Police broke down my tenant's door - by accident

[Aly W.]

In 8 years of landlording, I haven't come across this one yet. I got a call from my Sunrise, Florida tenant on Saturday, saying he and his wife are out of state on vacation. Their mother-in-law stopped by that afternoon to feed their fish, and discovered the door had been broken down, and the police were in the parking lot. This is in a condo complex.

The police told her they were called by a woman who said she was being assaulted by her husband, and she had ran out of their condo. The police asked where she was, and in her panic, she gave the number of my tenant's unit, where she had stopped to make the call. The police arrived, no one was outside and no one answered the door when they knocked. Because no one was home....so they proceeded to batter it down.

The officers gave the mother-in-law their cards and a number for me, the owner, to call to discuss compensation. I finally reached someone in their Risk Assessment department today, who said they will file a claim and an adjustor will call me. However, he said what the police did was within the law, and the fact that they were given the wrong address was not their fault.

They not only broke the door, but severely damaged the frame, and this will be at least a $500 repair. Has this happened to anyone, particularly in Broward County, FL?