it (more rapidly?) myself? Thanks.

redmandarin

Sorry for the delay - we've had the community police and others round. There is a car parked just across the road from our house, and it has been there for a few days. The police think that we were only targeted by the assailants because they thought the car was ours. We want to have the car moved, but the police need to try to locate the owner first.

Thank you very much for you reply andrew-b, it is a real help to have people offering us their kind thoughts and helpful advice during this horrible time.

We have been trying to contact the landlord (via landlines at work/home), but it goes straight to answerphone, so we've left messages for him to contact us, urgently. We have contacted our insurers again and they have told us that given the insecure state of our front door, we are not currently covered by our contents insurance (irrespective of whether we are in the house or not)!

After last night, we don't really want to be in the house, nor do we want to be compelled to stay in (in an insecure property). However, we don't want to go out and leave all our possessions behind in an uninsured and obviously insecure (boarded) house either!

Please does anyone have any ideas on how long we would need to wait before getting a response from our landlord, as we really want to know if/when we might be able to take control and sort out (but not have to pay for) our own doors? (the back door needs a secure replacement too, as it is exactly the same model as the front one!) Thanks.

redmandarin

redmandarin wrote: »

Please does anyone have any ideas on how long we would need to wait before getting a response from our landlord, as we really want to know if/when we might be able to take control and sort out (but not have to pay for) our own doors? (the back door needs a secure replacement too, as it is exactly the same model as the front one!) Thanks.

Now that its dark, I'm getting quite nervous - and tearful! It's the shock, I suppose. Can anyone help with the above, please?

Alisonpennypincher

Hiya,

From a legal point of view does your tenancy agreement state any info regarding repairs? TBH i think that you would be acting resonably to get this sorted ASAP, as not only are you protecting yourself and your contents but also further damage to the landlords property. But you really need to make sure that you are covered by a clause in the TA, or you would not really have a leg to stand on if the landlord decided to be unreasonable and not pay for any unauthorised works.

Do you have an emergency contact numbers for anyone else bar the landlord? We always used to file numbers for friends/realtives who could make a decision in the absence of the landlord.

As stated above take lots of pcitures and try and get quotes wherever possible to back you up if you do have to go ahead without speaking to the landlord first.

HTH a bit, good luck.

Alison

redmandarin

Thanks.

We're currently packing up valuables (mostly small-ish) to take to secure relatives/friend's houses. Computer next. Sorry gotta go for now. Will plug in asap and update you. Thanks so much everyone. Happy New Year!

mary43

redmandarin -how awful for you. I can understand how you feel having been burgled myself a few years back. Luckily the culprit too OH's wallet containing cash and credit cards but we were able to cancel the c'cards before they were used. The car keys were found having been slung over the back gate. The culprits had got in our car and tried to take it but we'd been having 'starter' problems so they were unlucky. The police were very helpful to us and even drove up and down the street during the following evening and during the night...............the sight of the police car, they thought,might deter anyone from coming back.
As you've had the police there on and off now that might well be enough to prevent anyone having any thoughts about trying to break in.
I can't help as far as the landlord/insurance goes but it would be worth your while to ask if the police could patrol your area regularly..............being new years eve they'll be busy I expect but its worth asking them and explaining how fearful you are.
It's no good me saying 'try not to worry'.............I know you will, just as I did and I was paranoid about every noise I heard for quite some time.
Our neighbours are brilliant thank goodness and if we're away they keep a close watch..........both next door and the ones across the street.

I wish you well and do hope something gets sorted out for you as quickly as possible.