Bloo Loo Posted February 5, 2010 Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 Daughters boyfriend is from France and he has had a short term AST since October or so. Hes been getting threats from agencies including bailiffs for council tax and everything else addressed to what appears to be a previous tenant. the useless bailiffs dont give a toss and told me they were going round to possess chattells whatever I said. The BTL landlord just laughed. the Council have me on hold. clearly, the tenant is not getting quiet enjoyment and doesnt want his stuff taken. Language is a problem...I know they shouldnt let bailiffs in, but what to advise them. Your valued advice is sort. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mrfooty Posted February 5, 2010 Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 He's French let him deal with it. I'd have a word with your daughter though. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bloo Loo Posted February 5, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 He's French let him deal with it. I'd have a word with your daughter though. haw haw hee haw. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rolf Posted February 5, 2010 Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 Open every letter that arrives (can just say it was by accident if challenged). Phone the debt collectors and tell em the person doesn't live here anymore. Make sure the windows are locked so bailiffs cannot climb in. Had this problem myself, eventually all the collectors fu cked off. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DTMark Posted February 5, 2010 Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 Yes, keep the windows closed, and do suppress your phone number if you call any DCAs as they will make a note of the caller ID - if they ask for your number, don't give it to them as that will only create another nuisance in the form of endless phone calls. We had exactly this issue. It started with some letters which we put in a cubby hole by the front door. When there were about 100 we marked them all gone away and put them back in the post box. That doesn't work - they just keep coming. I rang Essex Police to ask for advice and was told that if I opened the letters provided I did not gain advantage from the information and just rang the DCAs that should be fine, so I did. That worked pretty well. One Saturday morning at 07:00 the door bell rang. I leaned out of the upstairs window. "Yes...?" (Couple call out name of debtor) "No." "Can you come to the door?" "Can you come back at a reasonable hour?" They came back later. I handed them the latest pile of letters for the debtor. They went away. A week later partner was cleaning up out front. Man approaches. "Debtor name?" "No." (hands over more letters) The last letter I opened was from the local hospital - private bill for medical care for a sum in 4 figures, rang them. "You're not going to be getting this money - this is fraud" Then it stopped. 6 months later at new property I get a call from Essex Police asking what I knew, as they'd picked up the guy nearby and were prosecuting him for fraud. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bloo Loo Posted February 5, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 Its a tragedy. council have agreed to call off the bailiff. Bailiff was a useless jerk. Hope he chokes now there is no fee. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DTMark Posted February 5, 2010 Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 Some useful stuff here anyway: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/ManagingDebt/DebtsAndArrears/DG_10034289 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tim123 Posted February 5, 2010 Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 Its a tragedy. council have agreed to call off the bailiff. Bailiff was a useless jerk. Hope he chokes now there is no fee. Which is why the fee is so large when he does collect. He probably loses 4 out of 5, so he won't notice one more tim Quote Link to post Share on other sites
lagos36 Posted February 5, 2010 Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 Daughters boyfriend is from France and he has had a short term AST since October or so. Hes been getting threats from agencies including bailiffs for council tax and everything else addressed to what appears to be a previous tenant. the useless bailiffs dont give a toss and told me they were going round to possess chattells whatever I said. The BTL landlord just laughed. the Council have me on hold. clearly, the tenant is not getting quiet enjoyment and doesnt want his stuff taken. Language is a problem...I know they shouldnt let bailiffs in, but what to advise them. Your valued advice is sort. You have had some good advise here already, I have had the same problem, the best piece of advise I can give is not to worry about it, your friend has done nothing wrong , its not him they are after , just make sure he does not open the door to these vultures, always talk to them from an upstairs window if possible. Follow all the advise given here and you will have nothing to worry about, open all the letters that arrive so you know what is going on , phone the baliff concerned to let them know the person in question has moved , if they won't listen just forget about them and stick to the rest of the advise given here , under no circumstances should he open the door to speak to them. As long as the council , baliffs and utility companies and any other would be creditors know that your friend is a new tenant there and have been given the moving in date , he should go about his business and not give this problem another thought. