Debt Collectors and Private Detectives Harrasing Me Over A Debts I Do Not Owe

My ex partner left the country in 2010. I have no idea were he is living, all I know is, he no longer resides here.

We never lived together nor had any joint borrowings. With the pressure from the economic crash and his mounting debts, he was contemplating suicide. Our relationship was going nowhere so we decided we would end it and he would move abroad in search of employment. I only heard from him once, by telephone, over the past year.

Since he left the country, I have been inundated with letters addressed to him, at my home, from solicitors and accountants. I thought this was bad form at the time and rang the practices asking them to stop sending corrospondence to my address. These were legitimate solicitors and accountants and indeed the letters did stop as promised, apart from one.

I think I may have complained too quickly as I am being inundated with debt collectors and now private detectives. I really am at the end of my rope. The tricks these people have tried to pull on me is mind blowing; all in the pursuit of trying to find an address for the 'real' person who owes them money. This morning it all came to a head for me as they harressed my elderly father for information.

How can I stop the harrasssemnt if these people will not tell me what company they are working for but yet continue to harrass me?

You should not be bullied / harassed like this... it's a disgrace... Next time they come knocking, if you are up to it, have a camera (video camera function on your phone would do) & point it at them & record them... then state that you do not know where the person is that they are looking for. Tell them that you are reporting them to the gardaí & close the door. Then ring the guards to make a formal complaint there & then. Between now & then, write down all these calls that these people have made, in as much detail as possible & also include that in the report to the gardaí.

You should not have to go through this....

Be very careful. There are some seriously dodgy people working in the debt collection business. Some of these people have serious criminal records and use their name and criminal history to intimidate people.

Jazz01 said:

You should not be bullied / harassed like this... it's a disgrace... Next time they come knocking, if you are up to it, have a camera (video camera function on your phone would do) & point it at them & record them... then state that you do not know where the person is that they are looking for. Tell them that you are reporting them to the gardaí & close the door. Then ring the guards to make a formal complaint there & then. Between now & then, write down all these calls that these people have made, in as much detail as possible & also include that in the report to the gardaí.

You should not have to go through this....

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I would be very careful not to provoke these type of people......I would rely on the advice of the police on how to deal with them.

Thank you all for your responses.

I have kept a diary, documentating calls to my home and kept all corrospondense sent by solicitors and accountants.

If I were living in the city I would be less scared but because I live in a remote area I have become very cautious not to provoke these people.

I spent this morning ringing around the solicitors who were chasing him at the beginning, in the hope they could tell me, if it were they who had engaged the private investigator.

So low and behold it was the one of the solicitors who had sent these people to my home. Their intention was to find my ex partner at my address and issue him with a civil bill.

All this is on behalf of one of bank who passed the debt to their solicitors for collection. I am so annoyed that these solicitors would send out these goons.

To be fair your boyfriend owes money to a creditor and they have issued proceedings to recover that money and the summons needs to be served on him personally so that's why a summons server has been trying to locate him..they dont know for a fact he has left the country.

It's their job to find him. Unfortunate you are caught up in the middle of it all.

So low and behold it was the one of the solicitors who had sent these people to my home. Their intention was to find my ex partner at my address and issue him with a civil bill.

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This is a hired process server and it is legitimate for him/her to try and find the location of the person to be served. While you may not know where he is, surely you have his family address? Giving it to the process server may get them off your back as his family must know where he's living.

That just passes the problem to other people who have no part of these debts.

If the debtor is outside Ireland, that is the bank's problem. The bank will have to use legitimate legal means to serve papers outside the jurisdiction.

These guys will give up once they realise he is not around.