Suggestions please - someone used my address to get a £2K loan from Nat West

[Actual]

Subject says it all really. I bought my current house 2 years ago and have discovered today that one of the previous owners has successfully received a £2K loan from Nat West using my address. I'm assuming he must have walked into a Nat West branch and used out of date ID with his old address/my address. How did he get credit checked with this address? He is off the electoral role? Someone suggested the banks use out of date electoral role data to check identities.

 

Anyway, his statements are coming to my address and he has already missed at least 1 payment.

 

So seeing this I started opening his other mail. Some of his debts I already know about (the local council are still chasing him for unpaid council tax). I discovered another letter from Advantage Loans telling him to contact them as he had been approved for another £2K loan he had applied for.

 

I called the Police today (waste of time) and while I have a crime number for this, they say technically it's the Nat West that have been defrauded not me - so it's the Nat West who need to pursue this matter.

 

From my point of view, I am sure this has damaged my ability to gain credit - just at a point in my life where I was starting to see my own credit status back to a good rating. Now this has been (potentially) ruined.

 

I intend to write to Nat West and Advantage to tell them they have been defrauded and, of course, need to get my credit reports to see what damage this person has done to me.

 

What else should I be doing to clean this mess up?

[palomino]

1. It's unlawful to open other people's mail. Just return it all to the sender.

 

2. Presumably the miscreant has a completely different name to you. If so your credit record won't be affected as such records are based on the person's name.

 

3. You could/should write to NatWest and the other creditors explaining that you have 'inadvertantly' opened the mail addressed to the other person, and that that person does not live at your address and hasn't done for a long time (if at all). His use of your address is clearly fraud and you will assist them in clearing up the matter if required.

Address the letters to the Fraud Dept of the organisation concerned.

Also explain you have already reported the matter to the police.

Send all letters by recorded delivery.

 

4. The electoral register itself can be up to a year out-of-date. If organisations are slow to get the latest version then the copy they hold can be mych more. Using this method to verify your identity and address can be unreliable.

[Actual]

Thanks for the help Pal, I'm happy that I haven't missed anything important.

 

Wth regards to your point number 1, about it being illegal to open other peoples mail, I am surprised at this law. Personally, for 2 years, I have been returning his mail unopened "back to sender" for virtually all of these companies, yet the companies seem to ignore that and keep on re-sending them back to my address.

 

But the one time I open his mail, I discover what he has done - this seems to be when the companies start to take action. As an example, I rang up the Baillifs that are chasing him for unpaid council tax and it seems the only way to stop them sending the same baillif letters again and again is for me to send a utility bill to them as proof of my own residence at the property.

 

This all seems to make a mockery of the fact it is illegal to open someone elses mail!

 

Oh well, hopefully my letters will resolve this. I'll be getting my credit reports to see if they have "linked" me to him

[Monty2007]

Thanks for the help Pal, I'm happy that I haven't missed anything important.

 

Wth regards to your point number 1, about it being illegal to open other peoples mail, I am surprised at this law. Personally, for 2 years, I have been returning his mail unopened "back to sender" for virtually all of these companies, yet the companies seem to ignore that and keep on re-sending them back to my address.

 

But the one time I open his mail, I discover what he has done - this seems to be when the companies start to take action. As an example, I rang up the Baillifs that are chasing him for unpaid council tax and it seems the only way to stop them sending the same baillif letters again and again is for me to send a utility bill to them as proof of my own residence at the property.

 

This all seems to make a mockery of the fact it is illegal to open someone elses mail!

 

Oh well, hopefully my letters will resolve this. I'll be getting my credit reports to see if they have "linked" me to him

 

If it comes through your door then you are within your rights to open it, simple as that. It becomes your property. Many people return items marked as not known, in your case it is obviously good that you did open it.

[Goldlady]

I am glad that I opened a letter addressed to the guy I bought a house from many years ago. It was a repossession warrant and if I had ignored it I would have been evicted seven days later as someone had forgotten to tell the bailiffs that he had paid off the loan when we bought the house. It still came fairly close and was a very scary experience.

 

I think if you are still getting mail for him after two years that is not quite the same as if it was only a month or two.