A new way to avoid paying back what you owe

looby75

According to the bailiffs that is!

My friend has a 20 yr old dd who she isn't on very good terms with at the moment. She moved out of the family home about 2 years ago but a lot of her mail was still being sent to the house. My friend didn't really think much of it as most of it looked just like junk mail so she kept it and passed it on to her dd whenever she saw her. Then about 6 months ago my friend mistakenly opened one of her dd's letters (they have the same first initial and surname so she thought it was for her) and found it was a letter from a DCA saying that they were going to take the dd to court for none payment of a store card bill . She immediately contacted her dd and it turns out that she had been using her parents address to obtain cc's loans etc ever since she moved out. My friend told her this had to stop and they had a big argument and haven't really spoken much since. A lot of the mail stopped so my friend assumed that her dd was sorting things out.

Yesterday she got a visit from the bailiffs asking for an immediate payment of £2300 or they were going to come in and remove all valuables. Fortunately they caught my friend as she was on her way out and had just locked the house door behind her and only answered the porch door to them so they couldn't try to get in to the house. She told them that her dd didn't live at that address and hadn't for over 2 years, and they replied that they knew that as they had already been to see her dd her home address but she had told them that her mum owed her money so they would have to go to her house to get it.Therefore that made my friend "legally responsible" for her dd's debts and that they had proof she had helped her dd commit fraud because she continued to forward mail to her dd after she had left home (!!!!!!!)

My friend told them in no uncertain terms which orifice they were talking out of, and the bailiff soon scarpered when her very VERY large weightlifting dh pulled up in the car to pick her up and started to question what the hell was going on.

So the moral of the story is....if you don't want to pay your debts just tell the bailiffs that someone owes you money and you can pass it on to them (or so some bailiffs would have you believe it seems!) :rotfl:

Actually real question, what should my friend do now, obviously her dd isn't going to face up to the issue (she has mental health problems so this is probably going to be an ongoing thing) What steps should my friend take to make sure she doesn't keep getting harassed like this? She's got an free half hour meeting with a solicitor on Tuesday but doesn't want to have to go down that route if she can avoid it because they aren't exactly rolling in money.

southernscouser

Isn't there a regulatory body they can report these a$$holes to? I can't begin to imagine the thousands of people who do actually pay up because they aren't aware of their rights and are scared of what might happen to them.

It's sickening! Those barstewards should be locked up because in my opinion it's fraud and deception! :mad:

looby75

I know what you mean SS. My friend is far from a shy retiring flower (nice way of saying she's as tough as old boots!) but she admits that she felt quite intimidated and if it hadn't been for the fact that she was on her way out and knew her dh was on his way to pick her up she might have even told them to come in to the house to sort things out. It was only afterwards when she was telling her dh exactly what happened that she realised how lucky she had been.

hobo28

The baliffs are obviously trying it on, any which way to get their money. Your friend is under no legal obligation to repay a loan her daughter took out.

Ignore them and threaten to report them to the police. Better still, get her DH to explain the situation to them. Whatever she does, don't let them into the house.

looby75

OMG I've just spoken to my friend, after she got home from my house earlier today decided to open a few of the bits of mail that were waiting for her dd to pick up (naughty she knows but after what happened yesterday she wants to know what else to expect) and just from the half a dozen letters there it looks as though her dd owes in the region of £9000 :eek: she obviously owes much more than this though as there used to be at least 5 letters a week arriving for her, but now it's only one every week or so so her dd must have told some of the co she's not living there anymore.

Could this affect my friends credit rating, as they share the same first initial surname and she is still trying to use her mums address?

Mics_chick

She needs to get this sorted as soon as possible because if the baliffs come back with the police they can break in if noone's in.

I know she can contact the credit reference agencies (Experian & Equifax are the 2 main ones) to put a statement on her file giving her daughter's name and saying that she is not financially linked to current occupants in any way. This will be read by any companies her daughter applies to for credit in the future.

They might also be able to give her advice on how to handle the situation because they also hold registers of any names used for fraudulent purposes and they might be able to add her daughter to this list or at least tell her how.

I would not forward any more mail on to her daughter but open it and write to the creditors to explain the situation, especially that although its her daughter she had no idea what she was doing...

southernscouser

She needs to send of for her statutory reports from Experian and Equifax and maybe even the other one whoch I forget just to check she has no financial association with her daughter. Same for hubby/OH if there is one.

Her daughters credit record won't affect her even if stuff is at the same address providing there is no link. Unless they have any joint accounts (which I see no reason why they would) then she will be fine.

The only reason I say to send off for the credit reports is that I was associated to my ex and the only reason I can think of was that she was insured to drive my car!

southernscouser

Mics_chick wrote:

She needs to get this sorted as soon as possible because if the baliffs come back with the police they can break in if noone's in.

Only if the daughter lives there and the balliff himself has admitted that he knows she doesn't live there. There is absolutely no chance of him getting the police involved as he will surely be breaking the law by doing that and they ain't that stupid sadly.

However for her daughters own sake she needs to help her sort it out or point her on to here.

Mics_chick

I didn't realise they had same initial so I've just remembered one thing that she can definitely do and that it is give credit ref agencies a password that has to be quoted in order to get credit this is another safeguard against any further credit being obtained.

Don't worry about opening the daughter's mail, this is insignificant in the big picture - her priority is to protect HERSELF and her HOME.

climbgirl

Yes, contact the credit agencies straight away and have a note put on explaining that the address is not linked to the daughter anymore and her debts are not yours.

There is also something you can do to have a credit flag put on your address. It doesn't harm your rating, what it basically means is that everytime someone does a credit check on your address, a flag pops up that says the check has to be done manually (and thus more thoroughly!) so they'll pick up that the daughter is not at that address anymore and hopefully not give her any more credit!) It may mean a slightly longer process if your friend or her husband want credit, but might be worth it in terms of seperating her from your friend's rating...

I'm really sorry, I don't remember the link where you can do this. but ti's been posted on here before so hopefully someone else remembers?

Mics_chick

Sorry if my emails sound melodramatic only I did work at a credit ref agency and we heard all sorts of stories.

It only takes the baliffs to gain entry once to remove your stuff and there is NO comeback whatsoever...