Signing the electoral roll in a rented property

Plastanka

Hey everyone,

I have a question and I have really struggled to find an answer for it. I'm posting it in this forum because it mostly relates to my credit files association to my current address / electoral roll signing.

My wife, daughter and I live in a rented property. We have been here for five months so far and we received a letter asking us to confirm the residency status of the people living at our address from the electoral roll.

We are both on the electoral roll at our previous address - my mothers house.

I am highly reticent to sign the roll because the previous tenants have outstanding loans and bills. We still receive chasing letters for them, as well as the occasional knock on the door from bailiffs too.

My own credit is actually pretty good for a non home-owner. The last thing I want to happen is to have my credit reputation destroyed because I register as living at this address which clearly has terrible credit attached to it.

I emailed the electoral roll people for advice and they told me that it is illegal to refuse to give information to them when they request it, so this is my problem now...

Too long, didn't read:
The electoral roll people know we no longer live at our previous address and now I am worried I will get fined if I don't tell them we live here. Also I don't want my mother to get into trouble if she keeps us on the register as living there. However, I don't want my credit file to have anything to do with this address, despite the fact we live here now, given the terrible credit reputation it has thanks to its previous tenants.

... help? Any advice is appreciated, I am literally stuck. I am even considering moving back in with my mother if I must, I intend to get a mortgage one day and I have friends who have struggled because of their credit file, even though they earn an above average wage.

dazza.mk

Credit history is attached to a person, not to an address, just because debt collectors may chase a previous resident at your property doesn't mean it impacts your credit history.

You can however be fined upto £1,000 for providiing a false declaration (which you will be doing if you say that you aren't at that address)

skintdad

It may help prevent DCAs persuing the previous tenants as they will check the ER and CRAs to try and find them. If they see your families details there they should realise that they no longer live there. Also, if there is a gap in your ER data it can cause problems with future credit apps. The auto system and then the underwriter will want to know why you weren't on the electoral role for that period of time. It could indicate to them that you've possibly left debts elsewhere yourself

Plastanka

Hey guys,

Thank you for the replies, it has cleared things up for me a lot. I will send the paper work in to the electoral roll people. I have only one personal loan and three credit cards and they are all maintained well with direct debit on minimum payments as well as monthly extra payments. I was worried that my effort to build a good credit reputation would be shot to pieces by this post code, but it seems that it won't.

Thanks again

izools

You will not be affected by previous tenants credit histories.

Nothing to worry about, credit histories are tied to names, not addresses :beer: