Hi both, Thanks for your messages. You're quite right CitizenB. I have no wish to speak to them again! Hi Renegadeimp, By chance (via scanning messages on here), I've just been reading about stat decs. It is indeed true that everything here is mine, the few things that he left included nothing of value so it all went in the bin. Am I correct though in reading between the lines that a stat dec is for a limited period? Is it correct that I can obtain one at a court free as opposed to charged at a solicitor? Does it then need to be submitted to the court, to Marstons, or to both? I'll be phoning the local court on Monday (i've already emailed also) to seek their advice. You mentioned it being pretty easy to show he isn't here. Barring showing someone the now empty spare bedroom how do I do so though? Best regards and again, many thanks! Richard

Hi, Thanks for the message. I dont believe they have breached the DPA as they didn't disclose any information on the phone. The information I have is from the letter. I dont see any value on speaking to Marston on the phone again. The attitude from the guy I spoke to was truly shocking. I guess it may well be useful speaking to the court service and seeing how they can help. The only slight problem there is that the contact details on the HM Courts & Tribunals Service website, unless you're using a textphone, are on a court-by-court basis and I have no idea which court dealt with the matter. What I do have though is the HMC&TS reference number. Does anyone know if there's a way of finding out which court it was? If not I suppose it may be worth phoning the most local one and seeing if they can look the reference number up. I was under the impression that credit searches etc will often show list other people who have been resident at the address? By chance there's a (tiny, part-time) police station a few hundred yards from my home so yes, should a bailiff come knocking I'll ask him to wait outside and then call the police. Best regards Richard

Hi All, I'm new here so fingers-crossed that this is in the correct forum. Until around 3 weeks ago I had a former friend lodging at my home. He was only here, on & off, for around 6 weeks, I had to throw him out because he caused substantial damage to my home and neither arranged to have the damage made good, paid for it to be done or even apologised (& I'm talking about what will in total be over 1,000). I've since received a number of items of post addressed to him. Today when I got home another one had been delievered except I didn't notice it was for him until after opening it. It's a letter from Marston: "We are in posession of a Magistrates Court Order as a consequence of non-payment of the above amount. We are instructed to demand immediate payment in FULL from you. We must inform you that unless the TOTAL sum due is paid into our office within 7 days of the date of this letter, our bailiffs will attend to levy distress and remove your goods for sale by PUBLIC AUCTION. This action will involve minimum further costs of 215." It was seemingly non-payment of a 35 fine for 'A*****t by b*****g' + 85 fees. Not wanting something like this to be recorded against my address I called Marstons, it was a -long- process just to speak to someone. The first time, after being on hold for ages the line was answered, as I started speaking it went dead. I called back, more time on hold. This time I was able to start explaining the situation but after a few moments the line died again. In case it was a problem with the landline at home I tried from my mobile. More time on hold & yep, same problem after speaking for a few moments. On the 4th attempt, having speant over an hour on hold I eventually got to speak to someone properly. I explained the situation and explained that because the addressee left under far-from-favourable circumstances, that he did not provide a forwarding address but that I had subsequently discovered where he was working, I offered this information but it was refused with no explanation beyond "I need a residental address". I said I thought it was ludicrous that they were being offered information which would enable them to find the person they're trying to contact but were refusing it. I then specifically asked for my address to be removed from the persons record. I was told that I would have to send them a utility bill in my name. I asked what that would acheive, given that it neither prooves I actually live at the address or that the person they are chasing does not. I received no sufficient answer to this, only mumbling about bailliffs visting. I asked again both what sending a utility bill would acheive and also why I should have to do anything given that I'm not the person they're chasing (this being particularly annoying when I've already offered contact details (which they could verify with a single call) and when they could verify my residency here on the electoral roll). When I didn't get a sufficient reply again I asked to be transferred to his duty manager and I was asked why he should!! I said that I wanted to speak to someone in authority there and the reply was "I'm in authority, I'm a senior member of staff" so I pointed out that if he was "a senior member of staff" that he wouldn't be taking first-line calls. I then asked again to be transferred to his duty manager and he refused. I asked for him name, given the fact that he had a strong accent, because he was obviously very agitated and because I wanted to be sure I asked him to repeat and the response was (shouted) "A-L-F-I-E, did you get that, was it simple enough for you?". Given his appalling attitude I hung up. So........... as I'm not an expert in these matters what should I do next? I have no wish to avoid either Marstons or my former lodger running up expenses and charges etc, that bit doesnt bother me in the slightest. However, I dont want any of this to be recorded against my address. Can I force the removal of my address? How on earth can I proove someone -doesn't- live here? Should I have to proove anything? Can Marstons send someone to my home to seize property? Can they force access to do so? Everything here is mine, there is nothing here that belongs to the former lodger. Many thanks in advance! Richard