A member of my family is potentially buying a house and apparently the previous owner had some issues with debt. Not only that but she may have sublet contrary to the mortgage T&Cs and some of the tenants may have got into debt too. The house is large so I'm assuming we're talking about reasonable sums.
If they decide to buy the property, are there any prudent steps they should take to ensure that any communications to previous residents from debt management agencies / credit reference agencies are appropriately handled or can they be ignored?
Advice online seems a little confusing. Their main concern is to avoid them dealing with admin on behalf of previous residents, or worse - F2F visits from creditors.
In my professional life, I'm vaguely familiar with privacy law, the GDPR etc. but I think that applies more to B2C and B2B relationships so perhaps that would be relevant if any of the previous residents were running a business from the property.
It sounds like a headache but your thoughts would be welcome.
TIA.
AO
Write across any letters "no longer at this address return to sender'.
Additionally should bailiffs turn up simply explain the situation, and if they are really concerned contact Equifax and Experian to have any adverse credit history removed from the property.
We recently let a house to a couple where the previous tenant had run up an unhealthy amount of debts, all the debtors were very helpful and understanding.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
Thanks N2, that makes sense.
There are all manner of discussions online analysing whether post should be opened as some companies ignore return to sender mail / don't bother to dedupe their data but it sounds like a minefield.
When there's no return address on the letter I've opened them and phoned the sender to explain, and again they were always grateful to have their records updated.Originally Posted by AlphaOmega
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
^Understood. Did you give them your details or did you just say the property ownership has transferred?
A couple of companies asked who I was, I simply said 'the landlord / owner', in the case of your relatives I'd just say 'I'm the new owner, I bought the house on DD/MM/YYYY and the debtors no longer live here.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
^Appreciate it, thanks N2.
When we first moved in to our current house the previous owner had defaulted on various bank loans and skipped off to Portugal. I received all kinds of bank and debt recovery mail for months, all returned as 'Not known at this address'.
They kept arriving so after five months I started opening them and calling the companies involved. They were all helpful and the letters stopped.
A quick search of the electoral register would have saved them the postage costs.
^Good to know another case where proactively contacting creditors has worked.
If your family members have started the conveyancing process then their solrs would be able to check the Land Reg title to see if any charges or restrictions have been applied in relation to debt.
What I would say is that if your family decides to buy the sellers solicitor will have a legal obligation to transfer a clean title, i.e. all relevant charges and restrictions removed.
Thanks Sevvy, did not know that.
We had the same issue when we bought our house 12 years ago. The previous owner owed a lot of money to several banks etc. We ended up opening mail and calling the companies to explain, as the return to sender didn’t seem to work.
We also had 2 different bailiffs on the doorstep, had to show ID to prove I wasn’t lying about who I was. Took about 6 months from memory for it all to stop, but no big deal and wouldn’t put me off buying in a similar situation.
^Thanks Matt
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote