Bought house - Received debt letters for previous occupiers.
- Thread starter Bromhead
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Soldato
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- England
Save them up until you have loads then post back to them with no stamp on it ?
No it doesnt, if youve just bought a house & the previous owner was a bad debtor, all debts are the responsibility of the previous owner irrespective of the nature of the debt.
How do you prove someone DOESNT live at your address?
If you ring them and tell them, its not proof.
If you show them photo ID of who YOU are, its not proof someone else also lives there.
If you write and tell them, its not proof.
If they camp outside your house and film the comings and goings at random times its still not conclusive proof someone doesnt live there.
So in short, write "Not known at this address" on the envelope and send it back, write to the company and inform them the person does not live at this address any more, and inform that any further correspondence received from them for this person will attract a £35 admin fee in returning it (payable in 7 days from receipt after which it will be passed on to a debt collection agency and they will be liable for the costs of recovering the debt)
http://www.lease-advice.org/information/faqs/faq.asp?item=205
All sorts of shizzay has been known to go wrong when purchasing a property. That's why I'd be careful and personally would probably even open one or two of them to find out what's happening.
If you give the bailiff company your name, then guess what - they can look you up. This is certainly true of bailiffs chasing Court debts. So yes, they can prove you are not the person concerned, at least to their own satisfaction. Of course you can never prove that another person does not live there, but there's a limit to silliness. Also, you can charge an admin fee, but not an unreasonable one. £35 will get laughed out of court if the bailiffs decide to get nasty.
Proving you live somewhere, doesnt prove somebody else doesnt.
If they are bright enough to look up your name to prove you live there, then they should be bright enough to look up the person they are chasing and find out where they live now.
Its nothing to do with the OP and he is under no obligation to help the baliff company do their job in finding whoever they are looking for.
Ive had this following buying a property that was previously rented.
I had loads of mail for the previous tenant, knock on the front door off a high court sheriff, bailiffs, you name it.
I phoned all the companies the letters were from informing them they no longer lived here, and on one occassion forgot to do 141 before dialling.
BIG mistake!..I was then constantly getting phone calls from the bailiff companies..
The one thing that sorted it once and for all was to do the bailiffs job for them, i found out where the previous occupier had moved too and forward this address to the bailiff companies, sorted.. no more phone calls and no more letters or knocks on the front door.
I had loads of mail for the previous tenant, knock on the front door off a high court sheriff, bailiffs, you name it.
I phoned all the companies the letters were from informing them they no longer lived here, and on one occassion forgot to do 141 before dialling.
BIG mistake!..I was then constantly getting phone calls from the bailiff companies..
The one thing that sorted it once and for all was to do the bailiffs job for them, i found out where the previous occupier had moved too and forward this address to the bailiff companies, sorted.. no more phone calls and no more letters or knocks on the front door.
Dodgy phone shops like Phones4U will run a credit check at a customers previous address if they fail the credit check at their current address while taking out a contract. The dodgy commission monkeys don't care as long as they get their commission.
Soldato
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- 16 Aug 2009
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- 8,229
Seems to be more common than I thought...
I've had the same thing too, letters from a debt collection agency - and by that I mean endless letters, at least one a week for a good year or more, drove me nuts. Every damn week having to put RTS on the envelope and shoving it through a postbox, all addressed to a previous tenant.
Had the bailiffs, or at least debt collection agency people knock on the door one evening asking if was such and such a person... nope.
Funnily enough I opened a letter this morning saying the bailiffs will be round on such and such a date to seize goods to the value of... not the best thing to have to read first thing in the morning when you're still half asleep.
It was actually addressed to someone a couple of streets away the postie had put it through the wrong letterbox. It went back in the postbox with the correct address pointed out.
I've had the same thing too, letters from a debt collection agency - and by that I mean endless letters, at least one a week for a good year or more, drove me nuts. Every damn week having to put RTS on the envelope and shoving it through a postbox, all addressed to a previous tenant.
Had the bailiffs, or at least debt collection agency people knock on the door one evening asking if was such and such a person... nope.
Funnily enough I opened a letter this morning saying the bailiffs will be round on such and such a date to seize goods to the value of... not the best thing to have to read first thing in the morning when you're still half asleep.
It was actually addressed to someone a couple of streets away the postie had put it through the wrong letterbox. It went back in the postbox with the correct address pointed out.
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Stop being a cheap skate and just pay them
MW
this.