Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Frauduent use of our address
Does anyone else receive letters addressed to someone who's never lived at your address? We seem to be getting more and more of them, mostly from debt collection agencies. These are names that are brand new to us, not previous tenants. We've lived here for six years and the previous couple for at least four. It seems our address is being used by numerous people to avoid their debts. This directly follows a couple of visits from the UK border police (admittedly for the upstairs flat so could be unconnected) after which our former upstairs neighbours received many similar letters.
Presumably it won't affect our credit rating as our names are not involved? Any thoughts or advice?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by james walsh on
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BBARR* Whenever i get them i write 'Not at this address' and put them in a post box. I never hear from the poster again. In your case you may write 'Never known at this address'.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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It's a pain, but you should write to the debt collection agencies to let them know that the person(s) concerned do not and never have lived at your address. Otherwise you may get a visit from bailiffs.
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Permalink Reply by linka on
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Yes, this happens to us too - multiple names and multiple issues: debt collectors, the DVLA (fraudulently registered car), a 'business' address on Google/Thomson, fraudulently opened bank accounts...
It shouldn't affect your personal credit rating, but it's stressful and a bit of a pain in the neck (especially if the debt collectors start getting serious, as the DVLA's tend to).
The standard advice is to send things back unopened saying 'not known at this address'. I've found this does no good, and the only results I got were through phoning different companies/agencies and making really clear that they've been had. If you're lucky, you'll get an on-the-ball fraud department (as I did at one bank) who will register the culprit's name and your address on CIFAS, so that it's flagged for any further applications. Unfortunately, you can't personally flag the names by the same method, so it really does depend on who you're dealing with.
I suspect the fraudsters target shared addresses and what appears to be 'temporary' rented accommodation, depending on the fact that no one is paying attention to the 'spare' mail. They also pick empty houses from real estate listings. The lesson for me, I'm afraid, is to chase each occurrence, and it slowly thins out. Good luck.
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Permalink Reply by Gill on
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Happens to me all the time. I have lived in my flat for 8 years and one of the two flats above me is used by council for short term let. I have continually sent letters back, called debt agencies, contacted DVLA.
Nothing changes. Your credit rating is now affected if it is your address that is being used, it is only affected if it is in your name.
Apparently I run a second hand car business!!!!! Which owes thousands to tfl, various boroughs etc.
Pain, isnt it?
Is this something that the police could investigate?
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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We had some for a while, but diligent return of mail marked "Never lived at this address" seems to have stopped all mails.
I guess these people hope to get lucky and hit on a student or other house in multiple occupation where their residence is likely to go unchallenged.
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Permalink Reply by Sophie BBARR on
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Thanks everybody. We made a couple of calls this morning and were told by one company that they'll send someone round to check our council tax bill and then they'll leave us alone. I hate the fact that we have to prove who we are when all we've done is simply live here! I'll just chuck the ones with no return address. Cheers.
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Sorry to hear that. Sounds familiar! Oh for our own front door...
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Permalink Reply by RNM on
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Happens to us every day and we DO have our own front door. Partly it is unpaid debts from the previous people who lived there; but some new names have started popping up, so clearly some dodgy folks are just using our address. We write back to the bailiffs with proof of our ownership so we don't get them hammering on the door - everything else we just mark "not known at this address".
We get the same thing with people endlessly registering vehicles at our address. We write to the DVLA to say they aren't ours (they can't put on their system that we have a certain vehicle only at our address so anyone can register one at any address) and send back any fines etc marked "not known at this address".
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