Previous owner being chased for foreign debts

somethingsomething123

Hello,

After a bit of advice please. We bought our house in June 2023 from the children of the deceased owner. Since then we have been getting letters from Russia chasing debts in the name of the Son of the previous owner. As far as we know he lives overseas and we've been sending them back as return to sender. Today the postman came to the door with a special delivery from Russia with his name on it, and I explained the situation and he took the letter away with him. I'm concerned that debt collectors are going to start showing up at our door, and if they do are they allowed to break in? I'm on maternity leave at the moment and going back to work in June so the thought that I could come home one day and the house has been cleared terrifies me. 

Does anyone know our best course of action here or do we just have to wait and see what happens? 

Thanks in advance 😊

P.s. New to this, so not sure what category this belongs in!

DavidT67

No debt collectors / bailiffs can't break into someone's house !

It's not your debt, so not your problem.

Don't get further involved with another person's financial situation.

Simply continue to send any correspondence not addressed to yourselves back to the sender.

CliveOfIndia

I agree with the previous poster.

Firstly, it's vanishingly unlikely that a Russian creditor would even bother sending bailiffs round in the first place (in fact, I'm not even sure they'd be allowed to).

Secondly, and almost as an aside from the first point, a bailiff is absolutely not allowed to force entry.

Thirdly, remember that a debt is associated with a person, not an address.

You have absolutely nothing to worry about.  Just continue to return any correspondence, unopened, with "Not known at this address" written on the envelope.  I wouldn't even bother to attempt to contact them to say the person no longer lives there - just continue to return any correspondence and they'll get the message eventually.

sourcrates

I don`t really know where to start with this one, please do your research, everything you fear will never, and can never happen, suffice to say the debt is not yours, so you have nothing to worry about.

The legal process to get that debt enforced in the UK would be monumental, forget bailiffs, forget debt collectors, you have more chance of winning Lotto/Thunderball and Euromillions Jackpots all in the same week, than you have of having a Russian debt collector knock on your door lol, your fears are pure fantasy.