Debt firm ‘harassing’ family at wrong home
A family say they have been “harassed and intimidated” by debt collectors who have visited their home 10 times looking for people who don’t live there.
Stephen and Taryn Dryfhout tried unsuccessfully to trespass the two debt collectors from Intercoll, complaining to police and to the general manager of the company.
But they say on Wednesday night a company debt collector turned up at their Papakura home looking for a person they maintained was connected to the address.
Taryn Dryfhout said her 12-yearold sister, who is staying with them, had a panic attack following the incident in which her husband ordered the collector off his property.
“My husband, myself and our children are frightened and feel harassed at the hands of Intercoll,” she said.
The couple moved to the state house in Auckland from the South Island last year and don’t know the people Intercoll are looking for.
Dryfhout said the debt collectors first came knocking last December, looking for a man and a woman who allegedly owed money and previously lived at the address.
After that, she says, they began turning up regularly. She said they were intimidating and persistent, “standing over me and visiting during work hours when my husband was not home”.
On one occasion, she claims one of the men scaled a padlocked gate and confronted Dryfhout at the back of the property as she hung washing.
She verbally trespassed the collectors and complained to police but she says the agent returned, peering in windows, leaving notes under the door and littering the yard with business cards.
Dryfhout complained to Intercoll general manager Mark Francis, asking him to stop the visits.
“They say they have a credible lead that the person they’re looking for is connected to this house. “We feel it’s nothing to do with us.” She offered Intercoll a copy of their tenancy agreement as well as a written undertaking to notify them if they ever vacated the house.
She said initially calls to police were fruitless. “I rang 111 on Wednesday while he was still on the property and we couldn’t get anybody to come out.”
Francis told the Herald an investigation into the Dryfhouts’ address indicated it had been given fraudulently by more than one person, or a person using more than one identity. He said Intercoll had removed the address from its database while the investigation was ongoing.
In a May 11 email to Dryfhout, seen by the Herald, Francis denied harassing the family.
“These people have historically used your address and we are obliged to try and make contact with them at any address they may be residing or using for mail,” Francis wrote. “We do not accept this constitutes harassment.”
He said Intercoll had no record of ever being trespassed and said the agent did not believe he was intimidating.
A police spokeswoman said they were aware a complaint had been laid over the matter and would be assessed soon. Police advice was to call 111 if people felt unsafe.
Housing New Zealand said representatives would be visiting the tenants to discuss the matter.