Debt collect letters to my Mum's address for someone else

abpmale

My dear mother has been recieving letter from debt collectors chasing someone who has never lived at her address.

On one occasion, the Inland Revenue also wrote to her address chasing self assessment payments from this person.

Do I have to deal with each letter as they come through or should I alert authorities? There have been 3 different debt collection agency letters in as many months, addressed to the same person.

Many thanks!

meerkat2007

This has only happened to me once. I've lived in this house for 46 years, my mother has lived in it for nearly 70 years. In the midst of all the letters to me regarding my debt issues, there was one from one of the DCAs I was dealing with, but for an unpaid utility bill - my debts are all finance-related so none for utlities, council tax etc - for someone with a Chinese name. Needless to say, that person had never lived at my house in the almost 70 years it has been occupied by my family!

I rang the DCA and explained the situation to them. I was told that they would make a note on their records, and send the case to some internal department or other for further investigation. This was probably upwards of 4 years ago, and I've never heard a word since.

abpmale

Thank you very much for your reply, meerkat2007! Have a good weekend.

immoral_angeluk

That or just write on the envelope 'Not known at this address' and chuck it back in the post box.

takoo

Last post may not get the result you need. If the sender thinks the person they are is ducking but does live at your address, they may send civil enforcement folks to you!

Takko

chal

immoral_angeluk wrote: »

That or just write on the envelope 'Not known at this address' and chuck it back in the post box.

We received a letter for someone who didn't live at our address, and we did just this. A week later, another letter from the same address arrived - I googled the address and found it was a DCA in Scotland, so I opened the letter. It was something to do with unpaid gas bills...which was odd, given that when we bought our house, it didn't have gas and so we had it fitted and therefore the gas account has only ever been in our names.

I called British Gas, told them the situation and they told me to contact the DCA directly. I repeated the situation, and pointed out that
a) it wasn't my problem
b) i didn't intend to make it my problem
c) i was going on holiday the next day and didn't have time to deal with it
d) it still wasn't my problem

At that point, the guy became very helpful, called through to some internal departments, etc, and told me it was a mistake and would be resolved.

Moral of this story - if it's their mistake, make sure they know you know it.