To not want to bother to contact anyone else on behalf of tenant who moved out 3 years ago

[milliec]

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Oh its frustrating isn't it. I'm in that situation too, and I'm tempted to just let them turn up. I had a bloke at the door once, checking to see who lived here.

no your not but id have some id at hand to prove that you are not the person who owes money!

i had a debt collector stood on my doorstep for about 45 minsutes while i looked for my passport and tenancy agreement!! i have opened letters too and rang companies but it takes ages to go through all thier questions so i stopped bothering!!

Having had a similar situation, in my experience they don't actually call round, it's just a threat. I used to phone and tell companies the previous owner had moved out but I don't bother any more.

I have heard of scotcall. They have been given our address, and DHs name about a debt that is not his. They have bought the alleged debt of another company who bought it off another company who bought it off another company. The probably had some-one with our surname, lived in our area and just did an electoral search, bingo lets send it them!

I would just let them come around. The reality is, they wont. They have told us they will come around, DH has ignored the letters, as once they have a tel no they will hassle by phone too.

They are not really interested in whether you are or are not the person in question. They send these letters, and once every now and again they get the right person, who has a debt years and years old, which they panic about and pay.

They cannot do anything, they are not allowed to harrass you. if you say they cannot come around and they do, report them to Consumer Bureau. But I reckon, yes waste their time.

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If anyone comes to my door asking me to prove who I am, I would tell them to 'f off' they have no right, they have no legal jurisdiction to be there, and its harrassment.

As far as Dh is concerned, if they want him to prove who he is, take him to court and he will prove it to a judge. Its not his responsibility to prove he is not who they are after. They are not the police, or bailiffs.

Oh I sympathise, it's SO annoying. We started binning everything after nearly 2 years of returning several items of mail a week. Then the woman turned up on my doorstep asking if we'd received a CD she'd been sent! I told her if we had it was in the bin because we'd given up sending everything on (I think 2 years is plenty time for them to get their act together, tbh) and she was really snotty and put out and gave me her forwarding address so we could send everything on to her

Bin, bin, bin. Spectacular cheek. Let them waste their time, it's not your responsibility to act as a secretary for some stranger.

Get them to wait while you get the passport etc, shut the door, and leave them there. Have your bath, but just dont go back to the door...i like that plan!

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I had similar problem Pavlov.There was a family down the road with the same surname as us but they were ex directory. They lived at 306 we live at 316. We used to get loads of phone calls. The last one we had was from RBS who asked to speak to Mr I told them he was at work and asked if I could take a message. SHe said that she was from RBS and I interupted and told her she had got the wrong Mr as dh didn't have any dealings with RBS. She disagreed and started to go into the details of this Mr debts etc. Demanding to speak to him. I asked for the address and she said 306. I pointed out her error and also pointed out that I didn't think this man was going to be very pleased at her revealing his financial situation to a complete stranger! We didn't get any more calls after that!

be sure it wont effect your credit rating as it's your address. I'd write them a registered letter saying you live at your address not the other people. They can check this with the police if they want. If they contact you again you will consider it harassment.

I agree with cupsoftea, and actually state the harrassment act which applies. 1984? I think or something like that. Sen a copy to the credit bureau which acts for the customer element of Trading Standards. they keep a portfolio and once a certain number of reports are triggered they start investigating.

There are several of these companies, all work in partnership. Another one you might get is Thames Credit Ltd. They 'sold' this apparant debt of DHs to Scotcall, they are either the same co, or work together.

yes i cannot get credit easily and have had to take my vodafone contract out in dps name and address as someone who lived here previously owe vodafone a small fortune!

id get onto the credit reference agencies and make sure that no one else is still registered as living at your address! there are apparently 6 adults living in my two bedroom house! three of which owe thousands to various different companies inc british gas and bt! which stops me from going with thier companies as i would have to fax off tenancy agreements, letters from landlord, copies of i.d etc before they would take me on!

Micci - you can change that. Credit is not based on address any more, its you personally and any financial association you have with others. It will follow you, not your address.

You can contact the credit agencies and explain that there is no-one living at your address other than your family. You can produce a council tax bill to evidence this and they will dis-associate anyone who has been financially connected to you who has nothing to do with you.

