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To enter, officials need a warrant

(China Daily)
Updated: 2011-04-13 07:56

Do the police have the right to enter my home?

This is a matter of privacy. It's perfectly OK for the police or any other official to carry out their work - an investigation or population census, say - outside the door of a foreigner's home. If they need to enter anyone's home to carry out their work, however, they first need to go through strict legal procedures.

Police officers need to get a search warrant before they can enter your home. These warrants are issued by local police stations and if a police officer attempts to enter your home without one, you can legally refuse. The only time police officers do not need a search warrant is in emergencies or if they suspect wanted criminals are being hidden inside and feel waiting for a warrant could provide suspects with an opportunity to escape. However, officers are still required to apply for a warrant retrospectively, to prevent abuse of the policy.

Under Chinese law, anyone who enters another person's home without permission is an unlawful intruder and could face prosecution by the authorities. Except for police officers, uniformed officials, such as commercial or industrial bureau representatives, have absolutely no right to enter your home without permission.

Am I obliged to buy an item in a shop if I accidentally break it?

Any consumer who accidentally breaks an item in a shop needs to compensate the owners for the loss.

If you break something in a store, in the eyes of the law you are damaging another person's property. Even if you buy no items in the shop, you still need to compensate for that infringement. Usually the consumer pays for the broken item and then takes it with them. However, if you are shopping and break a china plate, say, that item effectively becomes worthless, so it is more a case of you covering the loss to the storeowner than actually taking possession of that item.

In practice, a consumer should pay the owner an amount equal to the value of the item prior to it being broken. However, there is always room for negotiation between the consumer and the storeowner about the amount of compensation.

Needadvice from METRO's legal experts? E-mail your questions to metrobeijing@chinadaily.com.cn. Please give as many details about your situation as possible.