Hi all, this is my first post so please be gentle!!!
Moved into my new home 14 months ago. Last owner but one who left here 2 1/2 years ago keep getting parking tickets and speeding fines tax reminders etc. Now there getting bailift letters to this address. I keep sending back letters with "not at this address return to sender" on them, i have phoned police and dvla who say they can do nothing.
Does anyone know of the procedure for this sort of problem, i am concerned that this address will get blacklisted and obviously feel that these people need prosecuting for there wrong doings!!! (i have no forwarding address for them)
Thanks in advance.
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Send a letter, recorded delivery to the Bailiffs addressed to the Senior Partner (his /her name will be on the letterhead).
In the letter state that Mr X does not live at your address and that you are the new owner/tenant and are not aware of where Mr X now lives.
Tell them to desist from sending letters and making telephone calls to you or any other member of your family. Then state that you will be happy to receive any new phone calls or letters - these phone calls will be logged along with the receipt of their threatening letters. However for each phone call received you will invoice them for £25 and for each letter you will send them a letter by return enclosing an invoice for £35 - the extra £10 being the additional handling charge for writing to them.
Failure of them to pay the said invoice will result in you taking them to the small claims court and costing them the invoice + late payment charge plus any court costs you incur.
Give them 3 days to receive the letter then any correspondence will cease (99% sure).
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Go to your Magistrate's Court and ask them to sign a Statutory Declaration for you to state that the person is not at the address and you are not responsible. There is no fee for this.
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The above advice is excellent and should do the trick. I appreciate that it is not easy to argue with large men with few brain cells, with tattoos, too many earings and a bad attitude, but, if they are looking for John Snooks and you can prove by passport driving licence or whatever, that you james Armitage or whoever you are, why do they keep hassling you? I hesitate to say that this is where an ID card might come in useful but as I am 110% against them I won't!
Edited by Armitage Shanks {p} on 15/03/2008 at 08:12
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"Administration of Justice act"
The Administration of Justice Act 1970 S.40 makes it a Criminal Offence for a creditor or a creditor's agent (often a debt collection agency) to make demands (for money), which are aimed at causing ?alarm, distress or humiliation, because of their frequency or publicity or manner". Equally, a creditor will be committing an offence if they falsely imply that non-payment of the debt will lead to criminal proceedings; or the creditor pretends to be someone they are not e.g. a court official or bailiff. It is also an offence to send a person a document which looks like it has been sent from a court.
If you feel you are subject to Debt Collection Harassment then this too could be classed as a criminal offence. Harassment can be verbal or in writing and would include making repeated calls to your workplace or in anti social hours. The Protection from Harassment Act 1997 makes it a Criminal Offence for any person to pursue a course of action ?which they know, or ought to know, amounts to harassment of another person?.
The OFT has some info on handling them.
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Thanks for the replies.
Im not concerned about being harrassed or any letters or calls being sent to us. The letters are addressed to the previous ocuppier, my main concern is that their vehicles are still registered to this address and while they are still registered to this address they are avoiding prosecution.
It beggars belief that in this day and age, the authorities are unable to trace these vehicles or the owners of them.
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i am concerned that this address will get blacklisted
I read something authoritative recently which stated that this is urban myth. I cannot remember what, and I don't know whether that was urban myth too...
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It is - have a look at the Experian website, they'll tell you more about that sort of thig.
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