Enforcement Agents for a previous tenant

For various reasons I’m currently renting a house in London and it’s becoming apparent that a previous occupant (not the one prior to me but the one before that I think) has left a lot of debt in his wake, with it all still being linked to this address. So at the moment I’m getting a lot of enforcement agencies chasing those debts for such things as:

– unpaid congestion charges (10 of them and counting so far – about £2.5K’s worth) as it looks like his car (which isn’t taxed or insured) is still registered at this address

– unpaid credit card bills (looks like him and his partner at the time got new cards, maxxed them out and haven’t paid anything back)

– unpaid fines (not sure what for, but there are a couple of courts chasing him)

– £35K of car finance debt (looks like they might have taken finance just before they moved and never paid any of it back)

etc. etc. – over £40K of debt at the moment and counting.

Trying to persuade the enforcement companies that he doesn’t live here (and even pointing them to a later address via a companies house registration) doesn’t appear to be helping as their standard answer just seems to be – we’ll send an enforcement agent to the door. It seems like they do that (even when it’s highly unlikely the person still lives at the address) instead of actually trying to find out where the guy does live now.

Anyone had a similar situation in the past and managed to sort it out? I’m concerned I’m going to end up losing the rag with one of the overaggressive enforcement agents trying to force entry and it’s going to get ugly and I’ll end up with my own section on one of those debt collector reality shows! I’ve already tried the rental agency but the enforcement folks don’t believe them any more than they believe me, and the police so far haven’t been interested (even when I’ve pointed out the issue with failing to change the address on his car registration details).

Yep, told them to go  do things to themselves and to get the hint that he ain’t here. Letters returned  etc. I called the council for a Council tax one and they did sort that out but apart from that it’s a fairly basic process it seems.

It might be simplistic and probably very wishful to think this, but surely as you are not the person they are looking for and you are legally entitled to be in the flat, what can they actually do?

In my limited experience, you might have better luck talking to the agents rather than the company.

Had a letter through the door saying a collection officer had tried to visit, rang the company and they said they wouldn’t stop it, wanted me to fill out a form and send proof of tenancy.

Rang the guy directly and he just asked if I knew where the previous tenant was (I didn’t) then I never heard from them again.

Just don’t let them in if they do show up at your door.

New tenancy is in your name, so simply show them that when they come knocking.

Failing that head to Citixens Advice who should point you towards constructive areas of the Law to prevent more visits.

Dont be offensive with them, the Law is on thier side and they have a right to chase down collection of monies owing.

the Law is on thier side and they have a right to chase down collection of monies owing.

But also an obligation to stop once they have ascertained that it’s not you who owes – so make sure they do.

It might be simplistic and probably very wishful to think this, but surely as you are not the person they are looking for and you are legally entitled to be in the flat, what can they actually do?

With the enforcement agencies it seems like you are guilty until proven innocent. One of them, Martsons, has been told by myself and the rental agency that they guy they’re looking for is long gone with no forwarding address – has even contacted me by name at the address – but still refuses to believe that sending enforcement agents to this address is a waste of their time and money. Same attitude from Task (i.e. they’ll send enforcement agents round and it’s for me to prove that the guy doesn’t live there now) and it doesn’t sound like anything other than me handing over personal info to their agents (which isn’t going to happen) is going to satisfy them, especially as they’ve also said that just because I’m now the tenant doesn’t prove the guy doesn’t live here.

It seems crazy that they seem able to turn up and, if able to make “peaceful entry” to the house (i.e. if I leave a door or window open when I’m not in), they think they can seize my stuff then I have to be able to prove I’m not the guy to get it back. Just because someone lived here a few years back and they don’t have a more recent address for him.

they think they can seize my stuff then I have to be able to prove I’m not the guy to get it back

Worse, you have to prove you own it and not ‘the guy’.

Just don’t let them in if they do show up at your door.

There is no chance they’re getting into the house while I’m here – but I do travel for business so my wife is sometimes here alone.

