Debt belonging to previous house owner's parent...........

[nelliewops]

Hi everyone!

I'm not sure where to put this one, so feel free to move it site-team!!

We purchased our house in 2007 and the previous owners had previously had the husband's parents living in an annexe. They said they were selling the house because his parents were now deceased.

Recently we have been receiving mail from a bank in Spain (Bank Inter) addressed to someone of the same surname as the previous owners - but not the husband's christian name. We believe this was the previous owner's father. For some months we have been returning these unopened to the Spanish bank as we don't have a forwarding address for the previous owners. None of our neighbours seem to know where they went - rumour has it they went abroad - to Greece I have heard - and there was talk they had big debts.

Despite us returning the letters to the sender they still keep arriving - sometimes 3 or 4 in one week..........we must have received around 30 in total.

Today we received yet another one and to try to get to the bottom of things I decided (yes, I know it was wrong of me ) to open it. The letter is from the 'pre-litigation' department stating their intention to start legal proceedings against this person for going over his authorised overdraft of 59,000 euros by 1700 euros!!!!!!!!!

I have drafted a letter to the Spanish bank explaining that this person hasn't lived here for 3 years and that as far as we knew he was dead, but wondered if there is anything else I could (or should) be doing..............other than not opening other peoples' mail in future?

The last thing I want (or need) is a CCJ (or whatever the mainland European equivalent is) registered against someone who doesn't live at our property!

Many thanks guys for any advice you can offer,

Nellie x

[shell]

Re: Debt belonging to previous house owner's parent...........

Nellie we had this for a few years after buying this house, we eventually opened the mail as well. We wrote to the creditors to no avail, but what eventually stopped it was when we wrote to them again giving the name of the lawyer who dealt with the sale. (Even better if you know who their lawyer was.) We asked them to deal with the lawyer in future. Whether they did I don't know, but it stopped the letters.

[nelliewops]

Re: Debt belonging to previous house owner's parent...........

Nellie we had this for a few years after buying this house, we eventually opened the mail as well. We wrote to the creditors to no avail, but what eventually stopped it was when we wrote to them again giving the name of the lawyer who dealt with the sale. (Even better if you know who their lawyer was.) We asked them to deal with the lawyer in future. Whether they did I don't know, but it stopped the letters.

Hi Shell,

Thanks for your response! I'm going to go ahead and write to them anyway - despite the fact that the bank is in Spain, the letter they sent is in perfect English so I'm sure they'll understand what I have to say...........I can give them the name of our solicitor and will have a dig around through our old paperwork to see if I have the name for theirs. I also might send them a copy of our land registry details showing the property is in our names.

OH reckons the Father did die but that his offspring have gone ahead and drawn on his account.........either that or them saying he had died was not true, 'cos if he died over 3 years ago it seems odd all these letters only started arriving in the last few months :tinysmile_aha_t:

Will let you know how I get on.

Thanks again,

Nellie x

[nelliewops]

Re: Debt belonging to previous house owner's parent...........

Hi folks,

A quick update on this...........I sent a letter to the bank in Spain in November, as per my previous post, including a copy of our land registry entry clearly showing the purchase of the house by ourselves from the person we believe is the son of the letters intended recipient and explaining that we had no knowledge of this person or their whereabouts.

Despite this, since December we have received a further 5 letters addressed to this person including two today. I have opened one and again it refers to a mortgage and an overdraft approaching 60,000 euros !!! Strange, considering we had been led to believe the person in question was dead!

I don't know what else I can do regarding this - should I write again, return the letters or just bin them?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions,

Nellie x