Advice on post being recived for previous occupants

dUnKle

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Purchased a house Dec 2006 and moved in

Following that we where getting a vast amount of post for previous occupants - not a problem I thought, we will give them a ring and let them know

They came round once and collected a bagful of post (LOADS of the stuff) and thanked us

Agin we recived more mail, we phoned a couple of times and they never came and collected it, so we started to write "no longer living at this address" on the mail and posted it back

As the weeks have gone on the mail has pretty much stopped - however have noticed we seem to still be getting a lot which are obviously from Banks, Building Societies and Credit Card companies. Again we just wrire "no longer living at this address" on them and post them back

Anyway, today I opened a letter from the Tv Licencing people in error as I was expecting one from them. Anyway it was for the previous occupant, I admit to reading it

Anyway - it turns out the previous occupant purchased a TV in March this year and would seem has given this my address when purcasing. TV licecing say this is the THIRD letter they have sent saying they have no record of the previous occupant having a TV licence at this address.

Its all very strange, we will be phoning TV Licence people up to advise they have been given the wrong details (and to confirm with them we have a licence) but can anyone advise on what we should be doing about this ?

Am I worrying too much ? Or could we end up being liable for debt etc taken out at this address ?
 
Its all very strange, we will be phoning TV Licence people up to advise they have been given the wrong details (and to confirm with them we have a licence) but can anyone advise on what we should be doing about this ?

Am I worrying too much ? Or could we end up being liable for debt etc taken out at this address ?

My Nan had a similar problem when she moved in to her house as it seems that the previous occupants had been in debt and didn't bother to tell the companies that they were in debt to that they had moved. Like you she just used to write no longer at this address on the envelope and must of it stopped in the end but she did get a couple of phone calls from one or two of the companies so she just passed the new address on to them so I'd just do that when you phone up the licence people.

With regards to all of the letters you get etc I don't think that you'll get in to any bother for it as none of it is in your name but if it is worrying you then I'd post the letters back to the relevant companies unopened in a new envelope and also put in a letter letting them know what's happening and the previous occupants new address.
 
My Nan had a similar problem when she moved in to her house as it seems that the previous occupants had been in debt and didn't bother to tell the companies that they were in debt to that they had moved. Like you she just used to write no longer at this address on the envelope and must of it stopped in the end but she did get a couple of phone calls from one or two of the companies so she just passed the new address on to them so I'd just do that when you phone up the licence people.

With regards to all of the letters you get etc I don't think that you'll get in to any bother for it as none of it is in your name but if it is worrying you then I'd post the letters back to the relevant companies unopened in a new envelope and also put in a letter letting them know what's happening and the previous occupants new address.


Cheers
Struck us both just that we dont actually know there new address and would seem like they are no longer answering phne or concerned about the post

Its not like its been junk mail either - seems he had two or three monthly subscriptions to fishing magazines and the like and we got those for three months - although nothing yet so maybe they have got the message

Just worried though as it seems he is still giving my address out when making purchases etc, the letter from Tv Licence people state he purchased TV in March 2007 and gave this (my) address. Well we have lived here since Dec 2006
 
Had the same problem when we bought our house some years ago.....

In short you can get the post office to redirect your mail for up to two years (or at least you could at the time), while this is a help to most of us during the difficult process of moving home, it can be an oppourtunity for the unscrupilous. :rolleyes:

Due to the mail redirect the previous ocuppiers (who sold due to getting divorced) were able to successfully run a small business from my house without my knowlege for the first 8 months of me living there. :suicide:

He ran a small haulage firm, ignoring all the bills including the VAT man. :eek:

She obtained several credit cards as well as running up large debts on catalogue (Littlewoods) mainly while declaring herself as still living at my address. :mad:

There was naff all we could do about all this, we contacted the post office and informed them of what was happening but they were not too interested, we told them that the redirect was being used fraudulently but they said that was our opinion and not proven so they could not do anything. :rolleyes:

Eventually we started getting phone calls demanding payments, many were happy with the explanation we gave and left us alone, some were more persistant.

