AIBU to think this intimidating house buying letter should be reported to police?

[Blopi]

Friend’s elderly neighbours came back from holiday to find a letter delivered by person. It has made them upset and frightened.

It was addressed to them personally Mr and Mrs (surname)
They said that their home is too big for the couple and would be suitable for a 5 bedroom HMO. Willing to pay £Xk for it (properties have been selling for 10-15% more) and will visit them on Thursday at 11am to discuss things. Signed by Mr (common surname). No phone number or email address.

Her neighbours have zero intention of moving home as they have lived there for 58 years. They are upset on how they are targeted and wondering how did they get their names?

In the past I had these letters which have been sent to others down the estate. Though not intimidating like this letter, nor personalised.

Unfortunately my friend is working on Thursday. She would have loved to have seen if the person turned up and told

Should my friend phone the police on the non emergency line about this? As maybe something else dodgy going on

Except that on the facts as presented by the OP there is no suggestion that a crime is likely to be committed.

All that's happened is that someone has written a letter to say they'd like to buy their house and will be coming back to knock on their door with the intention of speaking about it.

Now I quite agree that if there was any suggestion of threats or violence then the position would be different. But all that seems to be in the minds of the posters here.

I did this and I had an email from them saying someone was trying to put a charge on it. It definitely works

Happened to a friend of mine 2 days after her Husband died. She lived just outside Manchester, she had been in the house all her life and A letter was pushed through her door saying there company had someone interested in buying her house. When she ignored it she was harassed by the actual family that wanted to buy it. The lived 2 doors away and started turning up with bags of cash to entice her, then the car was damaged, plants pulled up etc. Police went and spoke to the family and put an end to it. Friend sold it in a private sale 2 years later.
I bet in this case there is no "company" it will be a neighbour.

Quite right too. They were being criminally harrassed.

Elderly neighbours need their children or grand children to be there to open the door to Mr CheekyFuckoir

Tell the police what?

The starting point is that this letter clearly left the couple in a state of some distress. Whether or not that would be the same for everyone (there are clearly some posters here who are made of sterner stuff) is neither here nor there.

The fact the letter as described is not a circular, but targeted, already adds an element of intent to the situation. Someone, somewhere has clearly decided (and it's immaterial if it was automated) to send this correspondence.

So you are starting to gather the elements needed that could form a criminal charge. At that point it's always a good idea to excise the notion that what seems trivial is somehow under the threshold for action because it happens somewhere else.

Personally, I would call the non emergency number to at least made a record of the incident. It's highly unlikely to be isolated, and generally the property trade can get a little out of hand at times.

This is good advice.

You can’t be serious. You can be robbed and they won’t visit, no one is looking at you records of police didn’t help. We don’t have any money, irs all going to pay the increased benefits bill

I'd assume from the letter that a simple 'no, I'm not interested' at the door on Thursday should put a stop to any further interactions. Details of names and occupants over those in the household over 18 are freely available on the electoral roll. Personally I'd always avoid companies using such over familiar and pushy sales tactics, but I appreciate it probably works for them enough times to make it worth their while to try.

I don't have time to read the full thread, but if no-one else has said it, I've recently heard a lot about "cuckoo-ing" and I'd be concerned about this.

It's when vulnerable homeowners (or even renters) are targeted by individuals needing somewhere to live, or even criminal gangs who want their house to use as a base for storing drugs or running brothels. Yes, it sounds far fetched but I know personally of one case where an old gent was confined to an increasingly smaller area of his home as strangers moved in and took over his spare rooms. This was due to a young woman he'd been persuaded to help, and then it grew from there. Its becoming such an issue that the Government are having to take action on it. www.gov.uk/government/publications/crime-and-policing-bill-2025-factsheets/crime-and-policing-bill-child-criminal-exploitation-and-cuckooing-factsheet

@Blopi I don't necessarily think it needs 101 input just yet, but I would definitely have someone younger and on-the-ball there with them on the day. I'd rather be safe than sorry. It's much harder to end cuckooing once it's started!

Give over. I lived in a HMO for three years because I was a student. The only thing we were in receipt of was Student Loans.

Developers often write to home owners. Just put the letter in the bin and don’t answer the door to them. Also everyone should be signed up to land registry alerts

I have had letters from estate agents with sob stories from people wanting my "family home". But they have all said I can call to discuss. No one saying they will turn up.
No one saying they will turn up.
On that basis, and the fact they are older and vulnerable, log with 101 and have someone there when this person is due to turn up.

Report it - it's elder abuse. Swap out the ages for skin colour and that should make sense. Too many people not taking elder abuse seriously. It's not even a question. Report it. Especially as you say, other letters weren't personalised so this one is different.

Well The elderly couple are intimidated & frightened (understandably)

if you can't appreciate that no sure what more there is to say., 💁🏻‍♀️except our local
police would definitely want to know about it & ward off any trouble.

Estate agent ex used to get the information from land registry to send letters. Used to get great results.
he was a twat, but his letters weren’t toned like this!!

tell them to bin it and either answer the door and tell them they aren’t interested, the ideal one. Or don’t answer the door - but they’ll likely come back.

I can confirm from personal experience that our local police have taken seriously an attempt by known criminals to extort money from a vulnerable older person in our area. I saw one of them attempting to get the target to let her into the house and knowing the background I went out and challenged her. I also took photos of her and her minder who was standing nearby watching, and at the request of a family member passed them on to the police and spoke at some length to an officer on the phone. It seems to have done the trick for now.

If this letter is circulating on Facebook, it may be an urban myth, but scammers do live amongst us. This BBC series/podcast was about probate fraud - cases where an elderly person dies, leaving a house and no close family. Scammers moved in and managed to get probate for forged wills leaving the property to a completely unrelated person. Horrifying. I think the loophole has been closed now, as a direct result, but no doubt the scammers are even now looking for another one. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0lmy77v

Report to the police of if not Age Concern

They are potentially vulnerable and as someone else has said sign up to the land registry alert service.

Also potential cuckooing as well casing the joint for burglary. There are some very unscrupulous people out there

This is nothing like the letters we get fairly regularly from estate agents or even (apparently) from potential purchasers. Those are just pointing out that if we wanted to sell there are people out there looking for houses like ours (allegedly). No attempt to guilt trip us into selling. No spurious appointment. Not addressed to us by name, making us think they've already dug up information about who lives here and our circumstances.

How odd that this also popped up on my local Facebook group too. Slightly different wording though. Hmmm.

i don't think there is any harm in reporting non urgently to the police in case anything escalates.
I hope they have a ring door bell to record any unsolicited calls.
Id put a note on the door saying "no unsolicited callers "
And they shouldn't answer the door physically.
Honestly the absolute gall of some people.

letter in bin recycling and carry on life as normal on Thursday encourage them to go out for the time person intends to visit let the other party waste their time. If they cannot be out then get friendly neighbour in to make it clear if someone does knock that they are not interested.

I think it should be reported. It's wrong.

I'm with you on this. If the couple have lived there for 58 years they must be approaching their 80s at least and even if their names might be easy to get, how did the author of the letter know their age?
Vulnerable and some information not easily found. Definitely non-emergency Police and if they aren't able to attend, someone else with them.

I have been baffled by where the intimidation that other people have talked about has came from.