My boyfriend has destroyed my belongings – what can I do about it?

Dear Mrs. Macaulay,

My best friend has been in a relationship with her boyfriend for about 3-4 years. They do not live together but he spends occasional nights with her. They have recently been having problems and have had some really bad quarrels.

The last quarrel was terrible. He was so enraged that he smashed her television, her component set and tore up some of her clothes. It was not the only time he had broken things, but it was the worst. She became afraid this time that he would also hit her so she escaped to a neighbour’s house and stayed there until they saw him leave after making loud threats.

Is there anything she can do to protect herself and her property? She is really afraid and does not want to have anything to do with him again.

Concerned Friend

Dear Concerned Friend,

Yes, there are legal steps which your friend can take to keep her ‘enraged’ boyfriend away from her home and protect herself from him. She can also, if she wishes, claim for the value of all that he destroyed. She can also make a complaint to the police to institute criminal proceedings against him.

Let me explain.

The Domestic Violence (Amendment) Act 2004, added to the original Act, persons in ‘visiting relationships’, that is persons (a man and a woman) who do not live together or as the Act says; do not share a common residence; but who have a close personal relationship. It seems to me that your friend’s relationship would fall within this category.

The Act of 2004 also added the act of damaging any property owned by a prescribed person (who would be your friend), or which is available for the use or enjoyment of, or which is in the care or custody, or which is at the home of the prescribed person.

“Prescribed person” is defined in the Act as the spouse, a parent, a child or dependent of the respondent; (added by the 2004 Act) – “or any person who is a member of the respondent’s household or is in a visiting relationship with the respondent.”

The 2004 Amendment Act has made provision for persons in relationships like your friend, who are not married or in a common-law relationship, to be able to apply for protective orders under the Act.

Your friend can, to protect herself and her property, therefore apply for PROTECTION ORDERS under the Act to the Family Court.

She would have to show that her relationship with him was a close and intense personal one, indicating the amount of time they spent together, where they usually were together and what they did and how long the relationship lasted. If a child was born of their relationship, this must also be stated.

Her application for protection orders would be based on their relationship and the fact of his destruction of her television, component set and clothes and her fear of being physical harmed. She could apply for orders to forbid him from entering her home and being within a specified distance from it (and her place of employment if she can show that he had, or would, molest her there).

She can also file a civil claim for damages for his destruction of her property, whereby she would receive compensation to enable her to replace them and more because of the manner in which he destroyed her things and caused her so much fear that she had to run from her own home.

She could also lay a complaint for criminal proceedings to be taken against him for his malicious destruction of her property. If, however, she wishes to also pursue the matter this way her civil claim will have to await the completion of the criminal case.

Her application under the Domestic Violence Act does not mean a criminal prosecution cannot also be pursued. The Act was passed to give protective remedies for actions, some of which are serious crimes, but which occur between family members and persons in close personal relationships. In such cases, the prescribed person may not wish to have their husband, wife, spouse, child, parent, dependent, member of the household or lover tried and punished in a criminal court.

Remember that if she had done what he did to her, in his home, and destroyed his things, he could also apply under the Domestic Violence Act, as amended, as it is gender neutral in its provisions.

I hope this will assist your friend to decide and act to protect herself and her property.

Margaret Macaulay is an attorney-at-law and a women’s and children’s rights advocate.