just need a lil vent!

Oh dear that's not good fizzers are you sure you are not being targeted.

CAB, or a solicitor. I couldn't live with this going on, poor you.

I suggest getting a copy of your
Credit reports from Experian and Equifax to see if there are any financial associations shown on your own report also request that a fraud marker is noted so that lenders can see that it is not you with the poor credit. I am a little puzzled how the person has managed to accrue debts without any previous post going to your address though ?

That is terrible. Most worryingly, it might even affect your credit rating!

Nowhere near as bad as you but, even as I write,
I have a letter in the kitchen addressed to the daughter of the previous owner of this house.
We have passed this correspondence on to the previous owner, to his other DD and returned them to the company.
All to no avail.
I've written in big red letters on this one and will pop it back in the post, again!!!
I think that it's about the money that the government gave to babies at one time so I presume there is a child somewhere who is owed something.
Can't think that there is any more I can do and it's irritating but it's as nothing compared to your horror story fizzes.
Good luck

It will not affect your credit rating so don't worry.

How very annoying. Why should you have to do anything.
However it is common enough.
We've lived in our house for over 40years and we are still listed officially by the Post Office as the house next door which was demolished about 1970.
We have told them enough times.
Luckily no bad credit ratings follow us but we cannot understand why something so simple and obvious can't be changed.
The electoral roll has been updated I think.

Not credit but DH has had Newcastle (never been there) police ring his mobile 3 times in past 18 mths or so asking to speak to "Jane Smith". DH has had his number for about 5 yrs. So we're guessing she made up a number that happened to be DH's

I do realise that phone companies put landline/mobile numbers back into use almost immediately and just my luck to get a mobile number that previously belonged to someone who had a lot of creditors, the landline it seems to be just one company that rings about once a month. As for the debt, well perhaps someone has taken out loans or something online and the company was rather slapdash in their checking.

what galls me is the number of letters I've returned marked not at this address, and the number of times I've asked the phone callers to take the number off their database, do they not listen?

Credit is ok and there's no debts lnked to my address, it's just so annoying

I guess some people who do owe stuff may write ‘not know at this address’ to get them off the trail so if yours is the only address they ve got until they remove it you will keep getting them it’s a shame I d definitely go to CAB

fizzers by just writing 'not known at this address' and sending it back, you are doing exactly what a lot of debtors do when they receive post, that is why the letters keep arriving.

I think the phone problem arises because the phone number will be linked to your address, so everytime the creditor finds another number attached to your address they follow it up. Many debtors, I regret are determined cheats and go to great lengths to avoid paying up and the creditors have to be equally clever in trying to keep tabs on them.

What you need to do is open the letter and write to the person/company, telling them that you have lived in your house for over 20 years and that no one of the name of this person has ever lived at that address and that you are fed up with being sent these letters. I assume that you have been on the electoral register during your 20 years . You could suggest the company checks the electoral register and credit registers to confirm this.

Write one standard letter and get multiple copies so that all you need to do is put address, name and signature on the letter each time you send it out.

That should sort it out it.

I have lived at my address for 15 years and still get post for the previous owners. Also get a letter about once a year which comes from Mercedes Benz trying to sell him a new car. This man has never lived at my address, as far as I know.

the two phones and the debtor are not linked at all, different people

But writing the letters will help.

We had same problem and also son in different house. Still get the odd letter after 16+ years. One from debt collector which I opened and dealt with. It must be quite common. I now destroy the odd unimportant letter as “not known “ gets you nowhere.

Citizens Advice Bureau should be your next port of call.

I always sent the letters back as I thought it was illegal to open mail addressed to someone else?

Every Christmas I get a card with a small gift inside ( bookmark, hankie, prayer card etc) addressed to a neighbour but using my house number. I always give the card to my neighbours who used to remind his friend of his correct house number - only for the same thing to happen next year! It's quite amusing now and my neighbour always lets me know what the gift is. Neither of us are too bothered although my neighbour is no longer in contact with the sender and does not send them a card!

I did once have debt collectors call at the first house I owned because the previous owner had racked up catalogue debts. I was able to prove to them that the woman no longer lived there and I heard nothing more from the debt collectors. I had been receiving post for this woman but I did not have a forwarding address to returned some letter to the sender and gave other to the estate agent to forward.

Please do not open those letters. It is illegal to open post addressed to other people unless they have given you permission to do so.

I too have had to ring firms repeatedly to make them realise that post was being wrongly delivered in the sense that the addressee had never lived at my address.

Perhaps a solicitor's letter might make them update their databases.

Grandtante, my daughter was advised by CAB that this was what she should do when she was at the receiving end of similar letters for a flatsharer who had done a runner leaving her debts behind.

We started getting letters from DWP for someone we had never heard of with our address except that the postcode was different. At first I returned them “not at this address “,but they kept coming. So I wrote on the front of the next one that we didn’t know this person and that the postcode was wrong for our address. The next one had our postcode too! We opened this one and then rang the number to tell them they had the wrong address for this man only to be told that they didn’t send the letters and couldn’t change the address! It was a different department that sent the letters! They have stopped coming now, but I am hoping that this is not because they have given up on this poor man and closed his claim.

The problem is when you inform a firm by phone or post the letter back they think you are the “ guilty” party trying to wriggle out of something. It freaked me out when a letter came from a debt collector which I had opened but had not looked at name. So many times put “moved “ away or something similar on envelope only to get even more of the same.

Debt collectors cannot enter your home or take funds from you without going to court and getting a court order first. Often debt collectors write as if you have to pay or you will be charged even more etc and generally try to put the frighteners on people. If it is not your debt and you ignore them there is nothing they can do and eventually they will shut up. It's not nice though, especially the first time you open such a letter..

This is such a time wasting irritation fizzers - I do feel for you! At our last house we had a lot of correspondence and calls for the children of the previous owners; they evidently weren't too keen on paying rent for their homes and I think Mum and ?Dad had stood guarantor. At this house I have lost track of the number of calls I have had for the wife of the previous owner; every time I say that she moved away over five years ago the caller apologises and says they will take the number off their contact list - but I suspect she was in a lot of debt. You do have to be careful as sometimes an address can be blacklisted and if you want credit you might be refused because of a previous bad debtor. Experian can tell you if all is well for you - It doesn't cost much, just a few pounds.