They don't make it easy!

halibut2209

Moved into our new house in September and have received loads of council parking letters for a previous tenant. From all over the country!

But it's so bloomin difficult to get it sorted. Not one of them has accepted a phone call. They expect ME to go out of my way, and send them proof that I live here via recorded delivery. Or they send out a form for me to sign swearing that the guy doesn't live here which I have to send back AT MY OWN COST.



It pees me off no end. I think I'm just going to ring them up in future, make sure they are recording the call, get their name, and then say. "I've told you this now and I have done my part. If you choose to ignore it and carry on claiming from this guy who does not live here, wasting tax-payers money on court costs and bailiffs, then it's your fault, and if I get bailiffs coming round, I'll go to the press with YOUR name as being incompenent."

I have sent the DVLA a letter informing them that this guy no longer lives here, but have heard nothing back.

The_Slithy_Tove

Stricltly speaking, it's illegal for you to open post addressed to someone else, e.g. the previous occupier. If you have no forwarding address, the best thing to do is to make any further envelopes with "Return to sender - no longer at this address", and pop it back in the post. Eventually they may get the message. Having said that, I had someone from the local court visit a few years ago, looking for the previous owner some 6-7 years after they'd moved away, leaving some unpaid Sky TV bills.

halibut2209

No, it is not illegal to open other people's mail. That is a misconception.

The Postal Services Act 2000 states

"A person commits an offence if, intending to act to a person's detriment and without reasonable excuse, he opens a postal packet which he knows or reasonably suspects has been incorrectly delivered to him."

This is not to the old tenant's detriment, and it's certainly reasonable as I'm informing the senders that he no longer lives here, stopping bailiffs coming to my house and upsetting my family.

The_Slithy_Tove

I stand corrected. Howver, I would still handle it as I have suggested. I think Halibut has done quite enough to discharge any responsibilty he may have had in the first place over this matter.

halibut2209

Yeah, I will be doing that from now on. You'd just think that they'd appreciate having less work to do.

TrickyWicky

Reminds me of the chap that owns a car with the registration ABC123.

What registration do you think local authorities were using for training their staff with when learning to use the hand held computers? - Yep, ABC123

Of couse none of the councils bothered cancelling these training tickets.. in the belief that someone would spot them before they were sent to the DVLA for processing and that it probably wasn't even a valid registration. Consequently this poor fella was getting NTOs and bailiffs every other week for a car that was stuck in his garage immobilised due to technical problems from authorities all over the land.

The problem only came to a head when he wrote to every authority in the land CC'ing the name of ever other authority threatening legal action for harassment if he had one more contact for his car which was off the road.

@halibut: I'd just mark the letters NTO and RTS and shove them back in the post box. You're only going to stress yourself out opening other peoples post and ringing them all up etc.

halibut2209

Bit like the Polish guy in Ireland who had hundreds of tickets. Only problem was this person's name translated to "Driving Licence"!

I will be just sending them back now. It's just that when we first arrived, the next day we had people at the door about this guy's debts so we wanted to know what we were letting ourselves in for. We've already had to contact several bailiffs.

Haven't had anyone at the door in the last month, so will (as you suggest) just send stuff back.

Though we did find some solicitors letters in one of the cupboards. Seems he's also been done for shoplifting at boots and falsely claiming injuries in car accidents.

Oh and he smashed in all the internal doors when he left. Nice guy.