And if they get me on the wrong day (and I’m in a grumpy mood) there is also the chance that my response to them is going to be “why don’t you wait here while I get the keys to the gun cabinet…”Only kidding of course. I think.

New tenancy is in your name, so simply show them that when they come knocking.

So far it’s about a 50% hit rate of agencies that accept that, and 50% that don’t (as when he did live here it was his girlfriend at the time’s name on the tenancy – not his). If it was just one agency chasing debts it wouldn’t be much of a problem (I’ve had it at other London addresses) – the difference here is the sheer number and scale of the debts – there have been about 15 letters from enforcement companies just this week.

I had this with past tenants, went on for ages.

Just keep your contract and id ready so when the debt chasers call you just prove it has nothing to do with you, they are only doing their job.

Exactly, and they will have the Law on thier side to chase down the monies owed… so getting stroppy with them will do no-one any good. Stay calm, show them proof, explain that the agents aren’t the only ones knocking for previous tenants.

Its a shit place to be, and I sympathise with your angst. You might as well prepare yourself with Documents right at hand to save any unnecessary door stop tet-tar-tets..

And get in touch with CAB, there’s plenty you can do other than post on an MTB forum.

Crazy state of affairs really. As above, I can understand that they want to legally try to get back what is owed to them, but I am astounded that they actually continue to harass innocent people once they have been told the person they are looking for isn’t at the address.

It’s sad though because this guy doubtlessly will be now running up further debts and leaving other people in his wake and just chancing his way through life.

Could you print off copies of tenancy agreements/ID etc to hand out to them when they come knocking – just give them that and ask them to leave.

Had this at my current flat but it was only 2 different sets of Enforcement Agents.  Have documents available at the door if you can and if they get in any way aggressive or threatening call the police.  Do not let them in!  I had a chat with the local PCSO who took a load of notes of the situation and then had a chat with the companies.  One went away, the other turned up again so I called the PCSO who came round and they then left me alone.  They can be persistent so you need to be too.

It’s sad though because this guy doubtlessly will be now running up further debts and leaving other people in his wake and just chancing his way through life.

It looks like the guy seems to think he can get away with stuff indefinitely as it’s looking like he’s driving into the congestion charging zone in London on almost a daily basis and not bothering to pay anything. This week we’ve typically been getting 4 or 5 letters relating to those a day.

It now seems to be down to just 2 agencies that won’t accept he doesn’t live here – but they’re the ones that appear to have the worst reputation i.e. Marston and Task. Doesn’t seem to matter what you say to them (from myself or the rental agency – including providing an more up to date address) as their only answer seems to be that we’ll send the enforcement agents round.

DVLA don’t seem to have a standard process for these situations either – under GDPR they won’t even confirm if the vehicle was still registered at this address, so the only option is to send them a letter with the details on it and hope they’re willing to remove the link between the vehicle and this address as God alone knows just how many vehicle offence related letters I might have coming.

Write them a formal letter of complaint demanding compensation and threatening to complain to the financial ombudsman service. Give them 15 days to respond, if they don’t then write again giving another 15 days. They will almost certainly cease all actions against you by this point. If they still don’t respond, or don’t respond to your satisfaction then you can complain to the financial ombudsman service who will find in your favour and award compensation.

Just been through something similar with a debt recovery company regarding a vehicle I used to own. After my second letter I got a call from one of their managers, very apologetic and asking how much compensation I thought would be adequate.

Happy to provide more info via pm if useful. Or have a here – w<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>ww.financial-ombudsman.org.uk</span>

If you think about it from the debt collectors perspective, would you stop chasing because an unidentified person had told you that the debtor didn’t live there anymore?

If they keep chasing once you’ve proven you are the tenant then by all means, give them both barrels.

I’ve already complained to Marston but it hasn’t helped. What they said in response is that they have to act on the address given in the notice of enforcement, as that’s the only address the warrant they have covers – and they’re saying that they need to attend the address to “satisfy their client that the named person does not reside” – which sounds to me like they’ll be billing something on that basis so don’t really care that both myself and the rental agency have been in contact to confirm the person they’re after doesn’t live here. They even thanked me for the information on a later address for the guy, but said they wouldn’t be acting on it.

