A bad debt....against the house or the person?

[Le Chat]

Hi, I am asking this as a managing agent for a lettings company.
We have some very good tenants in one of our properties, however, the previous tenants, although they paid their rent on time and were 'model' tenants, left huge debts in their wake and emigrated to America.
The current tenants have had bayliffs at the door, letters from various companies that are owed money and now these tenants have applied for some kind of loan from the bank but have been refused as their address has a black mark against it for bad debt.
Can anything be done to remove this bad credit affiliated with the property?
I was under the impression that a bad debt followed the person but I have no reason to believe that these tenants are lying.

[EvianBaby]

I think you are right. I'm fairly sure debts have not been linked to addresses alone for some time.

The tenants need to contact the people chasing money and inform them they have nothing to do with the debts. Perhaps as the letting agent you could help confirm this on their behalf.

[pretty_snowdrop]

Debts are not linked to addesses, only the people who are in debt and those financially associated are affected. However if the debts are do to fraudulent behaviour, it may flag up in checks that fraud has taken place at a particular address and cause problems for the new tenants. They need to check their credit file to find out if there is any info on there.

[tonywiltshire]

You are quite correct in thinking a debt is the responsibility of the person or persons who obtained the loan, not the property, but it sometimes happens that moving into a property where the previous occupiers had debts causes problems, not least the amount of mail and perhaps unwelcome callers. The address should not be the reason for being unable to obtain a bank loan, remember no one has the right to demand a loan it is up to the lender. If your tenants believe incorrect information is being held they can obtain a copy of their credit reference file from the reference agency, there are three and the cost to obtain a copy of their file is £2 to each agency, which are Callcredit, Experian & Equifax.

[Le Chat]

Thank you for the replies. It seems that the tenants were exaggerating. When I challenged that the debt is for the person and not the property and the bank were unlawfull in turning them down, the story changed ....
I am so fed up with tenants.