Police kicked in the door on my rental unit yesterday.

Doctor_M · Jun 10, 2015

So... this is a new one on me. I've got three rental units in Carroll County and have been renting places out off and on for at least 10 years. Never really had a horror story... mostly good folks... an occasional late payment, but no biggie.

Last night, while getting ready to take my family and my daughter's friend out for her birthday dinner, I got a call from my tenant in Westminster. Apparently the father of a little boy she watches from time to time had a few warrants out on him and the Westminster Police picked him up at my property. I don't know the whole story yet (only getting bits and pieces from her... and not all of it makes sense), but bottom line is that they breached the front door to escort this gentleman to the station.

My kudos to the officer who kicked it in... he did a good job. One big ol' boot sized dent to the metal door and it cracked the door frame and front wall. Not complaining... LEOs have to do what they have to do (and as the old Grateful Dead song goes... "but if you've got a warrant, I guess your gonna come in"). Apparently the officer came back later and nailed the door jam back together for the tenant (who is a young single mother) so that she could at least semi-secure the door that evening. That was nice and he probably didn't have to do that. :thumbsup:

I'm waiting for 8:00 so that I can call the LT. who left me a voice mail last night and find out exactly what happened. There is always something new in life, I guess.

Bertfish · Jun 10, 2015

Does the department have to pay for the repair or do they try to push that on your insurance company? Just curious

Doctor_M · Jun 10, 2015

Not sure yet. That's one of the things I hope to find out. My guess is it is on me/my insurance. I'm guessing it's probably a grand's worth of damage with the interior wall. Sigh.

Brychan · Jun 10, 2015

It does show you if you are going to have a steel door, you really need a steel frame for it.

joppaj · Jun 10, 2015

I'm glad your tenants are safe.

Doctor_M · Jun 10, 2015

Thanks... me too. That is the most important thing.

rseymorejr · Jun 10, 2015

I can't imagine that your insurance company will get involved.
You need to fix it and charge the tenant. It's her responsibility, her guest caused the door to come down.
He can reimburse her, when he gets out of jail.

I'll be watching Judge Judy for this case to come up!

MRA · Jun 10, 2015

I'm glad everyone is ok. Kudos to the officer for coming back to work on the door. Last year my daughter was involved in an accident with a Montgomery County officer. Everything was his fault. She never heard anything from the officer or the department. I know, it's a legal issue but a simple "I'm sorry this happened to you" would have helped. Glad to hear that the officer that broke the door down did the right thing.

casualmadness · Jun 10, 2015

rseymorejr said:
I can't imagine that your insurance company will get involved.
You need to fix it and charge the tenant. It's her responsibility, her guest caused the door to come down.
He can reimburse her, when he gets out of jail.

I'll be watching Judge Judy for this case to come up!

Kinda what I was thinking. You could write a victim impact statement to submit to the court. I was hit once by a guy running from cops. My insurance fixed my car but I was out of pocket almost $1000. I wrote up an impact statement with receipts and sent it to the prosecutor. The guy-over time was forced to pay me back every penny. He had to pay the court, who then paid me. Took over a year but I got my money back.

Sundazes · Jun 10, 2015

Shouldn't the LE department be responsible? Not bashing in any way here, just curios. Since they created the damage, shouldn't they should pay to get it fixed? :shrug:

Any of our boys in blue know or have any idea how this works?

daNattyFatty · Jun 10, 2015

sundazes said:
Shouldn't the LE department be responsible? Not bashing in any way here, just curios. Since they created the damage, shouldn't they should pay to get it fixed?
Any of our boys in blue know or have any idea how this works?

I'm sure Westminster PD isn't a huge department, so I'd first bring it up with the LT and see if he/she has an answer as far as reimbursement. If that's a no go, I'm sure there's a claims department with the town of Westminster. That would be the next stop. If that doesn't work, he can always try his representative on the town council, House rep or state senator. Use up all of them before you go paying for a lawyer.

mark71211 · Jun 10, 2015

One time the DEA chased a drug deal into a store I was working at and they broken all kinds of stuff before they left. Then about two hours later they sent in a guy to take a report of what was broken abd they paid for all the damages.

Objee · Jun 10, 2015

If the warrant is valid (eg the search was lawful) the homeowner must pay for the damages.

If the warrant was incorrect (wrong house, etc) the PD/City should pay but many times they won't (or more correctly, their insurance company won't).

IANAL but there are many court cases about this.

shaddydan · Jun 10, 2015

Glad your tenant is safe. That is an interesting question on who pays. Sorry I can't offer any advice.

Inigoes · Jun 10, 2015

Doctor_M said:
Not sure yet. That's one of the things I hope to find out. My guess is it is on me/my insurance. I'm guessing it's probably a grand's worth of damage with the interior wall. Sigh.

It should not be on you. They should cover the cost of replacement.

zoostation · Jun 10, 2015

sundazes said:
Shouldn't the LE department be responsible? Not bashing in any way here, just curios. Since they created the damage, shouldn't they should pay to get it fixed?
Any of our boys in blue know or have any idea how this works?

As long as the police were acting in good faith the municipality is not liable for broken doors or things like that. Some will still pay on stuff like that on a case by case basis as a good faith type of thing. You might have more luck with a town than a bigger municipality or county.

Doctor_M · Jun 10, 2015

Well... as you can guess, there was more to this story than I was getting from my tenant. I talked with the LT. and he was a very nice guy. He said, basically that I can call the town and "try" to get them to pay, but typically they only do that if they have to bust a door when nobody was home. In this case, the gentleman in question chose not to answer the door and they went in after giving him a min to open up.

I've got to have a discussion with my tenant about multiple lease violations now (and the ramifications of that)... she has clearly been telling me some un-truths. Hate to put her out on the street, but I also hate being lied to... and I sure as hell can't have illegal activity going on in one of my places. She is a nice lady, but is clearly making some bad decisions about the company she keeps.

Will have to give my insurance company a call next to see what they say. Hope nobody else has a similar situation, but I'll post what I learn in case the info can help someone else in the future.

Bafflingbs · Jun 10, 2015

Screw that! Boot her ass! And, make her pay for the damage. Her choice, is her problem.

AntiGun · Jun 10, 2015

I'm hoping for a happy ending to this one.

The fact that it wasn't a no knock and no dogs were killed has already made this one of the least contentious police raid stories on MDS.

LoneRanger · Jun 10, 2015

Bafflingbs said:
Screw that! Boot her ass! And, make her pay for the damage. Her choice, is her problem.

+1....I would have no problem putting her butt on the street.....I'm sure there is much more to this story....I'm sure the officers serving the warrant didn't just stumble upon their man.....probably will turn out he was living there.........

Police kicked in the door on my rental unit yesterday.

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