Debt mail

Giggs_11

Not sure if this is the right section so move if necessary.

Basically my address has been receiving somebody's debt collection mail for months now despite us calling the debt agency in question and visiting the bank in question months ago.

I have told them the real address of the debtor. Yet they continue to send mail. We have even confronted the address whose debt it is and they were very gobby as you can expect.

The last attempt I'll make at contacting them is by email - anything I can say i.e threatening legal action if they continue to send mail here? Whats my legal stance?

Thanks in advance

Angry_Bear

I think (happy to be corrected) that any debt collection letters are considered to be received if they were sent to the last known address.

For example, if someone gets a CCJ but it is sent to the wrong address, then it still holds as long as the address is the last one the debtor gave to the creditor. So no matter what you say, the companies will still send letters to your house.

It's a pain, but I don't really see why this is such a big issue. Just bin them or write not known at this address on the front and pop back in the post.

Opening someone else's mail then "confronting" them about it sounds a bit cheeky to me if I'm honest.

Giggs_11

Angry_Bear wrote: »

I think (happy to be corrected) that any debt collection letters are considered to be received if they were sent to the last known address.

For example, if someone gets a CCJ but it is sent to the wrong address, then it still holds as long as the address is the last one the debtor gave to the creditor. So no matter what you say, the companies will still send letters to your house.

It's a pain, but I don't really see why this is such a big issue. Just bin them or write not known at this address on the front and pop back in the post.

Opening someone else's mail then "confronting" them about it sounds a bit cheeky to me if I'm honest.

Thanks for your response, I probably should of elaborated;

They have never lived at this address, we have known their family for over 15 years and I used to be good friends with their son. One of their family members assaulted one of mine and we sent them to court over it, and the relationship between the 2 families turned volatile.

It is obvious that they have used our address on purpose. Is this legal? Surely not?

Angry_Bear

Giggs_11 wrote: »

It is obvious that they have used our address on purpose. Is this legal? Surely not?

Almost certainly not, but from the debt collection agencies point of view it doesn't matter. As long as they send correspondence to the address they were given by the person who borrowed the money the letters are considered to have been "received" and they will be able to take lega action (against the person who owes, not against you or your family).

Bad debt at your address doesn't impact you or your credit report, so I'd still probably just throw any letter in the bin. You've already told the companies eveything you know so you certainly have no obligation to them to return the mail.

I don't know, legally speaking, what you can do to get them to stop sending the letters - particularly as they're not addressed to you so it won't count as harassment.

Giggs_11

Ok many thanks for your help. I will send them one last email and after that I'll bin any correspondence I get.

ilovelondontown

Bin it, and forget about it, bothering to do anything at all about complaning is only more effort to you when it has no effect on you.

If you can be bothered, and there is an RTS you should score through the address and just put RTS- Not known at this address (return to sender) on the envelope and pop it back in the post.

RTS post is flagged to the company to check why the wrong address is being used.