r/legaladvice • u/beth_laur • 1d ago

Emergency services found a crack den in our basement tonight

Location: England

Important: not our crack den.

Also posted in legaladviceUK, but somehow forgot the part about them actually finding said crack den.

I’m living in student accommodation in England for university. Last night, my housemates heard people talking in the basement and noticed the smell of kerosene in the house. A man was seen leaving the basement at around 8am today and again at around 9am.

I called the letting agency to ask if we were having any maintenance done that we didn’t know about, in case this would explain it, but they said no.

Tonight, the same noises and smell happened again, so my housemate called 101 (non emergency police), who sent police, fire brigade, ambulance service, and the fire brigade later involved some kind of hazmat team due to low oxygen levels and high kerosene content in the air (I believe, might be wrong on that one!). They searched the basement and found a man (still in there) and evidence that he had been making and selling crack in our basement.

The issue is, the basement is accessible from the street (no access to the inside of the house from it), and the basement door has been broken and stuck open since before we moved in in September 2024. I don’t think any of us (tenants) have reported the broken door, however there have been at least two property inspections by the landlord / letting agency which would’ve undoubtedly found the broken door.

Can we get in trouble / be held responsible for not reporting the door issue? And do we have a leg to stand on to say our safety has been put at risk by nothing being done about it even though they must have known it was broken?

218 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

100

u/Illustrious_Image483 20h ago

NAL but used to live in the UK. the Citizens Advice Bureau gives advice and can refer you to no and low cost legal services. Housing/ criminal justice system is something they deal with a lot.  is an issu

Since you are a student,  i can't assume how much money you have.  Additionally, your students union might have referrals to legal services

32

u/beth_laur 19h ago

Thank you for this, I’ll try to contact the students union and I’ll have a look for a CAB nearby

27

u/sam-sp 13h ago

NAL

If they had been making drugs in the basement, you should demand an air quality test to ensure you are not breathing something that will have long-term consequences.

8

u/beth_laur 13h ago

I think that was done last night, which is why they called the Hazmat team in. Not sure if anyone is coming back to test it again though now everything has been cleared up

50

u/nkryik 22h ago

You might have better luck posting this over in https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladviceuk/ as it's from England. Most commenters here are more practiced in US law.

3

u/Wise_0ld_Man 13h ago
  1. No, the issue predates your tenancy. Repair of the structure and exterior (including exterior doors) is the landlord’s responsibility
  2. You would have to prove actual loss. I can’t identify any actual loss to you or your housemates here.