A perhaps surprisingly common question we get is what is the position where the police break down a tenants door? Who should pay?
Compensation
Under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE), codes of practice are created. Code of Practice “B” deals with entry and searching of premises. Note 6A states:
Whether compensation is appropriate depends on the circumstances in each case. Compensation for damage caused when effecting entry is unlikely to be appropriate if the search was lawful, and the force used can be shown to be reasonable, proportionate and necessary to effect entry. If the wrong premises are searched by mistake everything possible should be done at the earliest opportunity to allay any sense of grievance and there should normally be a strong presumption in favour of paying compensation.
Therefore, the first thing to establish is
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My reason for writing to you was that the damage occured through no fault of the tenant. The Police acted properly but their information was spurious.
This resulted in a significant loss to the tenant (c£400) plus the upset of having your home broken into and the inconvenience of it not being properly secured pending major repairs.
The insurance excess is £250 which is still a considerable sum.
Maggie Barker, Plymouth.
From your email, I thought the tenant had sent a text to his sister and his sister called the police? (see quote above). In which case, I would submit the tenant caused the police to attend and therefore liable.
However, the question of compensation is really whether the police acted properly. If they received information that he might kill himself (whether that was true or not) they will have relied on s.17 which allows forced entry where it is necessary for “saving life or limb”. This is entirely different if for example they broke into the wrong house, in which case compensation would be payable.
Adrian