UKH

Alright all,

Just wanting to consult with the hive mind and see if anyone has any ideas regarding the above.

The full story is that we purchased and moved into our house about 5 years ago. The previous owner moved out, we moved in and all was good in the world. Over time we kept getting letters (actually credit card statements) every month which we gave to the neighbours as requested, who are still in contact with the chap. We assumed that this was just the tail end of his mail coming to our address and eventually it would dry up. 5 years later every month a statement - or at least I assume so - pops through the door.

About 6 months ago I opened one and spoke to the company involved to explain that the guy moved years ago and please stop sending me his letters. Before anyone says anything; Yes I know this was illegal but after 5 years of redirecting the guys post I don't care. The company have said they won't/can't do anything about contacting him by other means such as phone and requesting an updated address. I have asked the neighbour to ask him to change his address but he is apparently very resistant to the idea of receiving his own mail. While it seems like a small thing I have been told that as the card is registered at our address any financial court judgement that could be made would be against this address and not his . I'm definitely no expert but I know someone who has had something similar happen so it seems plausible. It was a massive effort to get it sorted out and as such the situation isn't particularly desirable

So anyone got any ideas where to go from here? I really don't want to go so far as solicitors or owt as it seems ridiculously overkill but I'm stumped as to the next thing to try.

Just forward it all to the shredder.

I think you will soon stop receiving it...

Return to sender, not known at this address.

Worth trying for a few months and particularly when a replacement card comes through.

Write a letter to him at your address telling him you're going to stop forwarding his mail and give it to your neighbour to pass on.

This happens to me all the time. For one year, I write "Return to sender - not at this address any more" on all of their mail, and drop it in a post box. After one year, if it still comes, I bin all of it, no matter what it is

If they can't be bothered after one year, I won't be bothered either 

That is genius!

If the card is still registered at your address could it be considered identify theft aka fraud? Have you tried ringing up the credit card company concerned and reporting an account of identity theft? That may move it down different internal channels compared to customer services.

Also if you do, keep a record of what you said and when, if possible record the call or respond via email/letter. If there are any future issues such as the person defaulting or taking out a loan on your property, your record will prove to be very useful.

Another idea may be along the lines of 'the squeaky wheel gets the oil'. Talk to your MP and local press, or things like radio4's money program, and then write a letter of complaint to the CEO, telling them that you are in contact with the above over the matter. The potential bad publicity may be enough to galvanise some action.

Just write "Gone Away RTS" across the envelope and repost it.

I'd probably start by politely telling the neighbours that you won't be passing on the letters from now on, as you can't be party to somebody deliberately using a wrong address for a credit card beyond a reasonable time to change it. 

If that doesn't work, I'd just write "return to sender" on the envelopes and stick back in the post. I would also record the time and date of your conversation with his CC company, so that you can prove you tried to get this sorted should it ever come up.

If it's a credit card, this works almost immediately, we moved out while we got some work done and the postie decided he wouldn't deliver any letters, as the house looked empty. Our CC company stopped delivery straight away. We had to request them to start sending them again.

In reply to 

Write to the credit card company saying you believe their customer is running a fraudulent scheme using his/her former, and your current, address. Tell them you intend to report this to the police and the Financial Services Agency ... 🙃

Definitely return to sender. 
A credit card company should be taking a gone-away seriously, and potentially blocking the account. 
You will not be financially liable for any loan he takes out at your address, but you could find it harder to get credit if your address is associated with any fraudulent activity (no real evidence from your OP) 

Pfft!  I once had similar with HMRC letters.  After a year I opened one.   A demand for £30k in unpaid VAT for the former owner's company.  I made sure the RTS each one after that!

I have always just written RTS and put on the pile by the door for whenever I can be bothered to take the pile to the postbox.  No real effort.

"While it seems like a small thing I have been told that as the card is registered at our address any financial court judgement that could be made would be against this address and not his . I'm definitely no expert but I know someone who has had something similar happen so it seems plausible."

Surely this can't be that likely given that any mail intended for someone else but sent to your address incorrectly (or fraudulently) has nothing to do with you and you will not have seen it.  Does this liability really happen all the time to poor people on the receiving end?  Seems an easy criminal business if that is the case.

Sixteen years later, I am still getting mail from the people I bought my house off.

I simply file the mail in the B1N.

Got to admit that I'm impressed that mail still comes to this house after so long.

GDPR stopped almost all of the trashy stuff here. For all its inconveniences in other areas of life it was great at that for us

RTS solves it with a small number of institutions. The fact that you still end up with a pile that needs this action is proof that it is not effective with many.

Yes, this happens. Credit ratings etc are a blunt instrument that can be a real to pain to sort when errors get made.

