Should i be worried?

Fruitcake

chuckles1066 wrote: »

I'd be more worried that opening someone else's mail, by mistake or otherwise, is a prosecutable offence.

Stupid I know but that's the law of the land for you. :mad:

It is not an offence to open someone else's mail. See advent1122's post above.

What you do afterwards may or may not constitute an offence.
Opening mail by mistake, or to find out a forwarding or return address is not an offence.
Using information gained from opening someone else's mail to their detriment (like theft, identity theft, gazumping/outbidding, or blackmail) is an offence.

Fruitcake

OP, you should be concerned, but I would suggest that you also have to be careful.
If you respond to these letters, you may find your name gets attached to this debt and then you may be hounded for payment.
If you ignore or return the letters without acknowledgement, demands for payment are likely to continue, but they will never have your name on them.

You may get calls or visits from debt collectors or bailiffs whichever you choose to do, but neither property or money can be taken from you without a court order in you name. For it to be in your name, the debt collector would have to prove in court that the debt is yours.
Bailiffs cannot enter your property without a court order and a police officer.

CAB or a local Solicitor that does a free surgery may be a better place to get advice. Anyway, I wish you luck with whatever you choose to do.

chuckles1066

Fruitcake wrote: »

Bailiffs cannot enter your property without a court order and a police officer.

<cue Family Fortunes noise> ahhhh errrrrr

Wrong I'm afraid

Fruitcake

chuckles1066 wrote: »

<cue Family Fortunes noise> ahhhh errrrrr

Wrong I'm afraid

I stand corrected. Can you point me in the right direction where I can get this in print please?

chuckles1066

Fruitcake wrote: »

I stand corrected. Can you point me in the right direction where I can get this in print please?

One of many google hits right HERE

C_Ronaldo

chuckles1066 wrote: »

I'd be more worried that opening someone else's mail, by mistake or otherwise, is a prosecutable offence.

Stupid I know but that's the law of the land for you. :mad:

i do this all the time if we get mail for someone who doesnt live here anymore and its worked as well

Fruitcake

chuckles1066 wrote: »

One of many google hits right HERE

Thanks.

OK, I shall rephrase.

A bailiff cannot force entry into your property unless they are accompanied by a police officer with a warrant to gain entry.
A bailiff may legally gain entry through an open door or window, or if you allow them in.
A debt collector has no right of entry whatsoever.

chuckles1066

C_Ronaldo wrote: »

i do this all the time if we get mail for someone who doesnt live here anymore and its worked as well

Yes because it's actually a stupid piece of legislation; if a letter addressed to you is posted through my door, you won't know about it.

So, if I open that letter, you still won't know about it.

The only way you'll get to know about it is if I tell you; you go running to Plod to complain and I deny it.

It's effectively unenforceable, hence my original comment in post #2 "Stupid I know but that's the law of the land for you".

chris_spackman

for your comments,suggestions and advice. I will i think send them back and request that all letters stop as the person aren't here. I am starting to think that someone has been using this address for naughty things. I can confirm that girlfriends dad has had this place for a long tme and he has a list of people who lived here and they are not on it. All the people who have lived here he knows very well. I guess i will have to wait for a guy to start knocking on the door. In all your experiance how long does it take to get this sorted and anything i can do to be proactive?

sillyvixen

better to sort other peopels debt out when you get letters than try to deal with bayliffs.....surely!!!!!