The only people who should be financially associated are those who you have credit/bank accounts with, ie partner.

The problem is when companies do a search on the same name, and state your address, it creates a link, but as this link is not correct, you can have it removed. This will improve your own personal credit score by a lot of points.

My credit score went down for a while when DH and I apllied for a joint account, as I became associated, and any checks on my name, checks his credit too, and his credit score is not as good as mine.

But my credit has nothing to do with the person who lived here before me. IYSWIM

yeah i see. i did ask for some things to be removed from credit file, but didnt check if they had been or not! im moving out of this house and everything will be in dps name as im moving in with him. so i think ill leave it untill then!

Micci - those financial associations will follow you though. If they are there. They will stay there until you cancel them.

I got so fed up of doing this that I opened a letter one day to find it was a debt collection letter. I called them and gave them his new address. As I had ought the house I had been given his new address by him when we completed.

We are still getting letters for previous tenant after 2 years. The problem is that you call one debt agency, they take you off their records. Then next time the debt comes up on general checks etc. it's passed to another agency who do a search for last known address.. you catch my drift.

One really important point:
If bailiffs call at your address do not under any circumstances let them in. Tell them they have wrong person, show them ID, call their company and complain, whatever. If you let them in they can take your stuff and argue later about your ID!. I work in a legal office and was very glad of this advice...!

babyignormaous, they have to be bailiffs though. Not doorstep collectors.

Doorstep collectors as much right to enter your home and take your belongings as the paper boy.

They comapny has to go to court and get court appointed bailiffs to remove any goods.

OP Let them turn up, you've done all you can.

We still get post for the people who lived here over 16 years ago and for their son who moved before they did. Some of it is from financial institutions. I have to put it back in the post as we do not have a forwarding address.

As VS said, doorstop 'representatives' cannot enter, have no legal right to take anything. If they do, without your permission, its theft. All they can do, is arrange a payment plan should the person in question wish to talk to them/do so.

I still think you should ever so politely ask them to wait while you find something with your name on, and leave them there. And hope its raining.

I had a similiar problem a couple of years ago over an alleged debt. I kept getting letter every week it started with you owe £125 and btw we have added another £50 for sending this letter. The next letter said we have done a land registry search to check whether you are the legal owners of your house as we can reposess to resolve the debt. The third said the balifs are coming and we will distribute your name to other credit agencies to tell them you are a bad credit risk. I rang after the first letter and told them I could prove I had paid - it was for car insurance that I had cancelled mid way throught a policy over ironically messing up my payments to themselve. I told them that I would provide proof from my bank (banks keep microfiche copies of cheques) even though the alleged debt was from 3 years previously. I also explained exactly how long it would take to get the proof from the bank which was approx 3 weeks for them to pull out the microfice copy of cheque copy it and send it to me with details of the branch it was paid into and which account. They say I was free to get the proof but they may not accept it . I got the proof the insurance company had banked the cheque. The send me a letter to say the matter was now resolved no apology. When I spoke to them on the phone they treated my with such contempt for allegedly being in debt. I would definitely just get some proof like your tenancy agreement etc that say when you moved in. They are parasite and it will just stress you out until they have moved.

We had the same problem, we even had debt collectors peering through our letter box. Eventually we movewdd out. There was nothing we could do to stop it. I rang our credit card company who said they take no notice of post coming back with 'not at this address' on it, as it's commonly done by people trying to avoid repayments.

We've had collectors coming to our door since we moved in - some for people who lived here over 10 years ago! They're very easy to deal with, I just told them so and so hasn't lived here since we bought the place and probably not for ages before that. I had one looking for a Fiat - there was our Nissan in the drive. He even asked if it was ours! None of his business so I sent him packing.

VS is right. They have no rights at all, so by all means they are welcome to turn up at your house and look at your doorbell, from the pavement of course. However, the dect collection agencies get a lot of money from the original company when they make a callout, which they pass on to your tenant in outrageously high fees. So they have no other interest other than they earn a few quid.

It's very very initimidating though if it's not your debt and if they call a lot then contact BT's nuisance phone call department, or contact your local community police officer, and as long as you can prove you've asked them to stop (copy of a letter, recording of a phone call etc) then they will stop immediately.