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mikhail Liebenstein Posted February 5, 2010 Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 (edited) I think taunting the debt agencies and wasting their time can be quite good fun as they don't really have any powers and especially if you owe nothing. I keep getting letters to a Mr M Holmes for an unpaid water bill, but can't be arsed to tell them there is no such person and what they actually want is Miller Homes. In the last 6 months no people have actually come round, but I would quite like it if they did, I could then raise a vexatious complaint and threaten to sue them. In reality most seem to just give up after a while. Perhaps it depends on the size of the debt, as this water bill is only £50 and so perhaps it not worth too much effort. Edited February 5, 2010 by mikelivingstone Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Matt Henson Posted February 7, 2010 Report Share Posted February 7, 2010 Daughters boyfriend is from France and he has had a short term AST since October or so. Hes been getting threats from agencies including bailiffs for council tax and everything else addressed to what appears to be a previous tenant. the useless bailiffs dont give a toss and told me they were going round to possess chattells whatever I said. The BTL landlord just laughed. the Council have me on hold. clearly, the tenant is not getting quiet enjoyment and doesnt want his stuff taken. Language is a problem...I know they shouldnt let bailiffs in, but what to advise them. Your valued advice is sort. Strangely enough I am having the same issue as we speak, the ballifs came to door yesterday for a debt for the landlord, I simply showed them my tenancy agreement, council tax bill and my shotgun certificate as photo ID, the two of them didn't say much and left quickly. I recomend doing the same. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jonb Posted February 7, 2010 Report Share Posted February 7, 2010 Strangely enough I am having the same issue as we speak, the ballifs came to door yesterday for a debt for the landlord, I simply showed them my tenancy agreement, council tax bill and my shotgun certificate as photo ID, the two of them didn't say much and left quickly. I recomend doing the same. I think it was the shotgun certificate that worked. Most of us don't have one of them. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Uitlander Posted February 7, 2010 Report Share Posted February 7, 2010 (edited) I think it was the shotgun certificate that worked. Most of us don't have one of them. Yes, that is a nice touch. I had lots of letters for previous tenants, and threats of visits from bailiffs for at least one of them. No-one ever showed up. In a previous tenancy bailiffs turned up as I was moving in and attempted to seize my hired van and contents. Fortunately I had my passport & driving licence in my pocket, which satisfied them that I was a 'Mrs Singh'. To give them some credit they did apologise, and three chunky blokes then helped me move all my boxes into the house and we all inspected the post waiting for 'Mrs Singh' which gave no indication of where she had run off to. Edited February 7, 2010 by Uitlander Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Matt Henson Posted February 7, 2010 Report Share Posted February 7, 2010 I think it was the shotgun certificate that worked. Most of us don't have one of them. It was the first bit of photo ID I had to hand... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bloo Loo Posted February 8, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2010 Strangely enough I am having the same issue as we speak, the ballifs came to door yesterday for a debt for the landlord, I simply showed them my tenancy agreement, council tax bill and my shotgun certificate as photo ID, the two of them didn't say much and left quickly. I recomend doing the same. Thanks for all the advice. The problem here was one of strangers in a foreign land. they couldnt converse with a bailiff and they are all young men....still, council has called the dogs off, as all they had to check was the current payment record and who was paying it. Incidentally, there is a growing pile of debt letters for the two people named....and they are not bankrupt as I checked, so I suspect a couple of serial fraudsters are involved. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
porca misèria Posted February 8, 2010 Report Share Posted February 8, 2010 I wouldn't assume these cases are previous tenants. Could be fraudsters using the address to obtain money from (as we now know) highly-complicit lenders. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Chrysalis Posted February 16, 2010 Report Share Posted February 16, 2010 Here is my story. First severn trent are sending 2 bills to this address, one for me, and one for some guy I have no idea who it is. I told them politely 3 times to remove his record at this address and they said they would do it but clearly havent, so I am now witholding my own bill until its done. Strangely I get no reminders but they keep coming for this other guy. Second lloyds tsb sent a letter to someone else, I opened it and some guy has brought and paid for house insurance at this address, some months later after various monthly statements a letter says they have cancelled the policy due to non payment. Third, there is various letters for various names for applied for credit, loans and credit cards. Finally there is some for debt from debt collectors. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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