to be pissed off at debt company for writing to members of DHs family at our address...

[LoveBeingAMummy]

And when he called them they said do you know him can you pass it on???? WTF?!?!?!

sorry sweetie, if they're chasing an unpaid debt to my mind they can call anyone they want.

Debts should be paid.

007: but it's not the OP's fault that someone else hasn't paid a debt. The OP is under no obligation to pay the debt for the debtor, and would be perfectly within her legal rights to say to the creditors: 'It's nothing to do with me. Piss off and don't contact me again.'

send them back unopened, saying
"not at this address, return to sender"

Absolutely. However as afamily member of the debtor (dh at least) it is not unreasonable to my mind for the debt collector to contact family members of the debtor.

Part of it is surely shaming the debtor into paying up. And why not? No one (I?) is suggesting the OP or Dh should pay the debt the question was is she BU to be pissed of by the collector writing to the family and asking them to pass a message on? IMO no . A letter is not too intrusive or threatening. It is not out of order for a debt collection agency to ask a family member to "pass on a message".

Register the offending family member's name with the MPS at your address - problem solved.

What do they expect to get from it though. If your brother or sister was being chased for debt.... well, would anyone here really pass on their details to a debt cllector?!

They can't get much of a success rate from it surely?

Its just their tracing department trying to find the debtor.
If they can't find them, they will write to a family member in the hope that they are staying there.
Either return the letter marked 'not known at this address'.
Or open the letter (bearing in mind it is illegal to open someone elses mail) and phone the debt company and inform them that the person is not resident at the address.
They will probably ask if you have a current address for them.
If you don't, it will be sent back to their tracing department.

beanieb, you would be suprised

I'm shocked that this is how they go about it - especially when they are on the electrol roll

Hmm, then thats strange then that they are writing to your address.
The only explanation I can think of, is that they have already received return mail from the original address (or a phone call) saying that they are no longer at the registered address.
And if this is the case, there will be no other address for the debtor which is why they have resorted to writing to family members addresses to try and trace them.