Not My Debt....

KnottyB

Good Afternoon,

I am writing to see if you could give me some advice. The beginning of next month I will be moving into a
financially “blacklisted” house. The tenants, who were evicted, ran up a bill with nPower (gas) for over £1,800 pounds. As well as that there are loads of letters in the house for debt collectors and overdue payments for credit cards.
As I don’t want to be dealing with debt collectors, for a debt I never made, I was wondering what I should do before moving in. I was considering contacting the companies individually and explaining the situation. Although I have a feeling this won’t help, as if someone owed me 1,800 pounds and said “oh they moved out” I’d find it hard to believe.
Any help / information would be appreciated. Even if it is just saying “I think you’re being a little too worried there”.

P.S Please don’t say “there is no such thing as a blacklisted house” unless you have some proof to back it up, as I have read countless user-written posts disputing whether or not such a thing exists, thank you .


PPS: Hello Everyone.

RAS

Hi

Credt ratings are based on the circumstances of the individual, not the house.

Sorry if you think this is wrong, but if ANYONE tries to affect your credit rating because of someone elses actions, then you report them to the Financial Ombudsman and the Information Commisioner and wait for the compensation to roll in.

What you need to do is to ask the landlord if possible to return all that mail to the companies that sent it. If he does not, then you need to write "Gone Away - no longer at this address" on the letter and return it unopened.

This applies even if you shared the house with the person who has debts, Unless you are financially associated (have a shared account), their credit rating does not affect yours.

Unfortunately occasionally bailiffs turn up, but all you need to do is prove that you are not the debtor and advise them that the debtor is no longer at this address.

Burlesque_Babe

I echo RAS - credit ratings are attached to the person, not the property.

As 'proof' I worked in Council Tax recovery many years ago and overdue CT moved with the person (even if they had done a runner) and was never attached to the property.

If you are chased by any debt collection agencies, mark the mail as gone away. If anyone ever turns up at the door, show proof you aren't the person they want.

GeorgeUK

Hi Knotty welcome to the board.

“there is no such thing as a blacklisted house”
Credit reference searches are done by name - not address, so even though someone at that address may have/had bad credit, it will not affect your credit worthiness unless you have a joint account with them.

With regards getting bills for them - write on the envelope that the addressee has gone away. I would have a copy of your tenant agreement or council tax bill to hand incase anyone comes knocking. You just need to show them a copy of your bill and say that they no longer live there. You could write to the creditors that are contacting them and request they update their records, but other than this there's not much else you can do. Just make sure you are on the electoral roll at that address and they are removed.

Under the Credit Scoring Scheme, companies offering credit are not allowed to redline or blacklist a particular property and should only score individuals. The process of redlining is where a whole area or location is charged extra or denied services.

rog2

KnottyB wrote: »

P.S Please don’t say “there is no such thing as a blacklisted house” unless you have some proof to back it up, as I have read countless user-written posts disputing whether or not such a thing exists, thank you .

Okay - I'm not going to say it. Whilst I agree with everyone else and that 'legally' there should be no such thing, I will be among the first to say that this 'minor detail' seems, largely, to have gone unnoticed by the likes of Debt Collection Agencies and Bailiffs - not all of whom are particularily well known for their respect of 'Law' anyway.

It is, in my opinion, extremely likely that you will, at some stage, become 'harassed' by some elements of the 'debt scavenging' community, so you would be best advised to prepare for the worst.

Whilst DCAs are not supposed to, they often write to, telephone or even visit 'last known' adresses of debtors and seem to think that they have some kind of God given right to assume that you, as the current occupier, are in fact the debtor - regardless of the fact that you may not even know the name of the person that they should be looking for.

It is the obligation of any debt collector to ascertain, for certain, that the person they are chasing is the actual debtor. Therefore, in the event of anyone 'chasing' you, whether by letter, phone or visit, you should, in the first instance, be aware of the OFT Debt Collection Guidelines: http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/consumer_credit/oft664.pdf

Any repeated contact, by any of these 'people' can be regarded as harassment and should be reported to Trading Standards, in the first place, and to the Police if it continues.

KnottyB

Thanks for your prompt replies . Sorry I think I didn’t explain myself too well, I’m not too worried about the “black listed” house so much as the having to deal with debt collectors.
I was wondering what the best way to reduce the "hassling" from companies.

PS:

This is where I got the thought that previous tenant could effect your credit a little:

http://www.moneymadeclear.fsa.gov.uk/guides/living_on_your_own/living_on_your_own_step_2.html

Under "If You Change Address"

bargainbetty

Make sure when you move in you contact all the utilities companies etc on the day. Give them meter readings and keep copies for yourself. Write to them as well including a copy of your lease detailing the date you took residence. You have given them proof of when you took over. Job done.

All bills that come in for the old tenants should be returned where an address is visible (print off a bunch of stickers that say NO LONGER AT THIS ADDRESS).

If things look a bit more formal, I personally would open them, and then send each company a printed letter stating that the person no longer resides there, and has not since XX (get the eviction date from the landlord). Inform them that you have no knowlege of their wherabouts, and that further attempts to obtain information from you will be considered harrassment. Print your name, don't sign them. Keep copies.

A mate of mine did that to a DCA and they went quiet pretty quickly.

KnottyB

bargainbetty wrote: »

Make sure when you move in you contact all the utilities companies etc on the day. Give them meter readings and keep copies for yourself. Write to them as well including a copy of your lease detailing the date you took residence. You have given them proof of when you took over. Job done.

All bills that come in for the old tenants should be returned where an address is visible (print off a bunch of stickers that say NO LONGER AT THIS ADDRESS).

If things look a bit more formal, I personally would open them, and then send each company a printed letter stating that the person no longer resides there, and has not since XX (get the eviction date from the landlord). Inform them that you have no knowlege of their wherabouts, and that further attempts to obtain information from you will be considered harrassment. Print your name, don't sign them. Keep copies.

A mate of mine did that to a DCA and they went quiet pretty quickly.

Thanks for that , I was thinking something along the lines of that.

As for contacting the gas people, I did just before this post .
They said to do exactly what you said.

GeorgeUK

If companies continue to send mail to you, you can either phone them (try to make sure it is not a premium number - saynoto0870 may help) or write to them explaining that the person no longer lives there. If they require proof, you can send a copy of your council tax bill.

When you move into the new property, make sure to send letters to all the ustility suppliers rather than doing so over the phone so that you have written proof that you contacted them and are not liable for the bill from before your tenancy started. If they ignore you, threaten to contact their regulatory body to deal with it.

All you can really do is notify them, by returning the mail addressed to the other person. If they continue to write, then i would intervene with a letter or phone call. There isn't really much you can do beforehand.