Would you open their letters?

[JustAskinPa]

Moved into a new house last year and since then we've just received letter after letter and multiple visits from bailiffs for the old tenant.

I'm getting frankly sick of it. The seller doesn't know where he went neither do the agents. I get multiple letters a day for this guy and have had another bailiff visit this morning when I was out with a card saying they would come back. I know they aren't for me but it's embarrassing when they are at the door tbh.

WIBU to open the letters that have come and ring every single one of these companies to tell them to stop writing here and sending people out.

The last time a bailiff came and we were in it was at 10pm and I had to stand at the door showing them our ID with a screaming baby they had just woken up. Its really starting to get on my nerves now.

We had this at an old address. I started opening the letters and ringing the companies. Much faster than writing to them. We did still occasionally get the odd one, but I rang and got it sorted quickly each time. They even tried to register their whole family with the NHS at our address about a year after they left! Not sure how they thought they'd get away with that one.

I had this. I wrote across letter (unopened) return to sender. Such person does not reside here. Moved out on such date and popped back into postbox. Eventually it stopped.

I would open them and write to the companies to explain the situation. Keep it factual ("X lived here until [date] at which point the house was sold to me and I took possession on the same date. We have no connection to X, and do not know his whereabouts or contact details. If you wish to contact the agent handling the sale they can be contacted at [details]. I trust that you will update your records accordingly and cease correspondence and visits to this address."

But it must be in writing to them specifically (rather than a generic, unaddressed letter), partly because you want to be able to prove that you've contacted them and partly because they rarely accept a phone call (which I suppose makes sense - a debtor could ring up themselves and say they've moved whereas something in writing is more official). Print off a couple of blank copies of the letter and hand it to any bailiff/debt collector that comes round.

It will almost certainly stop at this point, I've been through this several times. If it doesn't then you can go down the route of it being harassment but I've never known it get that far - they know they have to back off when they've got the wrong person. Much as it is a bit of a ball-ache, you do need to engage with them though as they won't just give up if they haven't heard anything back.

Dad had this when he moved into his current house, bailiff turned up and knocked on the door, dad was in the garden so couldnt hear it, front door wasnt locked so the bailiff just walked in, he walked in the house and then flew outside the house when my old man got hold of him!

100% can sympathise with this. Bought our house, day after bailiff and a low loader turned up to remove previous lodger's car. Within that month also had a visit from the Court bailiff, who was fine once I confirmed we were the new owners. I sent everything back repeatedly no longer at this address, stated date we bought house and that it was harassing to keep sending. Make sure you are on the Electoral role and it's been updated to say they are no longer there. Don't be bothered opening the letters - it only becomes a stresser. Never give your name to any of the debt management companies. They sell the debts on when they have no joy. It calmed down after a few months and now, three years on, haven't had anything for a long time. Good luck x

I had a similar issue in my last home. The previous owners were getting debt demands to multiple variations of both their names. Also when I viewed the house to measure for furniture, once solicitors were already instructed and the vendors new my name, they made a comment that their SIL had the same surname as me and a first name with the same initial, I didn't think much of it at the time, so I was also getting demands to this name too! Due to this I opened the letters and contacted the debt companies, explained the situation, full list of all the names they had been using and the date of completion of the purchase so they could see it on the land registry. It all stopped after that.

I know from experience that returning to sender doesn’t work.
The previous owner of a flat we bought had left no forwarding address and it was believed that he’d returned to his native country.

When I phoned to change the utility billing it transpired that he’d left bills unpaid, so I soon started being suspicious of a lot of official looking mail that was arriving for him. Returning to sender didn’t stop the flood.

So I started opening it. There was no option. Not just bills and more bills - utilities, credit cards, parking fines - you name it - but increasingly, letters from debt collectors.

I contacted them all and explained the situation - I certainly didn’t want bailiffs coming round.

They all asked me to send a copy of my council tax bill, after which they all backed off, no problem.
The bugger evidently left the country owing over £20,000.

Don’t open them!! Do return to sender instead unopened. When I worked at the council this was the only legal course of action that was accepted

Don’t open them!

Why not?
Have you read the thread?

We had this problem. Opened all the mail, rang the companies and told them the date we moved in. Problem stopped instantly.

I've had this issue, and its not illegal to open the post. My issue was my ex who ran up loads of personal debt in his own name. After repeatedly sending them back "return to sender" I got a bailiff visit. At this point I took police advice (there were other issues, I didn't just approach them about a postal issue) and they advised its not illegal if you're opening the mail in order to notify a company that someone isn't at that address, but said put them back in the post once you have contacted the company as well.

