Previous home owner's debts

lifechooser

I'm not sure which forum to put this in, so I won't be surprised if this gets moved. It's also long and rambling, so I'll put a quick summary at the top;

--Summary--
We bought a house from people with substantial debts and no forwarding address. We are now worried about the effect on our own credit rating
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We bought a house from 'desperate' sellers back in June. The vendors had moved to Australia in December leaving the house vacant. Although mail was supposed to be forwarded to their new address, it didn't seem to be. In the first two weeks after moving in, two different bailiffs turned up.

My wife had debt problems 10 years ago and has now rebuilt her credit rating to a level where she has an agreed overdraft and carefully managed credit card. But she knows how to deal with bailiffs. They were not invited in, but were allowed to study paperwork relating to the house purchase and her ID whilst stood on the doorstep.

After these incidents we started opening their mail as we felt we had a vested interest in doing so. Every demand for money was responded to with a phone call explaining the situation. We estimate the total debt at ~£80,000. Debtors include many credit card companies as you would expect, however some banks have provided two identical cards to the same person. In addition, there is an outstanding parking fine and even the inland revenue would like to speak to them.

I have managed to track them down myself, but only on twitter and linked-in. Reading twitter suggests that the move to Austrailia was career related, rather than running away from the debts, however it seems to be a combination of both. Twitter makes for interesting reading, and suggests both a return to the UK in April and an unwillingness to start living within their means and face up to their debts. Here are 4 tweets from one week, lightly edited to remove some personal details;

Bloody #DEBENHAMS have cancelled my order. Very unhappy!!! Ordering
clothes from the UK is the only thing that makes me vaguely happy.

To say I am angry with "edit:town in australia" & our sponsoring company is an under statement. We scratch by on a poor diet to make ends meet

Yesterday my clever husband found a loophole our sponsoring company
OMITTED 2 tell us; they have to repatriate us back to the UK

I am very happy. I just bought the Nikon D7000 )) I have to save up
for the good 50mm lens but still I'm a happy bunny )

This week another bailiff turned up, not to try to recover items or money, but to confirm that my wife was telling the truth about the house sale. He was happy with the documents, but warned my wife that our credit is now being affected as the debt is so large. This has us both worried. My wife ordered something from NEXT this week which specifically stated that we had to pay immediately as they are unable to offer us credit. This is the first time we have been turned down for credit for many years.

So, questions:

1) Is there anyway to broadcast that the previous owners no longer live at our address? We have registered on the electoral roll, and I ensured that I didn't tick the privacy box.

2) Is there anyway to disassociate ourselves from the previous owners credit? I know I can add notes to our credit ratings, but I would prefer our ratings to stay high

3) If I can track the previous owners address down in Oz, can I supply it to the creditors? How about if they return to the UK? Is there any law against this?

4) Any other advice please?


Thanks, sorry it's so rambling. I've got a lot of respect for everyone here. It's so easy for debt to become unmanageable, and so hard to tackle it when it does. I've nothing but contempt for these people who simply run off to another country and do it all again.

Richard

happycamel_2

Addresses don't have credit ratings, people do. Return all mail to sender as "no longer at this address", it isn't legal to open it.

It's more likely to be your recent move that is preventing the new Next account, they like stable addresses and you may not yet be showing on the electoral roll.

Other than that I'd be wary of getting involved. If you offer a forwarding service etc then you will seem more associated with the debtors not less. It will be annoying but will die down.

lifechooser

Thanks. I hope that is the case. If the previous owners start defaulting on a debt today whilst using our address, will that definitely not affect us as the current occupants?

It wasn't a forwarding service that I was offering, I was intending on replying to the creditors with their new address.

HappyMJ

lifechooser wrote: »

Thanks. I hope that is the case. If the previous owners start defaulting on a debt today whilst using our address, will that definitely not affect us as the current occupants?

It wasn't a forwarding service that I was offering, I was intending on replying to the creditors with their new address.

It won't affect your credit rating in any way and don't give away someone else's address to a third party just return the mail marked return to sender no longer at this address. They can then do further investigations.

terryw

happycamel wrote: »

Return all mail to sender as "no longer at this address", it isn't legal to open it.

Urban myth. Open the things and let the creditors know.

happycamel_2

Sorry Terry, it's the law:

Interfering with mail - Postal Services Act 2000 Section 84

Triable Summarily (Magistrates court)
6 Months and or a fine (Max)

A person commits an offence if they without reasonable excuse intentionally delay or open a postal packet in the course of transmission by post or intentionally opens a mail bag.

A person commits an offence if, intending to act to a person's detriment and without reasonable excuse, opens a postal packet which they know or suspect to have been delivered incorrectly.



In this case there is no reasonable excuse for opening the post, it should just be returned to sender. A reasonable excuse would be opening the post of someone who is deceased or sectioned or for whom you have power of attorney.

denwhatshisname

terryw wrote: »

Urban myth. Open the things and let the creditors know.

Although the term "intending to act to a person’s detriment" would be hard to prove in the case of just opening mail.

The Postal Services Act 2000

84 Interfering with the mail: general.(1)A person commits an offence if, without reasonable excuse, he—

(a)intentionally delays or opens a postal packet in the course of its transmission by post, or

(b)intentionally opens a mail-bag.

(2)Subsections (2) to (5) of section 83 apply to subsection (1) above as they apply to subsection (1) of that section.

(3)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.

(4)Subsections (2) and (3) of section 83 (so far as they relate to the opening of postal packets) apply to subsection (3) above as they apply to subsection (1) of that section.

(5)A person who commits an offence under subsection (1) or (3) shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to both.

lifechooser

I'd argue in court that bailiffs turning up on my door give me a reasonable excuse. Creditors are also more likely to listen to you on the phone than believe a 'not at this address' IMO.

happycamel_2

Hi Lifechooser, whether you choose to obey the law is of course, up to you. Den and I just want to be sure you know what it is and aren't misled about whether such a law exists. Prosecution is incredibly unlikely but as you said at the beginning, there are lots of us here who try to help and make people aware of the facts so they can make their own decisions.

terryw

Oh dear, this old chestnut about opening mail.

"Reasonable excuse" is the key. Use the search for earlier threads.

The Act is primarily about dishonest posties.

Have you ever heard of a prosecution other than a postie?

bw

lifechooser

Anyway... as stated by happycamel, we chose to open the post, just as we weigh up the benefits, risks, punishments and morals of other actions. Let's put the opening of mail to one side as I'd like to get back on topic.

It seems the answer is to continue as we are, and put NEXT declining us for credit down to the recent house move.