Chasing previous debtors

Contact the people who are sending the letters. I had a spate of letters from insurance companies addressed to Asian people at the house I had lived in for over 20 years. Insurance fraud using an address in a very low crime, therefore cheaper premiums, area. I phoned each insurer and eventually it ended. But it’s important to speak to the people concerned, not just return letters to sender which will simply make matters escalate until the bailiffs arrive.
And tell him to check his credit record as debts may have been entered against his address.

Germanshepherdsmum thank you...I'll tell him to check his credit record.
I had suggested phoning the senders up but he was wary of opening mail addressed to another person.

He needn’t worry about opening the letters, they have been sent to his address and he’s opening them for good reason. I hope it stops soon, such a nuisance. Also tell him never to put anything with his name and address on into the recycling - shred it or obliterate it with black felt pen.

Debt is registered against a person, not an address, so his credit rating will not be affected.

I’m afraid that it is also registered against an address for the purpose of credit checks.

If the debts are not in his name they will no effect on him.

They will be flagged up against his address. So many people have had problems with getting credit after moving because their new address has been blacklisted.

According to Google, it’s the addressee who may be blacklisted, not the address, although that wasn’t the case years ago. My previous tenant was up to date with rent, but nothing else! In the end, I opened the letters and gave his forwarding address to the various agencies involved, then everything was binned after that. I’ve told my new tenant to bin any more post for him.
It’s a nuisance.

I had this - former owner of the flat had returned to his home country, leaving no forwarding address.
He’d left debts all over - at least £20k worth.
Return to sender achieved precisely nothing - it all kept coming.

In the end I started opening the mail* and writing to or phoning the debt collectors, or whoever it was.
They were all perfectly reasonable and just asked me to send a copy of my council tax bill. There were at least 12 different debts IIRC. Once I’d done that, they all backed off.

*People often say it’s illegal to open anyone else’s mail, but in such circs - e.g. when you have no address to forward it to - it is not.
What really riles me is that I’m quite sure the bloke could return to the U.K. tomorrow, and absolutely nothing would happen to him.

We had tenants who thankfully always paid their rent but since they left nearly 3 years ago we still get post for them. I used to send it on to them. Then they moved again so I just put “not known at this address” and redirected it. Still they came and I started opening them and they were from debt collectors. Loads of them. I emailed one company and told them and theirs stopped but others carry on so I now just bin them.

Many yeags ago I moved into a rental. The previous tenant had gone bankrupt and they had the cheek to contact me with a hand delivered letter, asking me to pass on a large cheque they were expecting. My soliciter advised me not to do so and to return the cheque to the sender as "no longer at this address". Unfortunately there was no address so I returned it to the bank with a covering letter.

I also got a spate of letters from debt collectors. A debt collector has no power whatsoever to make you pay and you are not required to show them any ID or engage with them in any way if you do not wish to.

The first debt collectors who came were polite. I showed them my ID and they left. I dont usually agree with snitching, However I was so annoyed that the former tenant had attempted to draw me into subverting the terms of their bankruptcy that I gave the debt collecters their forwarding address.

One was rude and disrespectful. After I showed him my passport he demanded to see my tenancy agreement. I told him that I had showed him all the documents I proposed to. He said "Well that proves who you are but not the identity of anyone else living here."

I once did a 6 month stint on a telephone chat line where I performed the role of a domanatrix. Male customers would call in wanting to be verbally humiliated and some desired extreme verbal violence.

I can remember the look of pure hatred he gave me as he walked away after being on the recieving end.

Loved it.

Another good reason to have a ring doorbell.

Daddima

Debt is registered against a person, not an address, so his credit rating will not be affected.

This is not the case!
If a property is flagged you can have an awful problem.
The

Absolutely right Sago. People won’t believe it until they’re denied credit and then find out why.

This from Experian. There is also no such thing as a credit ‘blacklist’. Lenders use a scoring system, based on being on voters’ roll, length of time at address, payment history of previous credit, usage of credit facility, and number of ‘hard searches’ of your name. Each lender has a different score requirement. It’s also not necessarily a good thing to have no debt, as lenders can’t see your payment history.

DD had to deal with this when an ex-flatmate left, leaving no forwarding address and lots of debts. DD prepared a letter stating the situation and sent this to every person writing to her ex-flatmate at her address. Cost her money for the stamps, but saved her a lot of hassle.

As she had her own clean credit references they could check that sorted the issue, although one or two did ring because they suspected that she might have been protecting a friend, but DD managed to convince them that her flatmate had left without leaving a forwarding address, which was what had happened.

Letters from 02 for a previous tenant land on my mat frequently.
I used to forward them to his new address but they keep coming.
Now I put them in the recycle
Should I open them and find who is sending them and tell them to stop?

Yes. Or it will just carry on and you may end up with bailiffs on the doorstep. Or worse if judgment has been obtained against the former tenant and entry onto the premises has been authorised.

Thanks GSM I shall do that

My daughters ex boyfriend ran up debts which she discovered after she kicked him out. She received many letters and phone calls but after explaining that she owned the flat and he was a lodger no further action was taken. It did not affect her credit score.

I worked for a debt collection agency back in the 90s so it taught me a lot about the debt industry and how utterly corrupt it is. A debt collector as such has no more power over you than any other random person. They cannot "make" you pay them or take your goods. Only a court can order you to pay a debt and only a bailiff can enforce it.

Bailiffs work on commission. They cannot force their way into a domestic home. They can only break into a commercial premises. They work on commission and will usually give up after 3/4 visits and getting no answer.

They buy up debts in huge batches and pay pence in the pound for them so they system is rotten to the core. With a really old debt there are ways to manipulate the system and have a real fun time with these jokers. Eventually the debt may become "statute barred" and cannot be enforced in court.

There are some wonderful tales on the Consumer Action Group website of how debtors got the better of these parasites.

biglouis

I worked for a debt collection agency back in the 90s so it taught me a lot about the debt industry and how utterly corrupt it is. A debt collector as such has no more power over you than any other random person. They cannot "make" you pay them or take your goods. Only a court can order you to pay a debt and only a bailiff can enforce it.

Bailiffs work on commission. They cannot force their way into a domestic home. They can only break into a commercial premises. They work on commission and will usually give up after 3/4 visits and getting no answer.

They buy up debts in huge batches and pay pence in the pound for them so they system is rotten to the core. With a really old debt there are ways to manipulate the system and have a real fun time with these jokers. Eventually the debt may become "statute barred" and cannot be enforced in court.

There are some wonderful tales on the Consumer Action Group website of how debtors got the better of these parasites.

I believe the debtors could be labelled as “parasites” too!!

People who incur debts are not all feckless. An unexpected change like illness/disability/losing your job etc can easily tip someone or a family into a position where there incomings do not cover their outgoings.

There is something sleazy and Dickensian about selling and buying debts.

A relative of mine fell into debt by unexpectedly losing their job. They enrolled in a debt management plan run by Stepchange to deal responsibly with their debts. Most of the companies accepted the plan. However others subsequently sold the debt to corrupt collection agencies. Although a proportion of the money had been paid off under the plan these agencies attempted to collect the full balance of the debt, ignoring the fact that a sum had already been paid off.

I discoverd that due to changes in consumer law the original agreements for some of the older debts could not be enforced. With the help of the CAG I was able to get the agencies to abandon the collection process and the debts eventually became statute barred.

Knowledge is power.

Yes, first I forwarded to new address then started opening them and contacting the court or depot collector people. As soon as I realised bailiffs would be threatened I started doing this.

However, this was not connected to rental arrears ie attached to an address as well as a name., I presume that's when credit problems start.