I sent each company a letter stating he didn't live there any longer, I didn't have a forwarding address and that now that I had written to them and they'd signed for the letter I didn't expect to hear from them again. It resolved 90% of them within a month and now I just get one every 3 months from one company who's a bit more persistent!

@safariboot

YANBU.

Also the 10pm visit was possibly unlawful, but I'm guessing you didn't get enough details to pursue that now. 6 am - 9 pm for court appointed bailiffs.

That's bloody ridiculous that they're allowed to come at 6am!! Anyone waking me at that time would get an earful 😂

I opened the letters when we moved here. Also had bailiffs at the door. Companies sending arrears letters / invoices / debt letters / bailiffs not interested / did not believe me. Saw them several times over the following months sat outside in their car watching the house. They gave up eventually.

We're having issues with this at the moment. I have been writing 'not known at this address' and posting them back for over a year now and it's made zero difference. All I know about the previous tenants is that they have moved back to France. I came downstairs yesterday morning to a hand delivered letter from the bailiffs saying they were going to turn up and seize goods in 24 hours. Which is always nice at 7am.

My husband rang the number and was given a tirade of abuse by the bailiff very heavily implying that he wanted his money and he didn't care who from. Lovely.

So now I have to dig out my tenancy agreement to show to this 'gentleman' if and when he decides to come back. If he hadn't decided to be such an arse and basically threaten us I might have sent it to him via email but as it goes I'll let him waste his time.

I would start opening letters and ringing places to set the record straight, that's what I'm going to start doing and if anyone comes to the door do not let them in.

Absolutely open the letters and ring/write to the various companies. It's the only thing that worked when I moved into my house.

Whilst you're waiting for the details to be updated and you own your own car outright keep a copy of proof of purchase by the door. That’s the first thing the Bailiffs will target even before knocking sometimes.

I know this from bitter experience not just watching Can't Pay? We'll Take it Away

Whenever I move, I print out a few sheets of Avery labels that say:

Not known at this address
Return to sender
Remove from mailing list

Hit the wrong key and posted too soon...

I stick them on any letter that arrives for previous occupants and pop them in the post at my convenience. It has always worked for me.

I had this and just phoned, giving the date I took possession and telling the bailiff the previous owner had moved out. I was able to give him the estate agent the previous owner had used. There were multiple bailiffs!

We found out (from a bailiff phone call) that someone who had never lived at our address, was fraudulently using it to obtain goods and credit. From that point on we opened all letters addressed to the fraudster and contacted the bailiffs and lawyers who sent them. They were really helpful and professional, end of problem.

I used to get a lot of letters for the woman who lived here before me 16 years ago.So many of them,so I used to open them. I never had anyone knock on my door at all. but some letters were threatening a bailiffs visit.

I decided to contact all the places where all the mail was coming from. It was mostly from mail order places, like lots of catalogues stuff, and some fancy furniture places. etc. I got it all sorted eventually, by contacting the relevant people who she owed big debts to.

I had a rough estimate from the letters, that the woman owed about £ 19.000 in total, to various companies.. None of my neighbours then,knew where the woman had moved to at all,

Some time later,when I went for a drink at my local pub., 16 years ago, I was talking to a random woman, just chatting about things, and she asked where l lived. So transpires, that she knew the big debt woman who lived in my house before me.., and that she knew about this woman's big money problems,and she had just suddenly decided to take off, and go and live with a friend ,somewhere in Spain.

So don't know if anyone could have tracked her down,,or if she got off scot free.

We had this issue when we moved into our house. I know it’s bad but as more payment demands arrived, l felt I had to nip it in the bud before the bailiffs came knocking. I opened every single letter and rang the numbers, explaining that the previous remnant had moved and the debt was nothing to do with us. Whoever she was, she owed thousands of pounds of mainly store cards and credit cards and I didn’t want it associated with us. It worked, thank God.

*previous resident

My son had a similar experience when he moved and sadly 'returning to sender' made absokutely no difference - official looking letters continued to come in multiple names. After the third set of early morning bailiffs, he started opening post and contacting sender direct - HMRC, court re fines and multiple loan defaults, utility bills etc. This did finally resolve the issue. To be fair all three sets of bailiffs were polite and accepted ID as confirmation he was not who they sought and it was the third one who advised opening the post.

@Speakuptomakeyourselfheard

Please DON'T open the mail, it is a criminal offence! Instead, do as 'devuskums' advised, and write 'Return to Sender' 'Unknown at this address'. The Royal Mail can then open and forward to the sender, saving you any problems with having committed what is actually a crime.

Opening mail isn’t a criminal offence that’s just bollocks that always gets spouted on these threads

My ex purchased a repo house MANY years ago. We printed out stickers with his name, date of purchase and some other information (I forget what now) and stuck them on the envelopes and sent them back