We had a visit from the VAT man (was a lady actually) who was very nice, I showed her my driving liscence & passport to prove my identitiy and explained we had no forwarding address for the previous occupiers as I never met them and all correspondance was carried out between solicitors, after I gave her the details of the solicitors I had used she went off on her way. :thumbsup:

We had a visit from the TV Liscence man who went away happily enough after telling us off for not notifing them of our change of address (TV Liscence was under our prev address and we hadn't got round to changing it).

Had several calls from Littlewoods demanding payments, they didn't believe us when we told them what had happened and were STILL sending goods out even though I had told them that they were being redirected and they were not going to get paid for them. :suicide:

Anyway to answer your question you are probobaly worring too much as you won't be liable for any of the debts (although the debts may possibly cause some probs with your own credit rating in the future) - you may get a fair bit of hassle from some companies before the penny finally drops.
 
We moved in our house in Nov 2005, and we still get letters from debt recovery agents for the previous owner, plus baliffs, county court requests, etc.
 
We moved in our house in Nov 2005, and we still get letters from debt recovery agents for the previous owner, plus baliffs, county court requests, etc.

Blimey - and I thought 5 months was bad

Cheers everyone for putting mind at rest - just a case of being able to provove we live at the address then

Thanks
 
Just worried though as it seems he is still giving my address out when making purchases etc, the letter from Tv Licence people state he purchased TV in March 2007 and gave this (my) address. Well we have lived here since Dec 2006

If he'd lived at your address for a few years he could have put it down automatically without realising a bit like when it comes to the new year and people still put down the old year by mistake on cheques etc. Or he could just be a conning sod with no intention of ever getting a TV licence.

Either way I wouldn't worry about it unless you start getting money demands that are in your name.
 
Don't the BBC claim they have a database of everyone with a license? I'm sure it might flag up two different people at the same address. They might think they are being clever if they do this but eventually a TV detector van might be in their area and catch them. I imagine they concentrate on those addresses that don't seem to have a license.
 
Yeah I think there's nothing to worry about regarding your credit rating being affected as it's nowadays down to the individual and not the property that gets bad ratings.

Hope so, just yesterday I got a red letter through the post addressed to the previous occupant from a debt collection agency about an unpaid utility bill. Wrote a letter explaining the situation and sent it back giving the forwarding address. Hopefully the last I hear about it. Don't need the hassle with sorting all this type of stuff out.
 
Just had CCJ registered against my property for a named person who has never owned the place!

I always open and read the mail for previous tenants when it hits the 12 month mark. I feel that is enough time for them to update everyone concerned. I also have seen domains being registered at my address by the previous owner.
 
I have been in my house for three years next month and I still get letters from the old owners, they now all go straight in the shredder (and I don't mean the teenage mutant ninja variety).
 
I now open the mail for my previous owner the've had 12 mnths the've been getting some major credit card bills.
 
tsk tsk...shouldnt be opening mail that doesnt have your name on it at all, even if its your address.....

should just return to sender writing no longer living here or not known at this address etc.....or if the letters from a company are persistent then phone them up and tell them over the phone and that they are welcome to check with your solicitor for the dates you've been living there....

i remember living in a flat for half a year and the previous tenant had scamped on water charges and phone charges.....BT were ok about it and said they'd take it up with the estate agent and landlady, the water folks were insistent that I personally was responsible and had to pay for the previous quarter or whatever it was......took me about 3 different employees to finally get them to understand that i am renting and whilst i may responsible if i set up a charge myself, i am not responsible for someone elses financial dealings and if they want the money they'll need to contact the landlady.....there was one final threat to cut off my water if i didnt just pay there and then over the phone when i said i do believe thats blackmail and i'll be contacting a solicitor.......at which point he said ok, he'll contact the landlady....gotta be tough with call centre agents over stuff like that, normally they'll get a bonus for getting unpaid debts paid....
 

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