It sounds to me like they way they’re working is:

Stage 1: Attend the address so they can prove to their client that the person doesn’t live there.

Stage 2: Offer (at additional cost) services to try and trace the person to their new address

So even if they don’t think the guy now lives here (which I don’t really think they do) their process means they’ll attend the address anyway as that’s how they get paid. They then go on to say that their local thug will attend and I should either supply him with whatever personal information he wants in order to prove the person with the debt doesn’t live here, or “allow him entry to the house to confirm the named person does not reside”. Asking them how they’d actually do the latter didn’t get any meaningful response, and neither did me asking what the process is if I refuse to do either of the above or just ignore them.

I’ll check out the Financial Ombudsman and see if it’s worth complaining via them.

If they’ve been in contact more than once and been informed of the situation and still continue you can take out a restraining order for harrasment.

They’re usually even served on them by the Police.

I think its reasonably cheap to do too.

Well I’ve sent the remaining two agencies a copy of the front page of the rental agreement so we’ll see if that stops them from hassling me. If they continue to do so then I think there will be a case that it’s harassment.

What’s interesting is that the tenant at the time (I’m assuming his now former girlfriend) doesn’t appear to be attempting to hide and is very easy to locate via both facebook and the website of the place where she works. Given a fair chunk of the debt (including £35K of car finance) is in her name I am wondering if she’s even aware of it or if it was taken out in her name without her knowing.

I think Grey ^^^ has it; write to Marston and Task – and their clients if you know who they are – with a concise summary and state their continued behaviour gives you cause to contact the police with a view to bringing harassment charges; a course of conduct which the other party knew, or should have known, would cause distress.

Tell them if they do not cease and desist with immediate effect you look forward to seeing them in court.

You should consider contacting local media to highlight ‘aggressive’ collection agencies – and tell both Marston and Task you are doing this and have provided their full contact details and look forward to the resulting adverse publicity.

It’s too much like hard work for them to find the debtor so they focus on the the current resident – you.

You have no reason to be pleasant, polite or co-operative. They’re giving you a hard time so reciprocate.

I don’t see why you’re getting so defensive. I’ve had this before you just prove you are not the guilty party and that they no longer live here when they turn up. It is a pain yes but if you’re not guilty you have nothing to worry about.

Why do you think they’d take information from some 3rd party.

Guilty person – “Hi, yeah Joe Bloggs doesn’t live here anymore he’s at XX Lane, London”.

Company/Enforcement agent – “Oh that’s awfully kind of you, we’ll go search that address instead”

Guilty person scarpers.

I don’t see why you’re getting so defensive. I’ve had this before you just prove you are not the guilty party and that they no longer live here when they turn up. It is a pain yes but if you’re not guilty you have nothing to worry about.

With the greatest respect, the OP has explained that in the situation he’s describing, this simply isn’t working, and it’s understandably having a significant negative impact on his quality of life.

OP, fire off some ‘cease and desist’ letters. Templates are available on the web.

With the greatest respect, ehat ive said is exactly so far what’s happened. No one’s turned up at the door yet from what’s been said.

A 3rd party, in this case is trying to tell an agency that person X doesn’t live there. How can that agency be 100% that’s true.

By visiting the property and seeing no evidence that person X lives there can they be 100%.

It’s crap but I get it from their point of view, they have to be limiting in what they believe because people are scum and write up huge debts on purpose and do a runner and hide and tell all sorts of lies. A trick is to swap tenancy from their name to someone else’s but still reside at the property.

If the other agencies has decided to drop it that’s their call.

Larry_Lamb wrote:

With the greatest respect, ehat ive said is exactly so far what’s happened. No one’s turned up at the door yet from what’s been said.

