bought a house and am recieving collection letters for the previous owners

Smithy2

Hi there,

Not sure if I am posting in the right place, I am after some advice really.

We have recently bought a new house, we had our offer accepted in May and because of a lot of hold ups from the previous owners, did not complete until September. Before we had our offer accepted the house was standing empty for approximately 4 months.

Since moving in we have had nothing but letters for the previous owners, things like utility bills, council tax, mail order catalogue collections etc. More recently we have received a number of letters from a parking fine company, (I know all this because I have been looking up the return addresses)

We do not open the letters, and each time we receive a letter we return it to sender, writing on the envelope that the person no longer lives at our address. However we are still getting letters from the same companies that we have already send letters back to. I have even taken to writing on them that the person the letter is addressed to has not lived here for almost a year.

We have also received a letter from our local council, addressed to us, asking if we know the ware-bouts of the previous owners, as they are trying to trace them. So it seems that they have run up a lot of debt and then moved on. We do not have a forwarding address for them.

I am getting increasingly worried that this is going to end with the bailiffs knocking on my door for debt collection.

What I want to know is, is there anyway I can prevent this from happening, I.E register my address somewhere so that no debts are associated with it?


Thank you in advance for your help

Tigsteroonie

We continued to receive DCA letters for the previous occupant for the entire five years of living in our last house. After a while, I got fed up of marking them 'return to sender' and started throwing them away.

However, in five years, we didn't have any bailiffs or DCA enforcers turn up once. If by any chance they do, simply offer some ID that shows you are not the person they are seeking.

Smithy2

Thank you,


That has put my mind at rest, I was thinking of keeping some identification and a utility bill as proof of address handy just in case........


Good to know that after 5 years this has not happened to you.


Thank you again for the advice, much appreciated.

lee111s

Call up the DCA and advise they no longer live there. I had this when I bought my place last year and they soon stopped.

The cheeky get even went into Fenwicks and told them he still lived here 6 months after selling the house!

Silian

I have had a debt collector knock on my door for a previous occupant. It wasn't that bad - I simply told him that the person no longer lived there and he went away (without asking for proof of ID). I did keep proof of ID close to the door just in case though.

Marktheshark

Opening other peoples letters and involving yourself in other peoples problems will open a can of worms that is very hard to close.
Put them in the recycling bin and get on with your own affairs.

DawnW

I still receive the odd letters for previous owners / tenants after 7 /3 years respectively. Apart from returning to sender there isn't anything you can do. We once had a debt collector turn up, but simply told them that the people in question had gone and he went away again. No big deal.

yorpington

I've had letters like this at every flat I've ever lived in! Plus DH has a phone number which evidently used to belong to someone with a gambling addiction - still gets phonecalls and messages from casinos and DCAs, months later.

Just ignore it. The letters aren't for you, so you've nothing to worry about

lee111s

Marktheshark wrote: »

Opening other peoples letters and involving yourself in other peoples problems will open a can of worms that is very hard to close.
Put them in the recycling bin and get on with your own affairs.

Not when you're getting 5-10 letters per week for a month. I took that stance at first but I needed to put a stop to it.

There was no can of worms. I called the agencies and creditors, explained they no longer lived here and have since, had nothing more.

Smithy2

Thank you everyone for your comments, it's made me feel a lot better that other people have had to deal with this and it hasn't been so bad.


I really appreciate you all taking the time to respond and offer me advice.

sourcrates

Its a quiet common occurrence, keep returning post to sender, it makes no odds if anyone knocks on your door looking for previous occupants, debt collectors have no powers whatsoever, and a bailiff is only bad news for the person named on his/her writ.

Basically, if it aint you, you have nothing to worry about.