I’ve just opened a letter by mistake.

It’s a bill for £368 (including a £97 fee for ignoring previous letters) from Credit Resolution Services for unpaid gym membership.

The addressee does not live at my house, and I can’t recall ever seeing any letters addressed to him.

Do I ring them up, or wait until another letter arrives, then return to sender?

Letter? What letter?

Last time it happened to me I called the debt agency and said that not only did that person not live there but they’d never lived there to my knowledge. Last I heard of them.

put it back in post.. with not known at this addresses in big letters on the front end of.. nowt to do with you..

I used to get loads at my last house, I used to send them back but got bored after a while and just started chucking them in the bin. Nothing ever happened.

put it back in post.. with not known at this addresses in big letters on the front end of.. nowt to do with you..

Do this, then ignore them. (Though you’ve just broken the law in opening someone else’s mail so you might want to wait for the next one.)

Though you’ve just broken the law in opening someone else’s mail so you might want to wait for the next one.

No he hasn’t, that is a myth, if the letter is addressed to your home you are fine to open it.

that is a myth,

Not as good as the one about the bloke who flies too close to the sun.

I was rather careless opening the envelope and can’t find any sellotape so back in the post not an option for this one. Decided to ring. Chap on the other end just said, ‘thanks, we’ll remove the address’. Minor drama over.

Though you’ve just broken the law in opening someone else’s mail so you might want to wait for the next one.

No, only if you’re intent on doing something malicious with it – http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/26/section/84/enacted

I sit corrected. Every day’s a school day.

put it back in post.. with not known at this addresses in big letters on the front end of.. nowt to do with you..

I kept doing that… then the police turned up demanding ID.

I would tend to get the address cleared as I worry that ‘guilt by association’ would affect my credit score.

Phone em and tell em, worth doing as i was nosey having never dealt with a debt collection agency before and also meant that I didn’t have letters constantly appearing

i did the ‘not known at this address’ thing (quite consistently as there were a lot of letters) when I moved in last year.

it seemed to do the trick – they’ve mostly stopped coming now.

Not as good as the one about the bloke who flies too close to the sun.

lol

I’d maybe not just ‘ignore’…. if you’ve not had any other mail for the the guy and you’ve lived at the address for a reasonable amount of time then unless the debt is very old (which some debt collection agency ones are) and dates back to a previous occupant who’s only being pursued now – then it looks to me like someones using you address to secure credit fraudulently. So I’d be wanting the debt agency to actually write to you acknowledging the debt has nothing to do with your address and that they’ve notified the originating Gym that they’ve been defrauded rather than just unpaid – and I’d maybe look at you experian report and check theres no other funny business going on that you don’t know about yet.

The problem with debt collection agencies is they either recover the debt or sell it on again – so unless you make a bit of effort to get it dis-associated from your address then you’ll get letters and calls every time the debt changes hands.

IME they ignore them when you send them or call so you might as well ignore them

My favourite is from the bank who repossessed the house sold it to me; I also have a mortgage with from the same house.
None of this nor my contacting them are sufficient to stop this

Just ignore its not you they dont live there nothing can happen

I had one recently. Someone moved house and gave my address as their new address. I don’t know if it was deliberate or accidental or the supplier taking the wrong details down. So I got their final bill, then the reminders. Called. Got told to send the envelopes back marked not known but they failed to do anything so it got passed to a DCA. Stream of letters from them, sent those back too and it *finally* seems to have gone quiet.

Yep we used to get a stream of red letters addressed to a former occupant of our house.

I opened one and rang the DCA, saying the guy they wanted didn’t live here any more. They treated me like I was lying, and that this guy must be a relative and I must have a forwarding address, and what was my name? And why wouldn’t I give them my name? I told them to **** off then if that was their attitude, and in future just chucked the letters away.

‘Opened in error/addressee not known’

Or email them. Explain.

When we moved in we had a flood of letters daily. It’s now down to one every few months.

wwaswas – Member 
I would tend to get the address cleared as I worry that ‘guilt by association’ would affect my credit score.

Legally it doesn’t affect your credit score so long as you have no financial association with the other person. It’s based on your identity first.

If they’ve applied for credit in your name however, then it will, but then it’s also fraud so can be dealt with.

https://help.creditexpert.co.uk/help/sv635/Credit_Score/people_my_address

I keep receiving letters addressed to someone who used to live at my address relating to debt that is unpaid. How does this affect me?

This does not affect your credit report or score. Also, you should bear in mind that it is illegal to open post not addressed to you. You should mark the envelope with ‘Addressee not known – return to sender’ and put the post back in the post box so that the company knows that person no longer lives at that address. Unless you are financially associated to this person (I.e, you have a joint credit account or have made a joint credit application with this person), their financial situation will not affect yours and this will not affect you financially in any way.

It’s your home and you can open any letter that comes through the door. Tell them to **** off. They are a bunch shysters waiting to take money off anyone. Pricks.
Bad day?