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Original poster

what happens if you move to a new house but dont tell anyone who you have debt with?

42 replies

kerryk · 16/02/2009 16:38

i.e you have loads on store cards/credit cards then bugger of to a new address and dont bother to let them know?

am only asking because i am moving to a new house soon and have heard that the previous owners have done this.

i have already phoned up british gas and next directory (my only catalogue!) and both of them have asked if i have a forwarding address for the previous occupents (i dont). i dread to think how many others there is.

what will i do with any mail that comes through, do i bin it or stick it back in the post box?

someone has said since i live in scotland i wont have to worry about bailiffs turning up but i have no idea if this is right. i dont want to have to be sorting out someone elses mess for them.

OP posts:
EverSOLOlolololoLonely · 16/02/2009 16:41

Don't know, but I'd RTS the post that may come through with 'moved away on March 1st 09' or whatever date.

DanJARMouse · 16/02/2009 16:41

i have no idea, but im still getting letters here for previous tennants (18mnths on)

Dh has resorted to binning them. Thing is, they only moved across the road, but I refuse to be putting all these letters through their door (almost daily) because I aint a bloody postwoman.

lou031205 · 16/02/2009 16:42

They find you through the electoral roll.

Print some stickers saying 'not known at this address, return to sender' Stick it on everything and post it back.

MrsTittleMouse · 16/02/2009 16:44

Get yourself on the electoral register ASAP - you can phone the council to do it as soon as you move, rather than waiting until the annual update - and send any letters back not known at this address.

They aren't allowed to harrass the person with the debt, so obviously really aren't allowed to hassle you about it! If anyone does become a pain then there are ways of reporting them.

Original poster
kerryk · 16/02/2009 16:44

will they actually take any notice of the returned post do you think?

OP posts:
Tamarto · 16/02/2009 16:44

Bailiffs may turn up but have no power to enter your property, just send them away.

Put them in the post for a while then just ignore it.

Tamarto · 16/02/2009 16:45

Some do. The other thing you can do is open the letters to find out who they are from, and phone them to tell them that there is no one of that name at the address anymore.

Hassled · 16/02/2009 16:47

All you can do is just Return To Sender really promptly. Previous owners here left the country with a mountain of debt - we had letters and phonecalls chasing them (despite new number) for about 4 years. It was a first class pain the neck but has never affected our credit rating.

Itsjustafleshwound · 16/02/2009 16:54

I certainly wouldn't open the letters (I don't think it is legal) and just Return to Sender ...

nat22 · 16/02/2009 16:54

I have experienced a similar problem following our move last summer. Have been receiving final demands from Orange for someone using this address - but not the name of the people we bought from. Eventually opened letters when they kept coming (return to sender had no effect)and wrote to both Orange and the debt collectors they appointed. Thought all had gone quiet but on Saturday got a letter from the debt collectors again and so opened it so I knew who to contact. Said they were sending a representative round for a "door step call". Have had some very firm phone calls again this morning - have to say very unpleasant people to deal with . Will be writing more letters to Orange!!

tiggerlovestobounce · 16/02/2009 16:59

We had this problem for a while, made worse by the fact that the debtor had the same name as my DH. We just kept on returning the letters, and answering the phone calls and eventually it stopped.

BoffinMum · 16/02/2009 17:03

We got this with a tenant who absconded after trashing our house, and without paying the rent (anyone know Alan Simes, btw?). We just prepared a form letter explaining what had happened and sent it to the scary people, eg bailiffs, utility companies, etc. They were fine with that. The other letters we put back in the post box with 'not known at this address'. We opened the ones that had no return address on and sent a copy of the form letter to any address listed in the letter. I think that's dealt with it now.

Lindenlass · 16/02/2009 17:03

We've had this twice before. Don't worry too much about it. A lot of the debt collection agency letters don't have a return address on the envelope . We have ended up opening them in the past, calling the agency/company-owed-money and explaining that we are not the people who owe money, that they no longer live at this address, and that we don't have a forwarding address for them. They've always been very kind and apologised and we've heard nothing more.

jollyjoanne · 16/02/2009 17:16

Also had a similar problem, ended up having to phone vodafone - just one of the many people that various previous tenants owed money to - and was told that they were already investigating a number of fraudlent uses of our address. Would not have known this except that I am also a vodafone customer and had opened one of the porevious tenants bills by mistake, until then had just been returning the letters. Still 4 years on we recieve bills for other people. All very annoying and not all for the same people. If anyone does know of a foolproof way of overcoming this issue I'd be interested to know.

