Moving to Oz

[unclebulgaria67]

Husbands father should return the letter, as not known at the address. It is just bad tracing and coincidence, as they share the same name. You don't need to contact them, as they have your address in OZ.

 

Re Bankruptcy, i believe you would have to return to the UK and apply to a court. BUT if you have any assets or income in OZ, i suspect it would affect you there. You would no doubt have to provide full details of your finances and have someone appointed to deal with you.

 

I would suggest that if you have provided your OZ address to all creditors and are not in hiding, that you try to get on with life as best as you can. You are not a UK resident, so creditors have few options to enforce debts.

[karen75]

Thanks uncle, can/will they send debt collectors to their address? Thanks again

[unclebulgaria67]

No they should not, unless they know the debtor lives at the address. If the address is in Scotland, my understanding is that such doorstep visits are not allowed.

 

If your Husbands Fathers address has been used for any purpose e.g forwarding post, it could have been registered on records available to tracing agents. If this is the case, there may be more communications.

[karen75]

Thanks uncle, don't think address was used as a forwarding address as we didn't want to implicate relatives although it was my hubby previous address!

 

My hubby may have used it for hitachi finance as they would not accept an overseas address!

 

We have been able to keep payments for that as it was small & nearly finished!

 

Can l contact hitachi & insist they change address to overseas?

 

Thanks again

[unclebulgaria67]

If in your Husbands name, he can ask that for purposes of the Data Protection Act, that they record his foreign address for communications. Under the DPA, the finance company have a legal responsibility to hold accurate data.

 

Many creditors refuse to note a foreign address, as it causes problems in terms of enforcing a defaulted debt or selling it on. They don't say this of course. But they just don't want to note any credit record with a gone away marker.

 

It may also be possible for your husband to ask the credit reference agency to apply notes that he is resident abroad with the foreign address.

[karen75]

Thanks again uncle. How would l contact the credit reference agency? Is that just hitachi?

[unclebulgaria67]

You would have to contact Experian and Equifax, the two main credit reference agencies in the UK.

 

They hold your data in regard to your UK credit history.

 

There should be a process where you confirm your identity and you can then apply notes to your credit file against relevant entries.

 

you could apply notes against each credit entry stating that you are resident in Australia at x address.

 

any debt collector or finance company looking at your details could see this note.

 

If you check the Experian and Equifax sites, there should be email addresses.

 

Contact them to find out the process of adding notes to your credit file when you live outside the UK.

[karen75]

my father in law has had a debt collector at the door,

lm going to phone them as they have our address in oz so shouldn't be going to their house!

 

Can l tell them that the address is their address or would that implicate them?

 

Thanks all companies have our address in oz.

[unclebulgaria67]

Just send them a letter from Australia reminding them where you are resident, pointing that it is against FCA guidelines on debt collection to harass a third party, who happens to be a relative living in the UK.

[karen75]

Thanks uncle, would you not call them? I'll do letter tonight just don't want family members harassed. Thanks again appreciate you taking the time to reply

[unclebulgaria67]

You could call them, but they are getting the reaction that their visit might have been intended to achieve. Either they think you are living in the UK and wanting to check or they knew it was a relative to put pressure on you via them.

 

They should know they can't contact a third party regarding someone elses debt.

[karen75]

Ok thanks again.....father in law said they knew we were in oz but didn't know whereabouts! So they are obviously chancing their arm

[unclebulgaria67]

This is a bit odd.

 

Which company visited the address ?

 

Was the address in Scotland ?

 

Re the company, this might reveal reason for visit. It is unusual for a letter to be recieved and then a doorstep visit like this, when they have been told you are in Australia.

 

In Scotland, these type of visits are not allowed from what i have read.

[karen75]

Uncle, the company that visited parents was from Santander with regards to car loan (they also visited a previous address). Letter was from nram.

Address was in Scotland.

Going to get letters done & might phone them really don't want parents getting harassed! .

[unclebulgaria67]

Unlikely they would be from Santander. Probably a company acting for them.

 

What type of car finance ?

 

Was the car sold ?

 

If the loan was on the car and not a personal loan, this might be why they are visiting.

[karen75]

The loan was on a car & the company was from a car recovery company! Should l call them?

[unclebulgaria67]

If the car has not been sold, they need to recover it. If it has been sold, you need to give them the details of the sale.

 

If the car has been left in a garage somewhere or being used by a relative, the longer it takes to recover, the more the debt will be.

 

So yes you should advise this recovery company,as they may keep looking.

[karen75]

Ok great thanks, would an email be ok with my address included?

[unclebulgaria67]

Yes

[karen75]

Update..

....husband has managed to change address on Hitachi to our Australian one so that's good.

 

I've emailed the debt collector in regards to the car & given them our oz address reminding them of the FCA guidelines ( still waiting in reply).

 

With regards to n-ram letter had asked that we get in touch within 48hrs obviously any letters wouldn't get to them within that timeframe am l ok not to phone them?

 

They do have our address in oz as we have received correspondence from them previously!

 

I am going to get new letters done this weekend anyway as we are moving house & just put s bit in about the FCA guidelines .

 

Does what l'm doing sound ok?

 

Thanks

[unclebulgaria67]

Yes. Just keep them informed of your Aussie address

[karen75]

Thanks,

lve not phoned nram but have posted letters with updated address reminding them of FCA guidelines!

 

Really hoping they dont go to in laws house.

 

Also should I be concerned that lve not heard from debt collector (emailed them with our address). Thanks again

[unclebulgaria67]

All you can do is inform people. If the inlaws are harassed, they can complain. Advise them to keep record of contacts, so if this becomes too much they can report it as harassment.

[tesrod]

Hi Karen,

sorry to butt into your thread but I am in much the same position as yourself and have been following Uncle's instructions to the letter.

 

So far they have been greeted by silence from the UK CC companies but doubtless that will change.

 

In all the reading of all the threads on this site I seem to remember Uncle asking someone "do you still have a UK bank account?".

 

I wonder what the relevance of the question was because I never saw a reply.

 

So uncle can you throw any light on what I think I read?

 

Thanks

[unclebulgaria67]

My thoughts on continued UK Bank Acount

 

- continued reporting on UK credit record might be an excuse to issue court claim to last UK address. Many UK creditors refuse to note a foreign address on credit records. Armed with a UK court judgement, it is then possible to transfer this to an Aussie Court.

 

- if you have another debt with the same Bank and there is any offsetting clause in contract, the Bank could take money from the account to cover the debt. A DCA could not do this, without the original Bank creditor agreeing to this.

 

- the slight chance of a court being asked to freeze or access the Bank account of a debtor that has gone AWOL without paying a debt. I suspect that there is a procedure for this. If they were looking to make someone Bankrupt, as debts were over £5k, then there must be a process of a Court freezing any UK assets including a Bank account.

 

If people are leaving a UK Bank Account behind, they should be aware of a continuing UK credit record and if they have debts, these will be chased to the UK address showing. It is then possible a DCA does issue a Court claim, as debts do get passed around and a new DCA might not be aware of the debtor living in OZ.