To be angry that she hasnt given it to me yet?!

[stoppinchingthedummy]

Basically i moved out of our last property over 12 months ago ,when we left we had no forwarding address as we were awaiting our new house to be completed so had not been given an address... We were homeless for 17 days. Our ex landlady was not very nice when we were moving out she turned up with the new tenants at 9am on the day we were moving our whole house into a container and had no where to go and was very dismissive of this. She is know to be a bit of a bitch apparently though we only knew this after moving in.

Ok so fast forward 12 months ,we have heard nothing as we would expect ,we re -directed all our mail and we did pop to the old house a couple of times to ask if we had forgotton anything that needed re-directing but the new tenants were really shitty with us so i didnt go after that. I did ask if they could pop any post they thought might be important to next door as we are friends with them but they wouldnt. [roll]

Ok so wednesday i get a txt from ex landlord asking can i contact her asap so i ring her, she told me she had recieved a letter from a debt collecting agency threatning legal action for a small amount outstanding for a mobile internet we used to have, i asked her if any more letters had been before that and why they hadnt been passed on and she said there had been none [roll] She read the letter out to me - should she be opening post that is specifically for me?! I told her i wanted the letter and i would sort it ,she said she would try and bring it down ...still hasnt?!

I contacted the number on the letter and they told me they didnt know what it was for but the outstanding balance needs to be paid ,i then contacted the phone company as i do NOT owe them money ,i cancelled the contract on 30th march,paid till 30th april (2010) and actually had hardly used it before that so wont have over used it ,they had nothing on there system about me ,no record at all and said they would call be back and yet ive heard nothing?!

So aibu to think the ex landlady should have passed previous letters on first,not opened this one and given it to me to sort out by now?!

Sorry that was long!

I

[gallicgirl]

She shouldn't open any mail that isn't addressed to her as this is an offence. I'd be fuming about someone else opening my mail.

However, I don't think she's under any obligation to pass on mail. You could have provided a stamped addressed envelope once you had a permanent address or paid Royal Mail to redirect it for you.

[StuckinTheMiddlewithYou]

It is an offence to open post.

I'd ignore the nutter and the "debt".

If the woman contacts you again, tell her that she is commiting a crime.

[saffy85]

She has no right to open your mail the cheeky nosey cow. However, did you not get all your mail re-directed through Royal Mail? My mum and I did this when we moved a few years back and it didn't cost all that much, considering we wouldn't have been able to pop back to pick anything up.

[nannyl]

YANBU

im sure its illegal to open post thats not for you

[worraliberty]

She shouldn't have opened it as it is illegal.

However, I wouldn't have felt comfortable passing it on if I were her as you could continue to us her address for anything.

She should have written 'No longer at this address' on the envelope and put it back in the post .

[CareyFakes]

It's an offence, and I'd remind her of that. Also, you did re-direct all your mail, and that only lasts for so long doesn't it? She can't expect you to apply for the service monthly can she?

[stoppinchingthedummy]

I couldnt re direct it initially because we had no address and have friends next door to the old house so they could have put it through their letter box ,i tried to make sure i stopped everything important but couldnt remember everything which i why i popped back a couple of times to make sure. I have an address and dont need to contact the ex landlady so wouldnt do this at all,i gave the debt collecting people my new address but told them i wont be paying as i have NO idea what this is for ...im right to not pay for something i have not used and have no information on am i?

[MorticiaAddams]

She shouldn't have opened your post and you need to find out what happened to the previous letters as they are also not allowed to throw it away and should send it back to the company.

[worraliberty]

Yes the debt company should be able to provide proof of what you owe and to who. It might take some time, but I wouldn't pay without knowing.

[Birdsgottafly]

By law she shouldn't open your letters you need to let her know this, i would put this in writing as she has been difficult with you. You must know the address of the company so you can know deal with them direct.

She is under no obligation to pass mail on and could be helping you to commit fraud if she did, so is at no fault in that respect. Likewise the tenants should not have been handing mail over.

[Panda1234]

She shouldn't have opened the mail. But, you should have been more organised and redirected the mail, and let any companies you were with know you had moved (you could have got Royal Mail to redirect to your friend's/your family?).

Its very U to indefinitely expect the new tenants to run around after you posting your mail to your friend, and to put up with you turning up and expecting them to have kept mail. No wonder they were getting annoyed!

If you're in contact with the debt company, then they should be able to provide details. But so should the internet provider, and they might be easier to work with directly.

[AnnieBesant]

It's quite possible that the leeter came addressed to "the occupier". A previous owner of our house had an outstanding debt that was passed on to a debt collection agency. I returned the ones addressed to her (she left no forwarding address), but then they came addressed to "the occupier" and I opened them.

[stoppinchingthedummy]

Panda really was i being u - the friends live next door in a terraced house so as u walk out of one front door ,one step to the left the letter box is there? If i was then i didnt see i was i thought it was a simple request. Also i couldnt get it re directed to family/friends because they were worried if my mail went there that it may be seen that we were living there and might interfere with any money they were getting from tax credits etc etc

(When i write this i realise actually it wouldnt have but it was quite a stressful time for us having no where to live with 2 young children and trapsing around for 17 days from place to place with just a suitcase full of clothes and trying to keep things as normal as possible for my dc)

Birdsgottafly i didnt realise this thank you :)

[stoppinchingthedummy]

Anniebesant i asked my ex landlady this and she said it had my name on it.

Thanks for all your replies.

[AllDirections]

I've lived here for 4 years and I still put letters to the previous owner through next door's letterbox. It's only junk now though but that's not the point. It's addressed to her and it takes a few seconds to post it next door so why wouldn't I. Your old landlady is NOT a nice person and neither is the present tenant.

[SnuffleTurtle153]

It is an offence to open someone else's mail, and it is a specific theft offence (imaginatively called 'theft of mail') to intentionally deprive another of their post. Best thing to do is contact your ex landlady again and request either that she send the letter on to you or arrange a time that you can go and collect it. It's up to you after that as to whether or not you wish to pursue a complaint against her for opening it, but I can't see your local police falling over themselves to get involved on that score.

If it turns out someone has run up a debt in your name then you will need to let the police know. This isn't an offence against you, but against the company that are owed the money, so the police will need to take details from you and provide you with an incident number that you can pass to any Debt Collection agency that may be chasing you. This should be sufficient for them to leave you alone and if they don't, bear in mind that the law states any company must prove YOU owe the debt; you are under no obligation to prove that you DON'T :)