Dumb Previous House Owner... AIBU?

You should be sending it back to sender.. don’t open it it’s not your post just write on the envelope not known at this address. Once o2 get that back they will go down other avenues to get her correct address. But you forwarding post isn’t solving the problem, some people don’t know how to change addresses.

I paid for forwarding mail
when I moved out. It was 20 years ago so we got a lot more mail back then.
new owners got really pissed off with me when mail kept coming after 6 months
kept calling me and complaining about it.
mum not sure what they expected me to do.
I told them to bin it . It would be nice if they sent it in if they felt it was important/personal but I didn’t expect it.
id cancelled everything I could .
mind you, they bought the place with cash given by parents. A flat on a council estate in north London and they used to call me about all kinds of stuff.
nothing is hidden or been dishonest about.
they just seemed put out that inner London was noisy and some of the people on the estate weren’t public school educated 😆

Yabu for opening her mail. You had no reason to do so.

I would just write no longer at this address and return to sender on everything. Presumably you have her new address so I'd write to her directly, say that the ongoing mail is becoming an issue and ask her to change her address or do redirection.

You're doing too much. Just write "Not at Address" on it and drop it back in post.
The fact she hasn't updated bank actually doesn't surprise me at all. I lost my husband at 35 and had to move house a few months later. A year late I had to do a credit search to get finances sorted as I had no physical memory of big chunks of it and just could not remember certain things. I was in this exact scenerio and my bank eventually sent a notification through my banking app to say I needed to call and sort it.

"NO LONGER AT THIS ADDRESS works wonders but it can take time"

I mean how long do you keep doing this for though? I still get mail from previous owners despite doing the above for the first 5 years. Now I just bin them...

It's not against the law if you are not intending to use the contents to the detriment of the addressee. Which op is clearly not.
We received some post from a debt company to our address but not our name. The debt co. Name was on the envelope. I sent 3 back as not known at this address. When the 4th came i opened it and rang them to explain. They were grateful as they should have been.

As a slight defence. When I moved last time I changed my address with the bank but they kept sending things to the old address. Took a huge complaint to get it sorted, basically they had duplicated my profile on their system, they fixed it and gave me a small amount of compensation. So it could easily be a problem ok thr banks side. Just write, not known at this address and pop it back in the postbox. The bank will contact her then block her account until she gets in touch and sorts it

We have something similar, owners even still getting their online Christmas shopping delivered to us. And not only did the previous owners not update their address, but neither did the new buyers of their completely separate business!

So this shop across town is registered to our address at companies house, we get bills and tax demands for the shop arriving at our address… The new owners have definitely never lived here, and the shop isn’t local. I do put it back in the post box but two years on they haven’t updated it.

We got a pallet of 48 boxes of chocolate truffles this year, unlabelled but presumably also intended for the shop. It was just left in the front garden while we were at work, so we kept it (we waited a month to see if anyone would call for it, and they didn’t).

I either bin or return to sender. Also did/do this for my ex even though he lives with his parents who are a few streets away. Not my responsibility

I still get post for the person we bought off in 2017! I never open anything, it all goes back to sender "not known at this address". Some looks like bank or official stuff, mostly it's marketing nonsense.

I would have been more charitable but for the first few years they would get stuff delivered here and then send someone to pick it up. It felt like they were being a CF and possibly committing fraud so I would refuse to hand anything over and return those to sender too and eventually they stopped.

About 6 months after I moved a man knocked on my door and told me he’d come to collect my car. Turned out, the previous occupant had booked a service but forgot to mention her new address!

I still get post for her and I lived here 6 years.

Our seller didn’t leave an address. We used to leave post with a neighbour. After a few years we gave up and I just kept returning to sender - even important pension looking letters. Not my problem!

Stunned at these answers, do people really think the police are going to charge her with opening the mail or something, I guess they must, but I’d honestly have thought absolutely everyone would know the police don’t care in this scenario, it’s onky if it malicious.

That doesn't give you the right to open her mail! And it sounds lije you opened it from the very beginning. Just put them in a postbox or in the bin. Has it crossed your mind she has updated her address and they haven't actioned it? That's a very regular occurrence. Stop opening her mail, you're in the wrong for that, more than she is for not changing her address.

Not at this address
Not at this address
Not at this address

Go to the post office and ask them to stop putting her mail through your letter box

Don't open her mail
This is a criminal offence, and can result on fines or imprisonment.

Not at this address
Not at this address
Not at this address

Go to the post office and ask them to stop putting her mail through your letter box

Don't open her mail

Same happened to me, I kept getting share dividend cheques for the previous owners, I kept sending them back as “not know at this address”. 20 years that went on, I haven’t had anything for the last 18 months.

Sold my house after 20 years, still received post for the previous owner even in the last month of owning it.
Tried numerous times to return to sender, it was the same company even writing ‘stop sending stuff you idiots ‘ on the envelope did nothing.

We had this off our previous owners… PLT parcels, speeding fines, parking fines… alsorts… we just started writing RTS not at this address since xxx date. They messaged us asking if they could come for their post like 2 years after we moved in, we said no sorry we RTS them because you turning up for stuff every now and then wasn’t working for us and they needed to change addresses.. they were fuming saying they were waiting for stuff.. not our problem

It's annoying - when we bought our first house we got post for almost everyone who had ever lived there and it was a 100 year old house! That included debt collection for the people we bought off and porn catalogues for the owner before them.

Specifically about the bank though, when we moved again my bank changed my address details straightaway but DH had a terrible time getting his to do the same, it took months with multiple attempts. I think I'd pop a note in the post to her telling her if she's tried to change her contact details at her bank, they've not updated their records and she needs to let them know.

Return to sender.
When we moved house, I paid for the Royal Mail forwarding service for a year. She could do that and if not bothered to, then it's not your responsibility to redirect her mail indefinitely.

It's linked to her, not your address.

Don't open her mail.

I forwarded the previous owners mail for 3 months, then collected everything in a large envelope and sent it without any postage to their new address, and wrote, ‘please set up a redirection’. They did.

You do realise that opening someone else’s mail is a criminal offence even if it comes to your address.
Best thing to do is write on not known at this address and pop it in the post box you could even include her new address if you wanted to.

I would 100% return anything financial to the bank. You don’t want her credit file linked to yours! Especially as she invites final demands. I would be returning all mail to sender now tbh.