Debt free and proud - but now stuck with someone else's hassles?

purplepegasus25

Having been stupid in my youth and got myself into debt I am incredible proud to have dug myself the long and slow way and paid it all off but I now find my self struggling to deal with someone else's debt which we believe is intentionally listed to our address. *Please fee free to move if this post is in the wrong place.*

My husband and I bought our first home together in September 2014. The guy we purchased from was living on his own, nearing retirement with all four kids having moved out of home hence looking to downsize.

We'd not long moved in to the property when we had a few pieces of mail turn up for one of his sons so we just handed them to the estate agent we brought the house through to pass on. These included (from googling the return address letters from different debt companies). At the end of November my husband had the first encounter with a bailiff looking for the son. This baliff was quite pleasant, apologised for the inconvenience, made a joke or two about being given the run around like that all the time but was nice to be proved wrong for once and left him to his day.

Nearly 6 another months on, we're still getting letters, and today my husband faced another bailiff who was not as nice and warned him that if we didn't do something about this matter that the banks could blacklist the house.

We first viewed the house at the end of May 2014 and the guy we bought from was certainly living alone and mentioned that none of the kids had lived there for a while.

We've tried forwarding post on to his dad (via the estate agents as we dont have his forwarding address) and returning letters to sender. We have suspicions that the son transfered everything to this address not long before we took hold of the keys as his dad recently claimed that he had next to no mail for his son before we moved in.

Any suggestions of actual actions we can take would be most gratefully received. I've seen other threads mentioning we shoud send letters back recorded delivery but as return addresses are PO Boxes so we would need to open letters to get full addresses and dont know if that would get us in trouble?

sourcrates

Hi,
Right, there is no such thing as a "blacklisted address", the debts are not yours, so it's not your problem, any letters just stick them back in the post, or recycle bin.

It's an annoying problem for you, granted, but it's the job of the DCA's to do debtor tracing, not yours !!!

There's little else you can do except a written complaint to whoever is writing to the property stating the person they are after is no longer at this address.

dancingfairy

I would make sure you're on the electoral role and that the details are all correct (ie no one on there that shouldn't be).
The bailiff is talking complete rubbish about the house being blacklisted. Explain to them that you are not Mr x and ask them to leave. If they refuse call the police.
In terms of sending the letters back, I'd just keep doing return to sender. I believe it's not a problem to open others people's post but the offence is more opening someonelse's post with the aim of causing them detriment/stopping them getting it. I doubt it would be a problem but I'm not sure it's worth opening it anyway.
df

purplepegasus25

sourcrates wrote: »

There's little else you can do except a written complaint to whoever is writing to the property stating the person they are after is no longer at this address.

Unable to do letter to person trying to contact without opening letters to get address details other than PO Box, unless send letter returned (unopened) along with letter explaining they dont live there? Any real difference to just doing return to sender? (Other than the cost of the stamp?)

sourcrates

purplepegasus25 wrote: »

Unable to do letter to person trying to contact without opening letters to get address details other than PO Box, unless send letter returned (unopened) along with letter explaining they dont live there? Any real difference to just doing return to sender? (Other than the cost of the stamp?)

I know it must be annoying for you, just put them straight back in the post, no stamp, marked "return to sender".

Nothing bad will happen, as it's not you there after.

bargainbetty

If a baliff turns up and gets nasty, call the police and report them for a Section 5 Public Order offence. They have as many rights as the paper boy once you state the person they are looking for isn't there, and you are entirely within your rights to tell them to jog on and shut the door on them.

If you can get the name of the company they are from, file a formal complaint with them.

DawnW

We had this after we moved back into our house after it had been rented out for a few years. Simply mark all letters 'not known at this address, return to sender' and pop them back into a post box. Don't buy stamps for this, it is not your problem.

If bailiffs turn up (yes, we had them too) just tell them that the person they are looking for does not live at your address. If they get nasty (in all fairness, none of 'mine' did) tell them you will call the police.

We still, after 4 years, get the odd letter (the tenant in question styled himself the 'Director' of a number of companies, though he was in fact unemployed, and we suspect he continued using our address long after he had moved out) but no visits for a while now. I worried about it initially, but followed sensible advice like that given above, and just dealt with the post, visits etc as they occurred. It is a nuisance but nothing more. I know lots of other people who have had this as well, so it seems to be a common problem.

Meatloaf1981

Some of these bailiffs will tell you anything to try and get you to either a) Hand over money for debts that aren't yours (They don't care so long as they're paid) or b) Get you to do the investigating for them and provide them with the address of the person they're looking for.

Best advice is return the mail, UNOPENED, writing clearly upon it "Return to sender, person not known at this address" and if they continue to send you mail, simply return, return, return and they WILL eventually get the message. Updating the electoral roll is a must. Make sure you're fully registered and that no other person is registered at the address that shouldn't be.

If bailiffs continue to attend and have previously been advised the person they're looking for does not live there and has not been there for some time, if they are causing you alarm or distress then they may be committing an act of harassment for which you can report them to the Police. Always get the name of the bailiff firm or debt collector they are representing and fire off a complaint letter to them requesting they discontinue their harassment or you will report them.

It isn't pleasant for you and embarrassing I'm sure if neighbours have seen the goings on but you need to rise above that an be more confident in your dealings with them. They have no more right to threaten you with anything than anyone else. The debt isn't yours, your address CANNOT be blacklisted and therefore you have no need to be concerned about this annoyance.

Best of luck.

Meat