Council at my door...

[OnNaturesCourse]

Had two people come to my door from my local council looking for someone I've never heard of today . They stated they are looking to speak to this person urgently.

I said never heard of the name or person and they went away no further questions.

I've just now received a letter (post man) addressed to this person with my address on it. I haven't opened the letter. But I am now concerned someone is using my address for council tax or benefits etc. Wondering if I should open the letter and, if it is council or other contactable organisation, give them a call to try and explain what's happening? Or is it unreasonable to open others mail? (I've actually heard it's illegal...)

How concerning could the situation of someone using my address be? I guess they could have genuinely used the wrong house number on a form etc but surely the council should have pretty accurate details. I mean I pay the council tax for my home so my name is recorded here.

Those sort of letters do eventually stop.

I religiously RTS all mail at an address I rented and it took 2-3 years for all the mail to stop.

With the bank I banked with at the time it took until they sent a card and me sending it back before they stopped sending statements but they actually rang me up and spoke to me first.

I pointed out that the person no longer lived at the address and I had no contact with them.

We later discovered that people who no longer lived their had an agreement with previous tenants to use still use the address while overseas. Unfortunately they hadn't bothered to ask any of us or tell us what they were up to.......

Someone has obviously done a runner leaving arrears in their wake and given a random address (yours) as their forwarding address.

Just call (and email) the council collections team and let them know.

Maybe look on Companies House in case the person is listed there. I would have some doubts the callers are from the Council if they didn’t show ID or leave a card.

They maybe enquiry officers @OnNaturesCourse , they are there to gain whatever info they can on the debtor, place of work etc, so they can pursue it before they send it to a debt collector

This was my thought too.

I had this happen too, with council tax arrears for a random address for some person I'd never heard of who'd never lived at my address. All I did was contact the council and send proof that I lived at the address and had done for x years. I didn't receive any further letters.

Open the letter, I am going through something a little similar in that someone has used my address to open a bank account and the statements are coming to my home. I opened the first one in error as it was face down on the door mat so I just picked it up and flicked it open. Then I posted it back to the bank with a covering letter saying "opened in error" and explaining that I had no knowledge of who this person is. Then a letter came from the bank which I did open in full knowledge that it wasn't for me and I am glad I did as this person now has an unathorised overdraft and of course it is linked to my address! My reason for opening it is I feel I have a right to know that someone is using my address for potential fraud. There is a really dodgy house next to me with all sorts going on and I don't know if this is linked to the bank account, it amazes me what people get up and then don't think they will be discovered.

The home we bought a couple of years was previously rented out to several short term tenants by the former owner and I had quite a bit of correspondence addressed to one particular individual, after we moved in. I just wrote ‘not known at this address’ and popped them back in the post box. Until one day I had two bailiffs turn up on the doorstep along with the police. It seems that one of the previous tenants had a long history of short term renting, running up debt and then scarpering. They had not paid mobile phone and credit card bills, and had a string of unpaid parking fines - all connected to my address. It took ages to sort out and I was advised to write to the major credit reference agencies to check my credit rating, as just living in the property would likely have affected it. They were right, and I had to apply for a notice of correction on my credit files. I was advised that it’s not illegal to open someone else’s mail in these circumstances and it’s advisable to avoid problems like these.

I bought a repossessed house & eventually opened the (many) letters instead of just putting them back in the mail. I emailed each company & told them what date I had bought the house & that I was on the electoral roll if they wished to check my details. Several wrote & thanked me for the information & said they would alter their records, & all mail stopped.

@OnNaturesCourse
If you're writing to the Council, I would suggest mentioning that callers "who identified themselves as working for the Council" are involved. Few organisations give a damn about their reputations these days, but mentioning that the contractors state that they're "from the council" may prove useful if things aren't sorted quickly.

probably baliffs posing as council so they'd come to the door. council very rarely turn up at your door, unless a noise issue etc.

they.d just call, send a letter or if debt give to a secondary agency who shouldn't pose as council employees

maybe someone with a lot of debt using a false address for debt recovery etc to try and get out of it. I’d definitely start notifying people etc cos you don’t want bailiffs banging on your door. Ring your local council and make sure this person isn’t on electoral roll as living at your address, ring whoever has sent the letter.

is there a way to check if any debts are linked to your address ie, asking credit score companies if they can run an address check to cross reference any names to make sure that just yourself are showing as there and not this “random”

if this random is throwing up as living at your place can they put A marker on the record as a false address to prevent debt letters/bailiffs coming to you.

Keep the letter and maybe send them a copy or photo, if this person using your address gets you into any trouble you're going to need that letter as hard evidence to proof you have nothing to do with this person and he's using your address for unknown reasons.

I expect that they are debt collectors not council employees. I would ring the number on the letter and advise them that the person does not live there and ask that they amend their records

Open it. Don't send it back. We had this, some random opened a business and registered it to our address. We had bailiffs, issues with the council for having a business on our premises. So pleaded I opened their post and found out why.

I suspect that they are debt collectors. You may need to provide id to prove you are not the person at some point but mostly just state you don't know who the person is and the exact date you completed on the house (if bought) or your tenancy started if rented. Took me a while to get rid of the previous owners mail including debts

We had something similar at our previous address op. The house had been converted into 2 flats by the family we bought off, so only they had lived in our flat before us. They definitely weren’t dodgy, or in arrears, and the name on the (copious) demand letters was not in any way similar to theirs.

Someone must have somehow used the address for some sort of scam. It never got resolved in the 6 years we lived there. I kept calling and returning the demands, explaining the situation, but the debt companies just seemed to keep passing them on to other debt companies. For years🙄

Really hope yours is a one off op. Every time we got another letter or postcard about it I would find myself worrying that the bailiffs would be rocking up the next day😔

We live in a new build, it was wasteland before the estate was built so no one else has ever been registered as living here apart from us but we started getting mail from HMRC re failure to submit info for self assessment for someone who apparently lived here.

The person had a very unusual name but I could find no trace of them on social media (I wasn’t going to contact them, just being nosey), and we know all of our neighbours so it wasn’t an address error.

I contacted HMRC who took it seriously and sent some forms for me to fill out and the letters then stopped. It’s quite concerning though when something like this happens and you suspect that someone is using your address.

Just echoing as others have said, the advice nowadays is always open letters coming to your address. You can always RTS or forward on after you've opened them, but nowadays with the levels of fraud and identity theft, responsible occupiers need to know whether someone else is using their address for nefarious purposes. Had to have this conversation with my mother the other day who is still firmly of the 'but it's illegal' perspective (it's not!)

We had debt collectors ringing for a woman that had never lived here - the previous owner was the first person to live in the house (new build) and he confirmed he'd never heard of her.

We told them the above, and that they were welcome to come round and visit to confirm if they wished, but that she'd clearly tried it on with a random address so good luck finding her! The debt people were quite helpful and said it's very common, and took our number and address details off their records.

Council do send people round - one of my neighbours doesn’t like me and reported me for something, and they sent someone round. They explained the full thing to me though, said it was clearly malicious and told me what her next steps would be.

I would Deffos call and ask for reassurance about what they’ll be doing next to avoid stress etc!

This is good to know!

It's illegal to open other people's mail. Its likely the person who lived there previously. Mind your own

@MissMaple82 it's not

She can't mind her own she's been dragged into it what if bailiffs turn up when she's out and take her stuff and change the locks. It needs dealing with