Debt collectors looking for someone who lived in my flat before me?

bathwiggle

I did get debt collectors turning up at my last home, previous guy had lots of issues, to the point that i was opening the door with a kitchen knife as some of them felt threatening to me. I did find opening his mail and ringing the companies got rid of most of them.

DominicJ_2

Debt Collectors are just ordinary people.
They have no powers.
Just ignore them, they follow a script,
Send letter
Send harsher letter
Threaten Legal Action
Offer copromise
Sell debt to another debt collector

Your response or lack thereof alters nothing.

Bailiffs are a different kettle of fish, but they enforce court judgements, and since you are not the previous tenant, there can be no judgement against you.

Yorkie1

LADYXXMACBETH wrote: »

It is illegal to open letters not addressed to you.

All you need to do is keep copies of your photo ID and tenancy agreement to hand for when they show up at the door and never, EVER let them in.

LADYXXMACBETH wrote: »

God I never knew saying something like "it's illegal to open other people's mail" would get such an outcry. I wasn't being serious or accusing them of breaking the law. Some of you should chill out!
Anyhoo, the OP has obviously taken the great advice everyone has given and all will be sorted from now on.

Given that the OP had said they had opened a letter, and you then told them that doing so was illegal, you were actually accusing them of breaking the criminal law.

If you weren't being serious in your post then you probably shouldn't have posted. Telling people that they are a criminal when they are already stressed isn't really very helpful to them.

That being said, the advice to keep a copy of the tenancy by the door is really good.

lollipopsarah

I got the shock of my life a few months ago when police came looking for someone, I told them I had no idea who he/she was and that I'd been here for for xx years and they just said "ok thanks"
Mind you we've been having mail addressed to previous occupents which I used to return to sender but now just recycle but I find it sad when the return address is to do with child care.
xx

Guest101

LADYXXMACBETH wrote: »

It is illegal to open letters not addressed to you. My neighbour got a warning for it from the police. Anyhoo. Debt collectors have no powers to come in and take your possesions away they just threaten it in letters. If ballifs do turn up kindly tell them person x doesnt live here anymore and would they kindly leave as they are tresspassing and if they do not leave call the police. I would say if you get anymore letters return them to sender. If you continue to recieve them then you could call the company usually it is writen on the back and say we have been sent letters from yourselves to mr x and I am informing you he no longer lives here. Job done. It is up to the debt managment company to track him down. more often than not if you ignore them they usually stop when the Debt managers dig a bit deeper and find they are not living there anymore.

actually it's only illegal if you open it and do not then make effort to forward it to the original arrestee or deliberately to open to prevent it reaching addressee. It's complicated and not serious in the grand scheme

Guest101

bathwiggle wrote: »

I did get debt collectors turning up at my last home, previous guy had lots of issues, to the point that i was opening the door with a kitchen knife as some of them felt threatening to me. I did find opening his mail and ringing the companies got rid of most of them.

So you accepted them threatening you in your own home? Ok maybe you cannot deal with it yourself, but then just call the police. Don't carry a knife to the door!

dodger1

spacey2012 wrote: »

I would take some time and read the forums and some of the stories when it has "not worked out"
Some of these companies can be very nasty to deal with.

The problem with forums is that most people only post negatives, people rarely start threads on this subject (and many more) with the positives. Emailing a company certainly worked for me, I told them when I moved in and gave them the address of my HA. Haven't received any more demands for the previous tenant.

Yasmin25_2

Thanks again for your replies.

I have decided that if we get any more letters from the debt company or anyone else regrading the last tenant, they will be getting put back in the post saying "addressee doesn't live here and hasn't since..." or something like that. Should I also write down the number of the local authority so they can confirm it or will "addressee doesn't live here and hasn't since..." do?

Yorkie1

Guest101 wrote: »

actually it's only illegal if you open it and do not then make effort to forward it to the original arrestee or deliberately to open to prevent it reaching addressee. It's complicated and not serious in the grand scheme

Please cite the relevant sub-section in the legislation which states specifically what you have said.

The statute says only that at the time of opening it the person "intends to act to a person’s detriment and without reasonable excuse".

SnooksNJ

loubel wrote: »

We used to get a lot of debt collection letters for the previous owners of our house. We put them back in the post with 'not at this address' on the envelopes. Eventually they stopped sending them.

We did come home to a letter from a bailiff saying they had been round to collect unpaid council tax and would be back the next day to break in(!) We phoned them and told them the house had been sold and they were fine about it. They asked us to contact the council to confirm the details which we did and we never heard from them again.

I would leave a window open and when they did break in I would sue them for intention infliction of emotional distress.