Debt Collectors letter in somebody elses name!

InsideInsurance

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

I would also open it so I could find out who it was from.
This would enable me to write back to officially inform them that the person they were looking for did not live at the address they had on record.

Simply cross out the address on the front and write on the envelope "Return to sender - Addressee unknown" and put it the nearest post box - no need to attach any stamps etc. It is the "official" way of notifying an organisation rather than opening it for some juicy gossip and then posting it back.

cherie1122

We had this problem with O2 and the amount of money that the person owed got higher and higher each month even though I kept ringing O2 and letting them know that the person didn't live there and we hadn't a clue who he was.

In the end I wrote to the Managing Director of O2 by post because the letters were getting threatening and I got a call from a guy who worked in the MDs office who was really apologetic and said he would ensure we would receive no more mail addressed to this person at our address.

The letters stopped but they did cause us concern for a while.

shaun_from_Africa

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Simply cross out the address on the front and write on the envelope "Return to sender - Addressee unknown" and put it the nearest post box - no need to attach any stamps etc. It is the "official" way of notifying an organisation rather than opening it for some juicy gossip and then posting it back.

But this method wouldn't stop many debt collectors from continuing to send mail to the address concerned.
If all that was need to stop them doing this was to return the unopened letter "Return to sender - Addressee unknown"
anyone who was in debt and didn't want to get mail from the debt collectors would be doing this.

If there was even the slightest chance that the debt collectors would be enforcing legal action against someone who they believed lived at my address, I would want to sort it out long before official court baliffs came knocking on my door.

Many letters don't even have a return address on them, so simply dropping it in the post box may mean that it would be weeks before it eventually found its way back to the sender, by which time, legal action may well have started.
I know that the innocent householder wouldn't have anything to fear from this, but there may still be lots of stress and time involved in sorting it out.

InsideInsurance

And nor does opening the letter and replying that way.

At a former employer, which had their own bad debt department not a debt collectors, they treated unopen post returned much less suspiciously than items that arrived opened with a covering letter.

shaun_from_Africa

InsideInsurance wrote: »

And nor does opening the letter and replying that way.

But what it does do is to give you the legal right to take action against the company concerned if you have officially informed them that their records are incorrect and they ignore this and continue to send the letters.

The OFT do take an interest in this sort of thing, and a quick "google" will show that some debt collection agencies have been successfully prosecuted for harrassing totally innocent people.

bod1467

WhiteHorse wrote: »

that X does not reside there and has not done so for 13 years

that X does not reside there and has not done so for at least 13 years (if ever).

My suggested tweaks.

forgotmyname

I open everything that comes through my letterbox, Lucky i do as i got a letter from Npower thanking me for joining them when i knew nothing about this and not even a real name what what i could find on the net.