NIP for previous owner of house

p00hsticks

paul2foel said:

Im right its an offence not to change your address on your driving licence?

6 months is a long time to argue about not having got round to it lol.

Als  on your VC5, which is a separate update. There are plenty of threads over on the Parking Fines board of people who updated their driving licence after a move but not their VC5, and then are unaware of invoices from Parking companies as it's the VC5 that they get the keepers address from. 

Whalie

I had this when I first moved into my house.  It had formally been rented out.  Most were from solicitors so I just did return to sender.  A year later I got a letter from a solicitor addressed to the occupier asking for the address of the person they were chasing.  I told them I had bought the house from the landlord so had no idea who the person was or his new address.  That finally stopped the letters.   When I was having my kitchen renewed, the fitters found letters addressed for that person, hidden behind the cabernets!

vacheron

paul2foel said:

Im right its an offence not to change your address on your driving licence?

6 months is a long time to argue about not having got round to it lol.

I believe it is an offence not to provide DVLA  with an address "at which you can be contacted", which I suppose they would only pursue should they experience such a situation.

I had to explain this to many people when I was moving between rented houses for a few years after leaving home, and so left a number of bills and driving licence, tax accounts, car V5's as my parents address (who I contacted daily and visited regularly).

Nevertheless, many people were convinced that I was going to be jailed (or worse) for not doing so!

Okell

fatbelly said:

Stop opening his post

Write on the envelope

Not at this address - return to sender

Put in post box

That's daft advice.

The OP is perfectly entitled to open any correspondence that has been correctly delivered to his address.

And in these days of identity theft it's something everybody should do as they should know why someone else is using their address

And if the OP has any idea about where this person now lives of course they should tell the police

TooManyPoints

Since (presumably) the NIP and the accompanying "request for driver's details" are not addressed to you, you have no obligation to respond to it. 

That said, I would contact the police pointing out this character no longer lives at your address and I would also tell them everything you know or believe you know about him.

Car_54

Okell said:

fatbelly said:

Stop opening his post

Write on the envelope

Not at this address - return to sender

Put in post box

And if the OP has any idea about where this person now lives of course they should tell the police

I agree about the advice. I used to do that, but in one instance the bills kept coming for many months. A quick phone call to the sender solved it. BTW "Gone away" is much easier to write than "Not at this address - return to sender"

So far as telling the police is concerned, there is (AFAIK) no legal duty to assist them, except in very limited circumstances, and then only if asked. In this case, the police are not even accusing the addressee of an offence, but simply seeking to ask him a question.

TooManyPoints

So far as telling the police is concerned, there is (AFAIK) no legal duty to assist them, 

No there isn't. There would be if the NIP and s172 request was addressed to the OP, but it wasn't. 

The offender in this case has deliberately set out to avoid detection. If the vehicle he was caught in was registered to him one could suspect that he had simply forgotten to update his V5C. But I wasn’t like that. He has deliberately provided false information to  a hire company and here can be only one reason for doing that.

If the OP does nothing about this, the previous occupant will be prosecuted in his absence (for failing to provide driver’s details). He will see a fine, surcharge and costs imposed (probably totalling >£1,000) and of course it will remain unpaid. The place the court bailiffs will visit to collect that debt will be that of the OP.

It is probably easy for him to satisfy the bailiffs that he is not he debtor. But it is aggravation he can do without.

There is no reason why he should tolerate this sort of behaviour and I would assist the police in every way I could to help put a stop to it.

In this case, the police are not even accusing the addressee of an offence,

They are if they have sent him a Notice of Intended Prosecution. The clue is in the name.

Car_54

TooManyPoints said:

In this case, the police are not even accusing the addressee of an offence,

They are if they have sent him a Notice of Intended Prosecution. The clue is in the name.

But, as you obviously know, the NIP is in fact a notice only that the driver may be prosecuted. At that stage the police do not have any evidence to identify the driver or pursue the addressee.

paul_c123

Okell said:

fatbelly said:

Stop opening his post

Write on the envelope

Not at this address - return to sender

Put in post box

That's daft advice.

The OP is perfectly entitled to open any correspondence that has been correctly delivered to his address.

And in these days of identity theft it's something everybody should do as they should know why someone else is using their address

And if the OP has any idea about where this person now lives of course they should tell the police

Actually its not. Technically, it is a criminal offence to open the post of someone else. Pretty much 100% of business/official correspondence has a "return if undelivered" address on the outside of the envelope. So you can circle this, cross out your address and simply write RTS on the envelope. This has the dual function that DVLA will be updated and change the address to "gone away" and you'll stop being hassled.

If it were a more serious offence than speeding, the police would be able to 1) visit, 2) write to you with "the occupier" to see if there's any more information. At this stage you don't need to give any further information though, even if you know a forwarding address.

I dare say he'll get 3 points in his absence at court, loads of people don't update the V5C address for their car and things still progress. If he has changed the address on his licence but not the car, they'll catch up with him quite easily anyway.

TooManyPoints

Yes  I agree - they intend to prosecute A N Other. But the police and ultimately will pursue the addressee if no response is received. 

The result of the OP ignoring this will be a knock on his door signifying the start of that pursuit.