Quote from the OP’s first post:

I’m concerned I’m going to end up losing the rag with one of the overaggressive enforcement agents trying to force entry

Larry_Lamb has clearly never been unfortunate enough to deal with a debt recovery agency. They are a bunch of lying, cheating, thieves who seek to bully, cajole and frighten people into paying money they don’t owe.

As others have suggested, have ID and tenancy to hand. Call the debt collection agencies, be polite and helpful – tell them you understand there’s a process that needs following (i.e. an agent needs to set eyes on physical proof of you and your documents) and can you arrange a mutually convenient time to do so. Also tell them that you have found some useful information on social media to assist them in tracking down the previous tenants and you’d be happy to share this at the same time.

At the end of the day, the previous tenants have ripped a load of people off, the agencies are just trying to do their job of recouping the money and get paid. Sadly there’s a lot of chancers which is why they have to take a firm line, but they’re not “thugs” or whatever.

We had a similar issue when we moved into our new house a few years back, the above is how we dealt with it and all was very amicable. I believe they caught up with the debtor at her workplace, which we supplied to them after finding her on Facebook. Win win situation – we were left alone, they enforced the debt.

As always, being pleasant, helpful and calm is the order of the day here, not being belligerent, difficult etc.

but they’re not “thugs” or whatever

But they are bullies; who want to intimitade nice people into doing their work for them.

But they are bullies; who want to intimitade nice people into doing their work for them.

Having been through this very process, I can honestly say I never felt intimidated – we knew we’d done nothing wrong, and we’re just helping point them in the direction of where to find the people who had.

At the end of the day, if people paid their bills or at least spoke to creditors if they were struggling, there’d be no need for doorstep collection.

…and we’re just helping point them in the direction of where to find the people who had.

Which is kind of what I said. They have the facilities to dig a lot deeper than you, but can’t be bothered. Whereas you will to stop them bothering you any more.

Debt collectors are FCA registered and regulated. Tell them (in writing) that if they do not stop you will complain to the police, to pursue charges of harassment, and to the FCA with a view to having their licence revoked.

I m pretty sure if you were a tenant of mine you would be seeking compensation for the lack of quiet enjoyment that it says in your rental contract you are paying for.

If i were you i would get the landlord to do all the chasing, he allowed the previous scumbag in and hopefully got the rent paid.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/debtcollecting-note.html#8

But they are bullies; who want to intimitade nice people into doing their work for them.

Not in my experience. Have you ever dealt with any? Doesn’t sound like it. Also there is a different between private companies collecting debt and high court appointed collection agents. The latter will have a court warrant to collect payment or seize goods to the value of the debt and that warrant may allow forcible entry. As the court has instructed them to attend the address to do that they may well have no choice and can’t take info over the phone/email.

I have dealt with similar situations and just shown documents to prove who I am and given them all the info I knew about the debtor (always a previous occupant).

Even the private debt collectors have been reasonable when I’ve called them and have always been very grateful that I rang and given them any useful info.

Have you ever dealt with any? Doesn’t sound like it

Then you would be dead wrong.

One of my previous houses was a repo; I had quite a few knocks on the door from blokes in cheap white shirts with thick necks and heads of solid bone. They wave an ID at you and then expect you should beg them to come in.

Asking for Mr XXXX, when you say he ‘doesn’t live here anymore’  they go on to  ‘where is he now’, ‘can we come in and have a look?’

The answers are always “how should I know” and “of course you bloody can’t”. They ask you to prove who you are and at that point you tell them to eff off. (After looking in the hall mirror and confirming it’s you to furrowed brows)

They had my wife at the edge of calling the police as they would not leave the doorstep.

The assumption that you are lying to them is wearing. When they come round a week later and do it all again is irritating.The bullying tactics are outside of civilized and the threat that they may just come back when you are out and check all the doors and windows with a view to a bit of light trespass is intimidating

You can report them to their paymasters; they generally don’t care and will take the opportunity ask you to make a payment to ‘make it go away’

Scum. Stop apologising for them

have always been very grateful that I rang and given them any useful info.

