No help from the Halifax

[LizzyRock]

Since saturday 09/05 I have received a number of letters from two different branches of the Halifax. These letters have my address but are addressed to two people I don't know who have given the Halifax my address as their new address!

I can 100% guarantee no one has moved in with me and my wife, unless they have perfected the ability of being invisible. Only today I received a statement for one of these strangers.

My wife has spoken to the Halifax twice regarding this. On saturday she received an apology for the worry and stress caused and was thanked for her call and assured a stop would be put on both accounts.

But when she spoke the Halifax again today all she got was a total, 'we don't care' attitude from the first person she spoke to and from a manager, who eventually picked up the call after leaving her waiting on hold for ages. Maybe in hope she would give up and put the phone down. All she got was a curt response again of we don't care and there's nothing they could do as they can't just go into someones account and just change details.

It would seem we're on our own as the Halifax just don't care. The only advice my wife got was to check our credit reference file with Equifax and to return any post to the Halifax.

What advice can people offer so this can be rectified as we are both worried sick about this and what else these people have done using our address. What next letters from collection agencies, bailiffs, court orders?

[Ethel]

When this happened to me there was a perfectly innocent explanation. Somebody had bought a new build house in a new street with the same name as mine. The bank simply allocated the wrong post code.

If either branches of the Halifax are convenient to you, phone up and make an appointment to see the manager. Don't mention the nature of the business if it can be avoided.

Take all the correspondence you still have with a brief written record of previous correspondence and the telephone calls.

Complain and ask foran explanation and an assurance there will be no more of this correspondence.

[cassa333]

After that just send it back not known at this address.

How do you know it was a statement? You are not supposed to open post not for yourself!

Anyway if you did open it does it show money going in or debts mounting up? If it is all innocent then you have nothing to worry about. What you don't want is for them to get into debt and the bayliffs turn up on your doorstep.

[LizzyRock]

Further developments since my original post. We have since received a letter thanking our 'guest' for confirmaing his address. The letter goes on to ask why the Halifax hold a correspondence address for him and why he has tenants in the property?

My wife went into the local Halifax branch, explained what is happening and what the Halifax can do to help. She was seen by a member of staff who wasn't much help. She went to speak to a manager and returned after approx 2 mins. She said all she could do was to take the documents from my wife so they can be copied and handed back. My wife didn't have them with her and as these are the only prrof we have of what is happening to us, we're holding onto them.

It gets worse one of our 'guests' has defaulted on a loan, and failed to make recent payments.

Why us? How the heck did these people get our address from? We are so careful when destroying all letters, envelopes etc with our names, addresses etc.