Claim for damage

dubtom

If the Gardai break down the door of a rented property, smashing the door and both locks, can reimbursment of the cost of replacment and time for the contractor be claimed.Also, can a person who loses time from work because he had to be there for the contractor, claim. If so, from who.

johnnyskeleton

dubtom wrote:

If the Gardai break down the door of a rented property, smashing the door and both locks, can reimbursment of the cost of replacment and time for the contractor be claimed.Also, can a person who loses time from work because he had to be there for the contractor, claim. If so, from who.

Anyone can claim, it doesn't necessarily follow that they will be successful. Success will depend on the circumstances. Where the gardai smash down a door randomly or maliciously, then the chances of success could be high. If they did so in the course of their duties and in order to save a person's life, then such a claim would, in my view, be highly unlikely to succeed.

As a general proposition though, if someone wrongfully causes damage to your property, you would be entitled to claim a sum that would put you in the position you would have been in had it never occured. So you would be entitled to claim reasonable expenses incurred in restoring the damage, and also for time off work if you really had to be there while the contractor was in.

In the above hypothetical situation, it would normally be the landlord, not the tenant, who would make the claim. The claim could be made against the individual garda if it was just one (possibly loose cannon) garda who broke the door down, or it could be against the garda commissioner if negligence is claimed against the gardai generally.

dubtom

Thanks Johnny. Can a person, lets say an agent of the landlord, claim that the actions of the Gardai were unreasonable, even though they had a warrent to search, but the agent had offered to open the premisies to avoid damage,but the Gardai had refused and demanded the keys to gain entry themselves, but then claimed that the key to that particular flat was not with the keys so broke down the door anyway. If the agent had been there, he could have looked through the various bunches of keys he had and opened the flat. In other simpler terms, can a person insist that they be given a time or general time when the gardai expect to arrive so he can let them in and so leave the premisis undamaged.I understand that a certain amount of secrecy is demanded by the gardai, but when a person,namely the agent, has no involvment with the investigation,apart from being a key holder for the premises, are the guards within their rights to totally ignore the keyholders wishes, which is purley to minimise damage to the property.

johnnyskeleton

A person can claim and claim, and if they claim hard enough they might get a solicitor of their very own.

Suzyq

I had an experience where I had to call the guards to break into my neighbours flat. They told me to let the landlord know that he could claim for repairs from the State and to contact them for the relevant details. Don't know about claiming for time off work though...