Not our debt!

eo39regan

Hi,

i'm not sure if you can help me or not, but we recently had my boyfriends brother come to stay with us when he split up with his wife. We let him stay in good faith despite knowing that in the past he's racked up loads of debt and that this was in fact the reason he split from him wife. he stopped with us for two months, and without our knowing started using our address as his postal address. He then did one, and we havent seen him since or have any contact with him. Our problem is that since he's gone we've had numerous letters for him from debt recovery agencies etc. We got one, and it stated it was from a court, so I opened it, and it was a bailiff's letter informing that they had tried to come to reclaim what they were owed!!!! we rang them and informed them of the situation, and thankfully havent heard anything else from them. We continued to open the letters that came in the following weeks, concerned in case any more were from bailiff's. It transpired that he owed rather a lot of money to many people!! so we rang each one and told them he wasnt here anymore. We've got to the stage now where we're fed up of having to ring up every day, so we've just started returning the letters. Does anyone know if there is any way that we can get his name removed from our address permanently - something such as credit expert maybe??? we are renting our home, and are the only people on the tenancy, and have even had to go to the extreme of faxing our council tax bill to prove that he's not at this addresss, and my boyfriend has been accused of lying (they though it was his brother trying to get them off his back!). We're at our wits end with this, and could really do with some advise to try and put an end to it.

Sorry for long post!!!!!

mr.ton

I would consider contacting your local MP & CAB for advice, i would also start reporting all these rogue companies to the OFT and trading standards.
Stop ringing them all as well - they are not bothered weather he is there or not, they just want a payment & sense that they will get one from you if they keep up the pressure.
Only take it seriously if its an actual court that contacts your address & then speak to the court properley etc...
Other than that, the rest are not worth the time of day.

RobertoMoir

Ignore the letters. Put them in the bin (or write 'return to sender, not at this address' on them and pop them in the postbox if you can';t bring yourself to thrown them away.) and stop stressing. Certainly stop ringing them, as this just tells them they have someone "interested" at the other end.

They can't do anything to you guys for someone else's debt.
You don't "have" do do anything to prove who you are (they can't force you to do this, I mean to say, I realise you might find it easier to do it) and it is up to the debt collectors to find the debtor not people who happen to live at that address help them.
They have no right to visit your house.
They certainly can't get bailiffs to touch your stuff.
Credit histories are 'per person' not 'per address' so the brother's actions can't ruin anybody's credit.

DarkConvict

Simply no one (not even bailiffs) can't do anything as its not your debt, as above just send the letters back return to sender, not at this address. I had to do it alot when in rented accommodation due to previous tenants.

Credit reports are linked to a name and address, so your address cannot be blacklisted. You would have to share the same name and probably DOB for it to have any affect. Twins can get hit by this.

Hannah_10

Their rights, as others have outlined, are absolutly minimal to non-existant. DCA's rely on scaring you in the hope you don't understand the rules. That they are getting any response from you means to them that there is a compliant person at the house who can be manipulated into doing their dirty work for them. So they harass you further, after all, it's been getting them results! You need a change of approach, simply put a line through the address on the envelope and write "return to sender" on them, or to be really clear "return to sender, not known at this address" and put them back in a post box. They wont totally stop for a while, but one by one they will get the message. Nothing bad can happen to you, they are simply manipulating you and you have a right to complain to the Office of Fair Trading about each and every company pestering you still. The link for the OFT is below.

http://www.oft.gov.uk/