My legal rights - mail to my address not mine!

Piccalilly2

Can anyone help with my problem please? About two years ago I started to get mail addressed to someone I have never heard of to my home address. My family have lived at this address for 30 years and it was a new build when we moved in, so no one has ever shared this address.

The letters arrived from a credit card address and after several of them being 'returned to sender' I opened one to get the phone number to explain. I was treated as if I had committed a crime and was lying. I was informed that the person whose name was on the letters had applied for a credit card in another address then wrote to them saying he had moved to my address and had now defaulted payments. After speaking to several people I was eventually promised that the mail would stop and after a few months of just an occasional letter which I again returned to sender, they stopped.

In the last month or so they have started up again and despite me writing on the envelope 'this person does not, and has never, live at this address - return to sender' they still keep arriving. I am not going to open anymore of them as I'm told that just makes it worse. So need to know exactly what my rights are and how to get these letters to stop.

Also in the last month letters addressed to someone else have now started arriving. Does this mean my address will be on some sort of blacklist? I have never heard of either of these people and just want it to stop :mad:

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

pinkshoes

A debt is to a person, not an address, so you will not be black listed!

If you have a printer, get some sticky labels, and print out a few sheets of labels that all say "person not known at this address, return to sender", then just slap them on the letter, and shove it back in a post box.

You can't do much else.

cajef

Or even easier throw them in the dustbin and get on with your life.

arcon5

Just agreeing with others, its not your debt, your address won't be blacklisted, its not your problem and nothing you need to worry about. Bin them and move on

PZH

Just as a matter of curiosity - who pays for returned mail ?

The sender?

or do RM just return as requested - assuming there is a return address ( or bin them themselves )

vikingaero

Once a postie puts letters addressed to your address through your letterbox they become your property. You can 100% open them even if they are in someone elses name. As long as you don't use the information/credit cards/cheque books for pecuniary advantage then you are doing nothing wrong. It's pure pub lore that you can't open letters sent to your address. If the muppet on the phone tells you otherwise then tell them to get their facts right.

You have two choices:

(1) Ignore and bin. If you do this the frequency of letters may increase and you may get a visit from a debt collector. Ensure you keep opening the letters so that you keep an eye out for a Court Summons.

(2) If you want to stop the letters once and for all then write a recorded delivery letter to the company and state that it's not your debt and that your address is being falsely used. Insist they act and that any further letters will be deemed harrassment. Whilst you are writing you can withdraw their implied rights to visit in case they send anyone out.

I had a similar situation years ago - before the days of the internet where I could get advice. I had the previous occupants mail where they had defaulted. They issued a summons against the previous occupant which became a CCJ and then bailiffs turned up. I had trouble convincing them that it the previous guy had moved out.

Piccalilly2

Thank you to everyone that took the time to read my message and reply.

Vikingaero I have taken your advice and just opened the latest two letters. Both are from debt collection companies. The original one threatening to consider litigation.

I am just about to write a letter to both as you suggest and hopefully this will finally be the end of it.

Thank you so much for the information!

PZH

Piccalilly2 wrote: »

Both are from debt collection companies. The original one threatening to consider litigation.

All debt collection compainies will threaten this and so will solicitors letters.

Do not worry about them - as stated, the debt is not yours, the debt collectors have no power to enter your property, and intimidation / harrassment is a reportable offence.

I still receive letters from previous tenants (been here over 2 years now) and gone through all the steps above and still continue to get them as the debt is passed around different agencies - but they simply go back in the postbox with "Not at this address. Please Return to Sender" wrote on the envelopes.

DCFC79

Piccalilly2 wrote: »

Thank you to everyone that took the time to read my message and reply.

Vikingaero I have taken your advice and just opened the latest two letters. Both are from debt collection companies. The original one threatening to consider litigation.

I am just about to write a letter to both as you suggest and hopefully this will finally be the end of it.

Thank you so much for the information!

just put not at this address on the envelope and go back to your life, the debt collectors should get the message and use other means to track the person down

PZH

DCFC79 wrote: »

just put not at this address on the envelope and go back to your life, the debt collectors should get the message and use other means to track the person down

I do like your optimism :rotfl:

You'd at least like to think that they would try and confirm that the person actually lived at the address (Electoral register springs to mind - although I agree that this isn't 100%)

halibut2209

Well, if the census data has indeed been hacked, that will make the collectors job easier!