Letters from previous occupiers - with a twist

MrWillyWonka

Hi,

We purchased our house a year ago, previously it was rented out for quite some time.

We had been getting lots of bank statements, credit cards, PINs and other bank letters addressed to a family of at least 4. They seem to have moved out 3 years ago.

Initially I RTS the letters and eventually just binned them but recently the volume of letters is ridiculous. I opened a council tax bill from another authority and it seems they have moved to another property but have registered their council tax correspondence to our address. This seems to be the same for water, car insurance and house insurance where the correspondence and living address is different.

Even more bizarre was a letter from solicitors in regards to a recent car accident claim (accident happened several months after we moved in) which was also sent here.

All this on top of not changing their bank address seems to me they do not want to register themselves at their new address.

I phoned the banks and since I am not the account holder I cannot remove my own address from their account (although I did manage it with their council tax and water bill).

I'm stuck here and concerned something fishy is going on. Any advice?

G_M

If it's fishy

1) it's not your busines and
2) you can't prove what kind of fish it is

Either

3) keep binning
4) RTS
5) write to each sender yourself, enclosing the letter, and explain they don't live there
6) include their new address if you know it (though this is, not fishy but, dodgy).

marksoton

G_M wrote: »

2) you can't prove what kind of fish it is

It's a load of carp. Trust me.

MrWillyWonka

Not my business? Well when someone is using my address for their purposes it is my business.

I have 44 letters since last Monday. Option 5 might work, although phoning them clearly didn't.

fairy_lights

Woah, ok, 44 letters in a week is a lot. Is it possible they have moved somewhere else on the same street and keep using their old house number by mistake? Or are there any similar addresses in your area?

moneyistooshorttomention

I'd be keeping a record of these unwanted letters by now - and writing back to all senders (with whatever information I had about these peoples whereabouts).

What would concern me most is if these people are doing something like taking out loans giving your address as theirs.

I think it would be wise personally to get one of those free alerts (or whatever they are called) with the Land Registry - just in case - and then you'd be informed of anything they tried in that direction.

I'd also be checking out what my credit rating is like with credit reference agencies - just in case there were any unexplained items on there.

That is an awful lot of letters that are nothing to do with you that are coming through. I was worried enough years back when I found that letters were still coming through to my house from a dud lodger I'd had for a while (ie from a catalogue company). Fortunately their surname was a very different nationality to my obviously British one (which made it easier) and I just contacted the catalogue company and explained my former lodger was obviously stealing from them and that she was nothing to do with me and told them what contact details I had for her and never heard anything further from them.

Thrugelmir

Return to sender.




Short term pain but will ultimately resolve the situation.

maninthestreet

You could employ a tracing agency to try to track them down.

Guest101

MrWillyWonka wrote: »

Not my business? Well when someone is using my address for their purposes it is my business.

I have 44 letters since last Monday. Option 5 might work, although phoning them clearly didn't.

Actually it's not

mattyprice4004

Have been in the exact same situation - RTS worked for me.

Handy as there was a post box literally next door! Used to take a bundle every day on my way to work...

konark

If someone was using my address for their dodgy dealings then I'd make it my business to help those they are deceiving to nail them.