Q&A - BC Resident Using My Alberta Address

Question: I know a guy who has lived in BC for well over 25 years and still holds a Alberta drivers licence and registration. At one time he used my husbands and my address. Now we are in BC and switched over as soon as we got here.

He is still using the address of our previous house that we don't even own.

Now we are moving back to Alberta and I know he is going to use our address again. I don't know what to do.

Address Fraud

This sort of fraud happens more often than one might think. I was often intrigued by the number of people I stopped whose address was general delivery, Bay Tree, Alberta when I was working in Fort St. John.

At that time, Bay Tree looked like it had an actual population of about 6 when I drove through it.

Don't be Part of the Problem

The first thing that runs through my mind is that I hope you were not assisting this person by forwarding the mail or holding it for them. Allowing or facilitating this kind of thing makes you a party to the offence and liable to criminal prosecution yourself.

Suggested Solutions

Dealing with it is pretty simple:

1. Refuse to be a party to the offence if asked.
2. Return all mail to the sender marked "Never lived at this address."
3. Turn the mail over to the police and advise them of the situation.
4. Contact the licencing authority or insurance provider and explain the situation to them.
5. In this situation, BC's Consumer Taxation Branch will be interested to find out about it.

ICBC is Not Interested

ICBC is not interested in these circumstances, but probably would be if the person lived in Alberta and maintained BC licencing.

Denial of Insurance Coverage

From an insurer's standpoint, they can simply accept the premiums and then deny a claim as being in breach of policy. Likely the situation is more complicated than this, but it is beyond the scope of this site to go into.

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