Naughty Tenant

[poshtotti]

We let our "supposed" friend stay in our apartment for a couple of months, when she was having a tough time, she paid the bills. In January she vanished - We know that she has gone back to the UK.

All mail is still coming to the apartment & I have been returning it marking it Absent - "Ausente". Now i have had a couple of telefonica bills, she connected a land line during her stay. but I have checked & it has been disconnected, she must have cancelled the direct debit but not paid the last bill.

Yesterday there was a letter from ASNEF/EQUIFAX - Servicios de informacion sobre solvencia y credito S.L. - Now i'm angry! - Again I have marked it Ausente & returned to the sender.

Does anyone know how the credit system works over here? - If she has run up debts & used our address as hers, who is liable?
If the telephone bill is less than expensive, am I better off just paying it & writing it off as a loss & admit that I was totally stupid for helping someone we considered to be a friend for 2 years?

I'm really mad, I have sent "HER" emails, no reply, tried to call mobile - Switched off, how horrible & selfish people can be.

Thanks,

Silly & nieve Poshtotti x

[Campo Kenny]

Not silly at all, similar to us really in the sense that it always seems to be one way traffic
We've done away with big favours now to all and sundry after similar experiences and as you suggest for yourself have put it down to experience.
I just hope the **** has the decency one day to make it right but somehow I doubt it.
Good luck anyway.

Cheers,
Kenny

[Rookiekookie]

I don't know but surely she had to give her passport number to Telefonica to put the line on in the first place.

Might be worth calling them, explaining the situation and giving them as much information as possible.

They may not be able to collect the debt but if the bill is in her name then surely it is her problem not yours ?

[jennyshaw]

I would have been tempted to open the letters just to see how much debt she had run up, then sealed them and then sent them back.

Would that have been wrong?

[annie_d]

Ditto Jenny. I would most definately open the post.

[Alpujarra]

I had a similar situation with a property I used to rent out.

The advice given to me by a solicitor, was not to pay the outstanding phone bill as it was a personal debt and could not be attached to the property.

You may well get a few others also keen to see their money back.
Don't accept any registered letters bearing her name.

[julian]

as long as the phone bill is not in your name it is not your responsibility, just ignore the letters.

[katy]

Telefonica usually take a deposit anyway so they sould not be chasing the debt..unless its huge.

[samizdat]

I got shafted in exactly the same way - my "friend" left me with several months of utility bills.


Don't worry about it, tell the companies and the solicitor who will start writing letters - that she was a tenant and has done a runner. It happens all the time on the coast.


It doesn't seem to affect your credit or that on the address of your property.

[poshtotti]

Thank you all for your replies.

Yes, I have been dying to open the post, but thats because I'm a nosy mare & want to know what "she" has been up to!

My only saving grace is that they are personal debts will not associated with the property, phew!

Luckily we dont live at the property & so there is no fear of registered post being signed for, due to the security of the complex the postman doesnt deliver straight to the mail boxes, the gardener dishes it all out. I have marked our names on the mail boxes so "hers" should be returned anyway from now on.

Not so stressed now - thank you!
Poshtotti x