[Merged] Previous Owner Billing Problems

I moved into my new property nearly 4 months ago, transferred my services from my old address to the new one, everything fine. What is annoying though is that, along with my own bill from NTL, I keep getting bills from NTL for the previous owner. I accidentally opened one of these letters thinking it was my bill from NTL and I saw that the previous owner owes them quite a bit of money.

Point is, I returned the letters marked 'No longer at this address' but they kept coming. Then I phoned NTL who said it was a mistake but still they keep coming. Its more of a nuisance than a problem but I have this horrible feeling that eventually I will be cut-off in error at some point and have the pain of trying to get connected again.

[Roy MM]

Do you know where the previous owners have move to? redirect them to there new address.

Originally Posted by Roy MM

Do you know where the previous owners have move to? redirect them to there new address.

moved back to India I believe, according to the neighbour. Dont think they will care anymore about NTL chasing them for money...........

but why do NTL keep sending bills when they know the situation, how hard can it be to delete the previous owners name from my address?

[Roy MM]

Probably working in the NTL call centre as we speak.

Originally Posted by Roy MM

Probably working in the NTL call centre as we speak.

yeah, sending me their bills deliberately, just for a laugh

Hi dgr1577,

If you would like to send me some details via private message - I will forward this on to our ntl contact to investigate. Thanks.

Posted a thread on here recently to explain that I was receiving bills from NTL addressed to the previous owner of my property even although I had called NTL to inform them of this mistake.

Anyways, one of the friendly cable forum team took some details from me and sorted the whole thing out with NTL, no more bills for the previous owner and no fear of me being disconnected in error.

Last night I received a letter simply addressed to 'The Occupier' and when I opened the letter it was from a debt recovery agency who had been instructed by NTL to pursue this debt at my address.

Surely NTL should have instructed this agency that the previous owner no longer lived at my property. So now the fear is not being disconnected by mistake but of being kneecapped at my front door and my telly taken.

Why oh why oh why.....?

[MovedGoalPosts]

Debt Collection Agencies are a pain. Simply write to them, recorded delivery might be best so they can't deny receipt of it. State you have no liability for bills of previous occupants, you do not know where that person has gone, and you cannot assist further. Also state that they should refer the matter back to ntl and that you will accept no further dealings from them.

Glad to know your own billing issues have been sorted.

I think you can assume that a debt recovery agency used by a major company like NTL will not employ Ronnie and Reggie style tactics. Your kneecaps are probably safe.

What is happening now is that the debt recovery agency is trying to track down the former occupier of the address, who still owes money. A standard part of their investigation is to write to you, the new occupier, to see if you have any information that might assist them. You are not under any obligation to give them any information. The debt is not secured on your house or anything else you own so they can do nothing to you. Even if they thought they could, they would have to go to court before they could take anything off you!

You could just ignore the letter but if you want maximum peace of mind, and you know the new address of the former occupier, then why not just grass on them?

[MovedGoalPosts]

Threads Merged

Originally Posted by Chris T

I think you can assume that a debt recovery agency used by a major company like NTL will not employ Ronnie and Reggie style tactics. Your kneecaps are probably safe.

What is happening now is that the debt recovery agency is trying to track down the former occupier of the address, who still owes money. A standard part of their investigation is to write to you, the new occupier, to see if you have any information that might assist them. You are not under any obligation to give them any information. The debt is not secured on your house or anything else you own so they can do nothing to you. Even if they thought they could, they would have to go to court before they could take anything off you!

You could just ignore the letter but if you want maximum peace of mind, and you know the new address of the former occupier, then why not just grass on them?

All i know is that the previous owner has gone back to India, no doubt to escape all his debts(NTL isnt the only debt he had it would appear)

[chandleo]

I've had very similar problems at my address, e-mailed ntl to say what a nuisance it was receiving about 3 letters a day from them for the previous occupants and they called me back and said they would not be able to stop sending bills/chasing letters out for the previous occupant as the previous occupant did not change addresses with them and it was all part of the process,

not quite sure what to think, had somebody calling round a few weeks ago (from ntl recovery i think they're called) to collect the box due to non payment of account, which i couldn't understand as i'd always paid direct debit, then he mentioned the previous occupants name which made things clearer.

[HD462]

Originally Posted by Chris T

You are not under any obligation to give them any information. The debt is not secured on your house or anything else you own so they can do nothing to you. Even if they thought they could, they would have to go to court before they could take anything off you!

While that's true, the problem I'd be worried about is them putting a black marker on the address with a credit reference agency for non payment. You'd probably not find out until you went to get something on credit, and they did a credit check and had to refuse you. It's very embarassing, it happened to us once.

You could contact Experian (credit reference company) and see what's held against your record, costs about £5 I think.

Originally Posted by HD462

While that's true, the problem I'd be worried about is them putting a black marker on the address with a credit reference agency for non payment. You'd probably not find out until you went to get something on credit, and they did a credit check and had to refuse you. It's very embarassing, it happened to us once.

You could contact Experian (credit reference company) and see what's held against your record, costs about £5 I think.

its a rented property so im not too worried about bad credit on the address, no doubt it has loads on it already, like most rented properties.