Previous resident of house claiming they still live here

[pips23]

I bought my house last summer. Prior to that it was rented out and the girl who lived here had to go into emergency accommodation with the council. I have no further information about her as obviously I didn't buy from her.

Since then I get weekly debt collection letters for her. Some of them are threatening action if she doesn't pay. Numerous companies and lots of debt.

I originally sent them back to sender with 'no longer at this address' then rang the companies to tell them when they continued.
Now the companies are saying that they have confirmed she still lives here but she obviously doesn't. I don't know what to do or how they are confirming she is living here. Would she be telling them or has she not changed her address at the bank or something?
I'm obviously concerned about this debt being connected to my house. Is there anything I can do?

Now you are getting it. So long as you have a reasonable excuse like wanting to ensure important documents are sent to the right person and needing the account number to notify the sender, opening post is fine.

If the letter / parcel is mistakenly delivered to your address (you live at 23 Smith Street, it’s addressed to Mrs. Jones at 23 Smith Avenue which you know is round the corner) there is less likely to be a reasonable excuse because you don’t need the contents to get the letter / package to the correct person.

As stated, any GDPR breach is on the sender and that’s only if the recipient hasn’t given them the wrong address in the first place.

Debt is linked to people not houses. Just send the letters back and ignore. Make sure the electoral register is up to date.

Just ignoring doesn't stop the letters or debt collectors coming round. It's exactly what the debtors would do, so it says nothing to the companies who are owed money.