Hello,

I hope this is the right place to post this question. In 2006 I had a joint bank account with some friends I was living with. When we moved out we sent a signed letter to the bank telling them to close the account - or at least we attempted to but the letter never made it and the account was not closed. The balance in the bank was zero. A few months after we moved out of the house a direct debit for TV licensing was paid from the account. As there were insufficient funds the account started racking up fines from the bank. After 6 months the total had gone from ~£140 for the TV licence to £650. At this point (some time in spring 2007) it was switched to a debt collection agency.

We have only recently found out about this outstanding debt as all the letters we would have been sent went to an address that none of us lived at. The bank is HSBC and the agency now holding the debt is Metropolitan. We don't know how much the debt is now worth as they have never contacted any of us - we only found out after one of us was refused credit.

Is there anything we can do about this or do we just have to stomach it and pay whatever debt there is? It seems mightily unfair that we should have to pay hundreds of pounds (at least) each because the only attempt anyone has ever made of contacting us is by sending letters to an address that none of us live at.

Any suggestions or information would be great.

Thanks