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?

Yanbu. We had this problem after we rented the house out while abroad. It was done through my DH's employer and used for their interns. We had no forwarding address neither did the rental agents so anything that looked important, we opened (yes I know its illegal) and contacted the sender. It was at the time when house address fraud was in the news a lot, someone got their rented out house sold by a tenant so i was concerned that some kind of scam was going on. The senders were very helpful (banks and building societies) and the mail stopped.

I've been getting post from the old owners of this house, and I've lived here for 6 years! I keep spending their clubcard vouchers and that still hasn't made them update their address!

If DVLA thinks they are still there … that’s a problem, car insurance at wrong address is fraud.

You could white lie tell them postman knows they moved, so is no longer delivering.

9 months!!! That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. You must tell them you've returned mail to sender. I dont understand why you haven't and why you haven't let them know that.
Sounds fishy to me. They may be avoiding bailiffs or doing criminal activities and your address Is down as their address.
Make it quite clear to them you will return all mail to sender.

They can get a po box number if they don't want people to know where they live.

If you carry on giving them the letters, who knows when it would ever end. Your great grandkids would be asking why are these people having letters sent "Granny but when did they move out?"

At what point did you tell them you wouldn't be doing this and would be returning to sender?

They are cunty fuckers, but I suspect they are also thick fuckers who just expected you to keep doing this and it hasn't crossed their minds that you'd stop and would return to sender anything that arrived for them.

Let's hope you never need somebody to.do you a simple good turn.
You should have told them if you were unhappy with them interfering with your life for 30 seconds at a time.

MF!

I've lived in my current house for 12 years. I'm still getting pension statements from the guy I bought it from. He moved to Leeds (I'm in Scotland) at the time. I've long lost his address, and keep returning to sender - yet they keep appearing.

I opened one by accident once; didn't look at the addressee, and I live alone. Saw what it was, and contacted them. Nothing they can do, apparently, until the person tells them directly.

When I did a redirection from my rental property you could only pay for it with a card registered at that address... so it will be too late to do a re-direct now and may be why they are stuck with regards to that.

There's no reason why they haven't changed their address on everything though!

I also agree with this. I would do them a warning like :From next month I’m going to return all your post back .
And then do it .
Of course they blamed you for opening their post as you didn’t tell them the truth .

Not only cheeky but also could leave you in a difficult situation if they take out loans etc. at your address, which they can do if they have letters as proof of address.

The previous tenants at our house had taken out tons of debt and obviously haven't informed all their creditors of their address change. We've had bailiffs and court enforcers coming to the door at all hours and had to explain that we don't know the people.

Get some cheap envelopes and put any unimportant looking letters there without a stamp , they then have to pay to collect. Anything important should be returned to sender.

Well, the previous owners aren't willing to give up a few minutes of their time to change their address with the DVLA, their GP and anyone else who sends them post, so why should OP?

My sister moved in with me before lockdown and I arranged and paid for her redirection using my card at my address. Not sure if they put in special arrangements for lockdown though.

As I and others have said, its not the "good turn" its the fact that it could be fraudulent.

@Pippylcoat Just get some printed labels with their address and stick it over your address on the mail and put it im the post box.

They will then keep receiving notes from royal mail saying there mail for them at the post office that they'll need to pay the postage for.

Nine months is ridiculous. I would not be happy with previous owners visiting once.

I would have handed over mail once with a request for them to sort out re-direction. I would made it clear all future post would be sent back return to sender. I might be flexible IF there was a specific request.

My previous owners were taking loans out using my address after they moved. I found out because a letter came a few months in. I returned it and the owner came to complain. CFs. Now, it would all be online.

Once bitten, twice shy.

The people we bought our house from did have a forwarding service but after about 9 months it became obvious they hadn't actually changed any of their addresses and were just relying on mail forwarding. For the next 3 months, I just forwarded it onto their new address and after a whole year of living here, I started returning to sender because that was quicker to write than their new address.

We had similar. No forwarding address given and clear after a week or so that they hadn’t done a redirect.

I dutifully wrote “no longer at this address” and put them all back in the post box for the best part of a year. At that point I started opening their mail and phoning companies, because it became very obvious that most of the post was red letters/missed payments and then debts being sold on to collectors.

The only company to not be grateful of my update/please stop writing to my address/check the land registry details was NatWest. The woman on the phone had a go at me, but the letters did stop so despite being uppity she at least listened to me. It was well over three years in total. I worked out in the end they’d skipped out on their mortgage somehow.

I wouldn’t hesitate to do the same again. I don’t want debt collectors knocking at my door for people who’ve been gone years.

9 months and being entitled? That’s so far beyond a good turn.

Are you the CF previous owner?!

We bought a house at a time when it was a buyers market. As a result we paid less for the house than the seller would have liked. As a result they decided to play silly devils. They took up all the carpets and the lightbulbs and two of the kitchen doors mysteriously disappeared. It was difficult but we coped. About six months in the former owner turned up on our doorstep. He did not so much ask as demand that we redirect his mail. We simply said no and that they should redirect. He had a right rant and said he was going to call the police. We laughed and shut the door. We never heard from him (or the Police) again.

They are being totally cheeky. We have been here two years and still get the previous tenants post (inc, NHS letters) and even parcel deliveries! I used to drop letters to the letting agent at first, but now send it back 'return to sender' as they have had more than enough time to change addresses.

The biggest pain is parcels. I refused one last year - unfortunately it it was marked as delivered by postwoman in error. Previous tenant turned up asking for it, and when I told her that I had refused delivery and she need to contact RM- she started screaming on the doorstep saying it was shown as delivered and where was it! The neighbours came out to watch her one-woman show and I had to shut the door on her. I managed to get confirmation from courier that it was refused, and sent it via letting agents, but no apology from entitled post-pusher. Then at Christmas, a hamper from an expensive shop was left on the doorstep. Was sorely tempted to throw it against the wall a few times before handing to agents!! This year we have only had a couple of attempted deliveries. That felt good to get out 😆

Have you actually told them you’re returning to sender (which is fine, btw) or just telling them there’s no post?

Ask for their forwarding address and deal with it that way to stop them coming round