Previous owner using our address for banking, DVLA and setting up new accounts

Norburgh

Hi, Not sure I've put this under the correct category but here goes. We bought our current house 18 months ago and have since then continually received credit card bills, bank statements, NHS letters, DVLA communications, finance company letters, debt collector letters etc. We have also had debt collectors on the door step looking for the previous owner. They have also recently set up a business account with a hotel chain using our address as the billing address. I contacted the hotel chain and got it stopped thankfully and the last I heard was that their fraud department were looking into it, but it does concern us what else is going on. I've returned the letters continually marked as no longer a this address, but no one seems to take notice, I can't open the letters as that's illegal. I've now sent a letter with the bills/letters received this month to the individuals lawyer asking them to sort it out. My concern is that debt is being wracked up on our home address, as I mentioned we've already had Bailiffs at the door looking for them, how does this affect our credit rating? I'm guessing that if you search our address a load of debt is going to be showing up. We've now got DVLA chasing up unpaid Car Tax..... any advice gratefully received. Thanks 

p00hsticks

Norburgh said:

 I can't open the letters as that's illegal. 

No it's not, as I'm sure people on here will also tell you. 
Whether it's a good idea is another matter.... 

Credit ratings are linked to individuals. not addresses,  so yours should not be impacted (unelss they are using your name as well ?) 

user1977

Norburgh said:

I can't open the letters as that's illegal.

No, it is not illegal to open letters addressed to your address. It might be illegal to open letters delivered to your address if they were addressed to a different address (e.g. to your neighbour) (and you were doing so intending to act to the addressee's detriment - in practice of course the letter-opening police aren't going to be kicking in your door anyway).

Your credit rating is against your name, not your address. So the best advice is just to continue to explain to the creditors what's going on, and eventually it will peter away.

[Deleted User]

Bin them and doing worry about it.

km1500

return to sender

dimbo61

Please " return to sender " written  on the letter and put back in the post box 

rach_k

I would - and have - opened letters to the previous owners of our house.  It's not illegal unless it isn't addressed to your address and you're doing it to do something bad.  So go ahead!  You can keep putting things back in the post, but I've found that it takes a lot of doing that for each company to remove the address, whereas a phone call or email to the company usually sorts it straight away.

elsien

I’d open them to see what they were. 

Then contact the relevant people if appropriate. They can’t tell you anything due to GDPR but they may make a note for internal purposes. 
Have done so in the past when I discovered some random person was using my address for phone contracts. 

eddddy

Norburgh said:

I've returned the letters continually marked as no longer a this address, but no one seems to take notice, 

The banks and debt collectors probably have taken notice.

• But it would be very easy for somebody who owed money to write "no longer at this address" on letters and send them back...

• Or to get a friend to phone and say "George doesn't live at this address anymore"... 

• (Or even tell bailiffs "George doesn't live here any more. Where they genuine court bailiffs or just debt collectors? Did you show them proof that you bought the house 18 months ago?)

So they won't give in that easily.

ProDave

Write "Not known at this address, Return to Sender" and put them back in a post box.

Hopefully the organisations might do something if you keep telling them they are not at your address.

sheramber

It is a common ploy of debtors to return payment demands. That is why the demands keep coming.

They will stop eventually.

Open them and insert a note advising they no longer live there.   Change the address showing on the front to the address on the demand and seal. Write return to sender on it.
Put it back in the post box.

That  way the leter will go to the office rather than the return letters depot.

I sent an email to DVLA to advice that the person with the registration xxx no longer lived at this address. the DVLA communications and parking charges stopped after that.