Old homeowners taking out loans

ctmccartney

I recently bought new house -and moved in 1st Sept. however- the old owners haven't forwarded any of their mail to a new address. They have been receiving a LOT of mail - some of which I kept initially to give to them. However -my partner recently accidentally opened some of their mail - to find that they are taking out loans still using this address. I'm worried this will impact on my credit-rating. who should I tell? is anyone interested?

Silvertabby

Return everything 'Not known at this address'.

ctmccartney

yes - I've been doing that - but I'm worried about them taking out loans using this address. I've already had people at the door trying to deliver court summons to them for civil claims against them!

DCFC79

ctmccartney wrote: »

yes - I've been doing that - but I'm worried about them taking out loans using this address. I've already had people at the door trying to deliver court summons to them for civil claims against them!

Loans arent linked to addresses so dont worry about that.

Tell anyone asking for the previous occupants they dont live there.

ctmccartney

ok - thanks. I thought would affect my credit rating.

Lily-Rose_3

ctmccartney wrote: »

I recently bought new house -and moved in 1st Sept. however- the old owners haven't forwarded any of their mail to a new address. They have been receiving a LOT of mail - some of which I kept initially to give to them. However -my partner recently accidentally opened some of their mail - to find that they are taking out loans still using this address. I'm worried this will impact on my credit-rating. who should I tell? is anyone interested?

Although the person above has a good point (saying all you can do is return the mail with 'not known at this address,') the problem with this is, that even if they get the letter back, they probably won't believe it's not come from the debtor, and will continue to hound you/your home.

We had exactly the same issue when we moved into a private rent home some 4-5 years back. We were in there about a month, and we started to get some post for someone called 'Mr Smith.' (Not his real name.) We never opened it, just put it back in the postbox with 'not known' written on it. Then after 2 months there, we had someone drop a card through saying 'XXX collection agency called on you, please call us NOW, serious action imminent and so on.' So my husband opened a few letters we had had for Mr Smith that had been sitting in our hall for a week or two, and they were ALL debt letters.

Seems the cheeky article had taken out £20,000 of credit a few weeks before he left; catalogues, bank loans, credit cards, finance on electrical items, the works... It was a further 3 months before the creditors got off our backs. Despite proof of who we were, they wouldn't let up for ages. One of the worst was his old bank, with whom he had taken £15K in loans. They were relentless. We had to get the property agent to threaten them with legal action before they'd leave us alone.

Upshot is though, that they couldn't do anything. It was just a pain. Even the property agent got a load of grief. They had no idea where he went after leaving the property.

It didn't end well for him though. About 7-8 months after moving in (and 2 months or so after they started to cease their pestering us,) one of the women in the property agents office told me (when I went to report a repair,) that she was walking around a town 20 miles away, waiting for a friend to go to a hospital appointment she had taken her to. Whilst walking, she saw the man who used to live in our house. He was walking from a Spar shop down the road, and she followed him, and saw where he lived. It wasn't long before the debt collectors were visiting him.

It's possible OP, that you may need to contact these people sending you the letters, so you can explain you are the new owners, and are NOTHING to do with the debts. Thing is, when you put 'return to sender' on a letter, there is no guarantee that it will go back to the person or department who sent it. And the chances are high that they hassling will continue. If you ring the number on it, you are more likely to sort it.

Oh and it won't affect YOUR credit rating at all. At worst, it's just a pain in the bum.

DCFC79

ctmccartney wrote: »

ok - thanks. I thought would affect my credit rating.

No 1 can see or use the rating.