I can't say how common it is but it seems obvious that the sort of people who move house and don't bother to update their address with financial institutions are exactly the sort of people you want to avoid your credit ratings being inadvertently linked to.

My understanding is you're not breaking any laws opening mail that is addressed to your address, regardless of the name and that since there is a reasonable suspicion he is fraudulently using your address it doesn't seem unreasonable to me. I'm not a lawyer though

I would definitely stop passing it on and either return as "not known at this address" or contact the company if you feel that is appropriate.

Yes, probably took a year or two of RTS before they all stopped.  But they did.  So not too much of a prob for us.  Maybe we were lucky.

Cheers.  Yes, I can understand credit ratings might be an issue.  Credit ratings seem a corrupt concept anyway!  They don't affect me as I've never used or desired credit.   But at least you wouldn't be liable for the debts of a corrupt company using your address.  Otherwise, just start your corrupt business and pick a random company address...No problem.

Could you, via agreeable conversation with your neighbour, find out whether he's in the same city still, or has moved to another location?

I got some mail for a fine for littering for somebody who lived elsewhere in the city because she'd given the warden my address, and I googled her name (and city) and 192 came up with a partial address for her, with me needing to pay to view it all. I didn't pay but I wrote to the council and explained she didn't live with me, and two council enforcement blokes turned up and they took me at face value that she didn't live at my address (talking about the last 7 years it only having been me, and a couple before then seemed to help). 

If you could find out his location, and then 192 his name and where he is, you might be able to get an address, and possibly a number too. 

I'm not too sure what you'd do with his details if you could 192 them, it's my personality that I possibly might knock on the door and go 'Aha, it is you' and give him his mail, and forward the new address to the credit card company, but I don't know how legal that would be.

Edit: You wouldn't be doing anything morally wrong, though, and he's possibly not being legit - being the only one who could complain. If there is a number, you could ring and see if he answers too, which would be more chilled.

Someone has gone to the trouble of setting up a company who's registered address is my little block of 4 flats (just the block, not any specific flat number), and is currently running up a rather large bill in parking and traffic fines from several London boroughs! I just mark them as "Not known at this address" and pop them back in the post.

You could try the GDPR angle.  A company should keep information up-to-date about its customers.  The information about the gone-away customer is seemingly not up-to-date, and you have told the company that.

Separately, it may be the case that it's illegal to open the post addressed to someone else at your address if you then mis-use the information you find, but IANAL.

Just had another idea - send him a letterbomb .

Yes, I'd be doing everything I could to distance my address from the person still using it.

But that will just arrive at your address, won't it

Write 'Gone Away' across it, and drop it into a pillar box. 'Gone away' is royal mail code for 'return to sender' and you should stop getting the letters soon I trust

Write "RTS Unknown" on the envelope with a sharpie and file in the local postbox.  Deals with most. Don't forward on, don't bother doing anything else, bundle up with all your other junk mail and recycle this way. Be persistent and eventually it will stop.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/26/section/84

"(3)A person commits an offence if, intending to act to a person’s detriment and without reasonable excuse, he opens a postal packet which he knows or reasonably suspects has been incorrectly delivered to him."

2 points:

1. The Royal Mail delivers based on address, not name.  So something with the correct address on it is not "incorrectly delivered" in my reading at least.

2. In any case, it is clearly a "reasonable excuse" if you need to open it to find out who to contact to inform them that that person isn't there any more, though if there's a return address you might as well use that.

We stopped giving to the neighbour yonks ago - well over a year ago  after asking them to ask him to change the effing address for the second/third? time. After that it was RTS until the call to Barclaycard about 6 months ago and the bin with all the mail since. They basically said all they were willing to do was put a note on the account but wouldn't chase him up. Frankly that doesn't fill me with confidence as I know what most of these companies are like. They don't seem to care one way or the other which is extremely frustrating and while I appreciate I'm not the card holder I do have some skin in the game with this.

I know a landlord who had a tenant get into debt resulting in a CCJ against them.The PITA is that they (CCJs) are against an address and the person which neatly shafts  the actual resident i.e. me in this case. 

I'm kinda stumped as whats left to try now although the suggestion of trying to find the guy is tempting. He moved out of the immediate area though so maybe not too simple.

"If the card is still registered at your address could it be considered identify theft aka fraud? Have you tried ringing up the credit card company concerned and reporting an account of identity theft? That may move it down different internal channels compared to customer services."

This is a great idea that hadn't occurred to me. I'll give this a try tomorrow.  Thank you.

This. Very very much this. I don't know the guy but the fact hes willing to have financial stuff registered at someone else's address just inherently makes me nervous