Ex opening my post

[Workissue25]

What can I do about my ex opening my post?

For context, I do recieve majority of my mail at my new address but some have ended up at our family home where they currently lives. We are going through court for the financial order with the likelihood the house will be sold imminently.

However, I have had post over the past year being opened by them and they have subsequently told me in email that I have received it and summarised the contents (a couple have been debt letters and has made derogatory remarks)
More recently, something very confidential was opened and I was CCd into an email from them emailing the organisation about the letter (they mentioned what was in it and that I do not live there)

I messaged them directly to pass the letter onto me but instead they took a photo of the contents and sent me the photo.

I have repeatedly asked for my post not to opened and happy for a return to sender or forward onto me.

It is illegal to intentionally open or destroy mail that is addressed to somebody else. This was confirmed to a friend recently by her solicitor during her divorce. A quick google clearly shows that it is illegal.

You should have done the redirect when you left, so you do only have yourself to blame for this, and you do need to do one now.

They should be just passing the post on to you.

My ex put a mail redirection on BOTH our names when he moved out so he could continue with his control/financial abuse. I didn't realise for ages and he vehemently denied it when I raised it with him, but there was nothing I could legally do. I ordered and sent myself something so I could track it and it came up as 'redirected' so I knew he'd done it.
I'm sure the package gave him a message when he opened it, though. 😵

It is illegal to intentionally open or destroy mail that is addressed to somebody else.

Whilst this is true, it is easy for the person to just say 'Opened in error' which is often put on post which is resealed and forwarded.

You might get away with it once as an accident, but not repeatedly.

Once, or maybe a few times but yes, not all the time. It would be hard to prove. I can't see the CPS taking it on in the public interest.

We used to rent a house and it was a good few years ago, way before a lot of bills were electronic, and it was like a sorting office. I’ve never seen as much post.

The weirdest thing is the family who had rented the house before us left (we knew them that’s how we found the house incidentally!) had lived there for 6 years and said the same thing

We moved in and bizarrely, only the odd bit of mail for the previous family, mainly circulars and marketing things, nothing important - then it stopped after 6 months or so but loads of other people’s mail AND then we started getting debt collectors at the house which was awful.

We spoke to the lettings agents who were absolutely brilliant - they printed us a pile of letter headed letters to give “to whom it may concern” confirming the date we had moved in and that “we had not connection to any prior tennants”.

We sent EVERY letter we got back “return to sender” and it went on until we left - 4 years later!!!

When I bought my house mail for the previous owners kept arriving.

I redirected their post to their new address for about 3 weeks which I decided was more than enough time for them to set up a mail redirection with the post office and change their address details with their bank, utility companies and so on.

Then everything after that went straight in the bin unopened...

I don't like CFs who think people don't have better things to do than returning mail to senders or writing someone's new address on each piece of mail received and then post it back, just because they can't be bothered to organise themselves and pay for a Royal Mail redirection.

My post comes in. I sit down with the stack and open. I don’t check the addressee. I just want to be fast as I hate the chore. If I opened your letter it wouldn’t be intentional.

If you’re interfering with post for fraudulent intent, and postal services laws are really intended to protect post in transit, not after it’s been delivered

Postal Services Act 2000

A person commits an offence if, intending to act to a person’s detriment and without reasonable excuse, they open a postal packet which they know or reasonably suspects has been incorrectly delivered to them.
The Act also refers to a person who ‘intentionally delays’ post being received – even throwing away unopened mail could lead to problems

this act is used almost exclusively to prosecute postmen/ women, not the situation described. You could always have a go at a private prosecution I suppose