Previous owners being CFs?

[Pippylcoat]

9 months ago we moved in our house. The previous owners came over every week for the first three months asking for their post. We saved up the first bulk of post to give them, but when it became clear they didn’t want to pay for a redirectory or stop the ‘routine’, I began sending the post back as ‘not known at this address’. Each time they knocked I told them we had nothing for them and asked them to ensure they have updated their address with all bills and contacts. Several recent letters have been clearly important such as a hospital appointment and parking fines. I still returned to sender as they should have updated their address, knowing it is an illegal offence to not do this for the DVLA I refuse to support their continuous use of our address. The most recent arrival of them asking for post left a sour taste in my mouth, I was informed I must be keeping or opening their post as I legally have to return it to them. On top of never receiving a thank you this has made me realise what entitled CFs they are with no intention of stopping. I spoke to a friend who told me I should give them their post as the hospital appointment for example is a waste of nhs resources, and they will be prosecuted for not updating the DVLA. I don’t think I’m wrong for wanting this to stop, they have had 9 months and I didn’t mind at first but now I feel like an awful person about the letters I just returned. Has anyone else been through this and how did you handle it?

Our previous owners proved extremely stingy, said they’d paid top dollar for everything but we had to redo almost all the jobs they had done . Failed to pay for mail redirection so I now bin it all .
Small revenge!

If you cross thru your address on the envelope and write their new address to the side of your address, pop it back in the postbox it will be delivered to their new address and no additional postage charged.
not a big deal. Hopefully when they see the envelope with the crossing outs, it will prompt them to update.

”Try
12 Orchards Walk,
any town
whatever the address is “

Have been in our house for over 9 years and we still receive letters for people we never heard of.

Oh this sounds like issues we had with previous house owners. They kept having parcels sent too and in the end I refused to accept them. Also had a note on my mailbox saying no mail for “xx” please but the cf kept removing it!! They hassled me constantly and I ended up get our Solicitor to write them a letter. They stopped after that.

I suspect the OP knows this, @Iwillcomeouttheotherend - but why should she keep on doing this for 9 months? Why shouldn't she expect the previous owners to get their address changed to their new one, in a timely fashion? She is not their PA.

Surely sending out change of address letters/emails is a normal and routine part of moving house? It certainly has been, every time I have moved! Of course the odd bit of mail may fall through the cracks - but that's not what's happening to @Pippylcoat, I think - she is getting lots of post for the previous owners.

I had a tenant who left and gave me her new address. While I had access to the house I sent her mail on, and then new tenant gave me the mail to continue to do this for a month or so. Then the old tenant died, I opened the letters and wrote on them what had happened and returned to sender. They kept coming. They were all debt letters, from six different companies, threatening court action etc. I phoned the companies and they were very understanding and said they'd take action, write the debt off. The letters kept coming. One company said they needed proof and could I supply it? Er no, but her facebook page has condolences from friends so look there. Still the letters came for months and I found them in a drawer when the new tenant left.

Bin them all! I rented for a while and the managing agent fully expected us to return post to sender which I did for a while. But it's an inconvenience.

9 months is ridiculous. Don’t open the door to them again! Keep putting “not at this address”. They will soon get the message when they miss appointments, get debt letters and cancelled bank cards!

I didnt have the previous owners turn up to collect but they didn't redirect their mail for over a year... after 6 months of return to sender 'not known' I just went with malicious compliance and stored up 6 months worth and wrote various messages on the envelopes then posted them all return to sender at once... funnily enough never heard anything more from the companies involved at least

You are more patient than me. I would tell them that you are returning to sender and you are concerned they are using your address for credit card fraud. (This is what ended up happening to us in 2013 when our vendors refused to redirect, refused to tell us a forwarding address and just turned up every few weeks for their mail. Nicely timed to avoid the many many baillifs that were also turning up due to their unpaid store cards; speeding fines; etc).

Why wouldn’t you tell them you were returning it?

It’s about £100 to redirect for 2 adults for a year. They are beyond cf.

YANBU. We've been here 4 years and we're still getting letters from.the bank for the previous occupants.

We were still getting mail from DVLA and HMRC for a year or more after we moved in

Lived at my current address for 20+ years. Previous owners refused to leave a forwarding address so from day 1 everything was returned as “not know at this address”.

We still keep getting his share dividend cheques and I still keep returning them. I have no idea how much actual money he has thrown away in all that time.

100% they are CF!

if they come again tell them you returned to sender!

When we moved I did a 12 month redirection against anything got missed. But a couple of bits slipped through.
Person who bought my house was very kind and I collected a few bits when necessary.

our new house was previously rented and we get a range of different names! I bought a stamp that says ‘return to sender’ as I was sick of writing it all the time. 3 years on and it is rarer now to get post.

but last month I did get a hospital letter that was sent to my previous address! Despite it being changed, the hospital rang me and said they looked into why I hadn’t responded and realised the address hadn’t been properly updated on their screens.

so accidents happen and things get missed not always the fault of the person.
BUT in this case it just seems they are lazy!

Keep doing what you're doing.

Next time they knock tell them that 9 months is more than enough time to ensure you've changed addresses and that anything that arrives will be returned to sender. Please do not knock again.

Close the door.

No don't email as they could see as if you can email why haven't you told them they had post.

I had similar issue and told estate agent to send them a note to update their address.

I had this-I’d save them up, put them in a parcel bag (recycled of course) with a redirection form-then I’d put it in the box with no stamp so they’d be fined.

Why? They don't live there and they had several months to change/ update their address. Just plain lazy.

Keep doing what you are doing. This is beyond ridiculous.

Any chance you have a Ring doorbell and could just stop opening the door if you see them on camera?

Do this!

If you all have the same surname, it's £45 for the whole family (that's sneakily written to make it less than obvious, but the case!).

Total CF. We moved a lot before buying this place and it was just a built in cost - and we were super grateful to the new people for texting us when people forgot at Christmas/birthdays and sent presents to the old address using alternative couriers! That's normal: gratefully accepting a one-off kindness. Not using people as a free mail redirection service.

I would not have lied, I would have told them exactly what I did, you are right anyway.

I'd be doing exactly the same...writing return to sender, unknown at this address.
Serious CF (and illegal re DVLA) behaviour.

I did the same at my old house. He only moved down the street so I knew where he was but for 2 years I kept receiving post. He knocked on the door asking if I had had anything from dvla because he realised his motorbike tax had ran out and they must have sent the letter to my house. I denied all knowledge knowing full well I had sent it back because he annoyed me after all those years!