Original poster
kerryk · 16/02/2009 18:38

cant believe how common all this is

i hope i dont get the same phone number as these people

OP posts:
BoffinMum · 16/02/2009 19:12

Slightly off subject, but not much, do you know, I have little sympathy for people who run off like this, because it causes a lot of work and worry to innocent people, who are also indirectly paying these people's debts off for them via higher credit card charges or whatever.

Why are we being responsible and grown up when they are being allowed to do what they like??

I got very cross with Alan because he was so wriggly and dishonest about the whole thing, and even made a pass at me via text whilst this thing was building up to a head, knowing full well I was a happily married mother of three. I think he thought he might be able to blackmail me in some way and get off his debt as a result. Sadly for him I am a very honest and straightforward person so his cunning plan was foiled.

lilacclaire · 16/02/2009 21:33

Used to work as a debt collector, so can shed some light on this.

The amount of people that called up to say they had returned umpteen letters and the amount of returned post we actually received was vastly different. We did act on all returned letters, but think good old royal mail may file a lot of these in the BIN (I have no proof of this, just a personal opinion).

It is illegal to open someone elses post BUT debt collectors are very grateful if you do call, because it saves us a lot of time/effort etc writing to an address when the debtor is no longer there (if you have a forwarding address even better).

If you inform the original company where the debt is accrued that the debtor is no longer at that address, they will probably try and trace the debtor and even if they do successfully track them down, if they are unable to get payment from them, they pass it over to a debt collectors with the 'original' address where the debt was accrued. The original company, for some reason know only to themselves, very rarely pass over the current address even if they have it and have corresponded with the debtor at the current address.

This of course is a major PITA for all involved!

Your credit rating is not affected in any way. A debt is attached to a person, not an address. The confusion of this comes from years back when it did used to affect an address, but this has not been the case for many years.

CharleeheartsherChains · 16/02/2009 21:35

The people taht lived in my house beofre me, moved NEXT DOOR yet they still have everything delivered here, the lady even shops online and gets it sent here along with car insurence details/ bank statments/ drivers liscence/ passport, i don't take it to them anymore i just write 'NO LONGER AT THIS ADDRESS' and stick in in the post box, i refuse to play postie to them.

DanJARMouse · 16/02/2009 21:38

So would i be ok to open the next batch of letters to tell them that the debtors only moved accross the road and give them the new address? I really am sick of it, we have returned so many of them but they still keep turning up.

Annoys me too because I have been in the position of receiving debt letters left right and centre and am now finally 5yrs on, debt free.

lilacclaire · 16/02/2009 21:42

Danjarmouse, definetly!

Please be aware though, that if that particular debt collection company has the debt removed from them (the debts get moved around a lot), then when the original company passes it on to a new debt collectors, it will be back to the original address!!

Believe me when I say that the debt collectors get as pissed off with the companys as the people wrongly receiving the letters!

ravenAK · 16/02/2009 21:50

Aw, poor debt collectors, eh?

Keep a diary of all mail you send saying 'No, Fred the Fraudster no longer lives here'.

You'll need it for Trading Standards/the police when some lug turns up & threatens you, in the hope that you're daft enough to pay someone else's debt & re-coup the 5p in the £ that his scumbag employers have paid for Fred's debt.

Original poster
kerryk · 16/02/2009 21:53

can someone turn up and threaten me?

most of the time i am at home alone with 2 young daughters.

is the thing about not getting bailiffs in scotland a myth then?

OP posts:
legallybrown · 16/02/2009 22:38

kerryk you won't get bailiffs in Scotland but you might get Sheriff Officers instead.

mummytopebs · 16/02/2009 22:42

I had this with my previous address, was a nightmare. Tryed return to sender but kept getting letters so opened them and rang the people they were from. I even had bailiffs follow me down the drive cos they didnt believe me when i said i wasent the person, had to show them my passport to prove who i was!! It all stopped after about 2 years, i founnd out the previous owners address and contacted everyone who had sent a letter and told them all- why should i get lumbered with someone elses debt!

neversaydie · 16/02/2009 23:07

We rented a house for a while where the owners had gone to live in the USA leaving huge debts behind. Which is how I know that in Scotland you get visits from sheriff's officers, not bailiffs.

Interestingly, the letting agent ran a credit check on us, but it hadn't occurred to him to check out the landlord.

We had to go through all sorts of hoops with the various utilities and council tax to prove that we were really tenants, not the owners trying another new scam.