And stop doing their work for them. You make it worth trying these tactics

Scum. Stop apologising for them

Im not saying they are all good but I’ve dealt with a few of both types and they have been fine. Which is the same experience as other people on this thread have had. Sorry you had a bad experience but don’t tar everyone with the same brush.

Be reasonable and helpful to start off with. If they hassle you more than they should after you’ve done what you can to help them then start getting serious with them, but getting all riled up before anything has happened is never going to end well and will only increase your blood pressure and stress levels for no reason.

Thanks for the advice.

To clarify:

– No visits as yet, just lots of letters and phonecalls and one visit imminent

– The majority of the organisations (there have been maybe 8 chasing the previous tenant so far) have been happy to get a call letting them know the guy doesn’t live here and most haven’t wanted any proof to back that up. Oddly enough those seem to be the ones for the highest value debts, including the unpaid car finance

– Two of the enforcement firms seem to be determined to send round their agents, despite both of them already having received copies of my tenancy agreement along with contact details for the rental agency (and I know the agency has already spoken to one of them)

It seems like the ones that are going to redirect their efforts are paid mainly be recovering the cash, where as the other two seem like they want to send someone round because eventually they’ll be able to bill someone for that visit. I’d assumed they were actually interested in recovering the money owed but it sounds like that’s only part of the situation.

One of those two who still seem to want to send someone round is chasing at least 10 Transport for London related charges (not sure if they’re congestion charge or parking related) at £278 a pop (£203 fine plus £75 to the collection agency). What’s slightly odd their is that the police have told me the vehicle involved isn’t connected to my address – so it’s not clear why they’re pursuing the guy here unless they’ve got some kind of bad debtors blacklist with name and address details that they’re using and which connects to him here given that’s where most of his other debts are linked to. We’ve been here for nearly 3 months now and their correspondence only started a couple of weeks back (with nothing before) so I’m wondering if they’ve switched to this address having not had a response from wherever the car is actually registered.

BTW I’ve been trying to locate a number for the local agent that one of the agencies said they’d be sending round (but didn’t give any contact info – probably because if contact is made without him coming to the door they can’t bill for that visit) and he does appear to fit the bill for “thug”. Lots of interesting tattoo’s (some might indicate ex-Navy) and what looks like many, many years of steroid use.

I don’t see why you’re getting so defensive. I’ve had this before you just prove you are not the guilty party and that they no longer live here when they turn up. It is a pain yes but if you’re not guilty you have nothing to worry about.

Sounds like that’ll work in a lot of situations (although still a fair bit of hassle as it appears you are guilty until you can prove yourself innocent) but even a cursory view of a couple of episodes of the reality show about similar enforcement agents shows up cases where they knew the person they’d attended wasn’t the person that owned the money – but siezed a vehicle anyway, and lots and lots of cases of sticking a foot in to stop a door being closed (and this in Warrant of Control situations – not evictions) including what looked like assault as they barged through the householder (who admittedly was a pr1ck) so they could enter a house and rummage about (a house which it was later confirmed didn’t actually belong to the guy they were after).

including what looked like assault as they barged through the householder (who admittedly was a pr1ck) so they could enter a house and rummage about (a house which it was later confirmed didn’t actually belong to the guy they were after).

At my previous address we had some turn up out of the blue one morning about 7am, I was in the shower when someone knocked at the door. They asked loads of questions like is anyone else in the house etc.. & I had to prove I lived there. They were perfectly reasonable except for the time of day.

I’m pretty sure if someone came round the intent of rummaging through my stuff when I know I don’t owe them any money I would probably come across as a prick on telly.

Only high court enforcement officers with a warrant can force entry.

debt collectors can’t force entry but if you invite them in that’s different….

sounds like a me a bit of a hassle. Good luck getting a speedy conclusion.

How come you know so much about the previous tenant? If a letter comes to mine and it’s not addressed to me then it gets “Returned to sender,not known at this address” or binned in there isn’t one.