some one elses debt

elfie

hi there new to this forum. just got a question.
we exchanged to this property (council tenant) and the previous tenant just didnt pay his bills. so ive had to sort out the gas/electric/water, with the water he just didnt tell them that he was living here.
and since then ive had letter after letter from various debt agencies. i sent them on to him and hes just ignore them as im still getting the letters. so i started retuning the letters with a note saying that if they got in touch with me i would send them his new address. and nope all they do is carry on sending letters. im worried that IM going to get the bailifs around, or this property would be *blacklisted* dont mind i pay my bills and in a few cases im ahead with my monthly payments.and i want to stay with a good credit record. but this muppet who i exchanged with is just going to ruin it.
so any advice??? im so tempted to open one of the letters and ring them up. the return address on the back i sbellshill ml4-3wu
so some advice will be great.
oh BTW great site. ill be after help getting some bank charges back. PIPEX took me overdrawn for a bill i didnt owe.:mad: but thats an even longer story LOL

LilacPixie

just keep returning the letters to sender. Debt is attatched to the person and not the property. Make sure you get your name on the electorol roll there asap and have all utilities in your name.

mexicanwaver

Hi Elfie,

I had a similar situation when I bought my house a couple of years ago. Every day there would be some new debt letter, or threats from a bailiff!

I found the only way to stop the letters coming was to contact the debt collection agencies by phone. If you speak to them once, telling them the date that you moved into the property, they will add it to their file and shouldn't bother you again. They usually then just pass the info onto their investigators to try and track down the debtor/ba$tard wherever they may be.

You're not even obliged to give them your name.....just tell them that you are the new occupier of the property since dd/mm/yyyy.

I know it costs you the price of a phone call...and you shouldn't have to do it or pay for it....but all I'm saying is that it did the trick for me. The amount of letters/callers quickly dwindled down and I haven't noticed any adverse effects to my credit ratings.

Bargainfinder_3

Hi, we had the same, and I second Mexixan Waver, open them and ring the number inside... I'm not sure but I dont think there is really a blacklist for addresses anymore, it's more attached to the person! If you make sure your name is on the electoral role at that address, and your name on all of the utilities etc. We had telewest chasing at our address, told them other people had moved out, and they asked if they could come round and pick up the satellite dish and box. We said NO! Not our responsibility the previous people didn't arrange to give it back, and we weren't taking time off work to wait in for them... they just left us alone!!

You will get them for a long time though, as debts are passed from company to company; they will try your address again and again - but just keep saying the same thing. We've gotten to the point now where they have dwindled to one a month, so we just throw them in the bin! Occasionally OH is in a co-operative mood so will ring them, and they are usually very polite about it All the best x

flaura

Just keep returning to sender - they can't touch you

GeorgeUK

Just write "no longer at this address" on the envelope and forget about it.
They'll probably keep sending them, but there's not much you can do about that.

CCCS_Sarah

Hi elfie,

Send all the letters unopened back to the creditors. Just write ‘no longer at this address'. The creditors should then update there systems and start to the previous occupier.

JWF

I also had this problem loads when I moved in to my current address. I found the solution to be like others have said before me.

I opened the mail (once I realised what it was!) and told them that I was now living in the property and not the person they were chasing. I always found them polite and on a couple of occasions they said they would start some kind of search for the debtor, I guess they use electoral rolls/council tax registrations or whatever. I quite often followed this up with the opened mail and a covering letter confirming the details and this seemed to do the trick.

elfie

thanks for all the replys. i must point some friends i know in this sites direction. they are getting deeper n deeper,
thanx again.