To not be wanting to be bothered by past owner's mail

[redoneslast]

Three years on.
Its getting irritating.

I returned every bit of mail with not known, on the basis that if you don't it's just going to keep coming. Forwarding gets you nowhere as they previous occupants may or may not do something, but it is in the senders interest to get mail to the correct place.

Very very raely have anything for anyone else now (once a year maybe?)

We still get Christmas cards for the old owners and we've been here 12 years, they never gave us a forwarding address. We did get a mens kinky underwear catalogue delivered quarterly for the old owner (who was the same age as my dad), which we used to have a giggle over but that stopped after about 5 years... used to look forward to that

We once lived in a house while we were students when the landlord (it had been his parents house) sold lost in a card game or something dodgy-- the house and we never heard from him again, no forwarding address, but we were supposed to drop his post next door where he apparently picked it up from (ie his childhood neighbours).

Post continued to come and we handed it next door, but there had started to be bailiffs and all sorts of worrying looking letters so one night we did actually open a letter to find out what it was about - luckily we did and it was the water board to say they were cutting the property's water off in the next few days if they didn't hear back . Apparently he hadn't paid the water bill for several years.

We called and they didn't cut us off, plus we were able to provide details of the new owners.

Mind you - they were a bit - they didn't tell us that they had bought obtained the house - but believed the previous owner when he told them that he would tell us all the details. He didn't and continued collecting our rent from us - first we knew about it was when they called around wanting to know why we weren't paying. Could have got really nasty if they decided they wanted back payments, not like we can afford to hand over double for several months, luckily managed to talk them out of it. But you would have thought that they would have come around as soon as they took over the property to sort it all out!

It is illegal to open or destroy. You are supposed to return to sender, or, mark "not known at this address" and put back in the post box.

It does become tedious after a while though.

Jux that sounds tlike someone has given the wrong address (accidently or deliberately!)

We have lived in this house for five years. If mail for the previous owner gets delivered here I either bin it if it looks like junk, or open it and read it if it looks interesting. I don't care if it's illegal tbh, I'm nosy.

I know it is illegal to open or destroy but I dont care

fil is a drunk that doesn't care, I get his statements for some kind of share thing, I bin them

dss1 hates me as I am the executor of his fathers estate (he lived with us a long time, even his dad didn't like him). I get alot of his mail as he lives with his working girlfriend and doesn't want to lose his jsa , I have reported him.

and bil is abelligerent drunk who has been in prison for assault on a family member.The only tie I looked at him and thought he may be human was at his brothers funeral.. I get something for him every three to four months, dont know what is it. I bin them.

this wine is too gooooood

sorry guys

Jux - do they look financial? I'd be a bit worried about people applying for credit using your address.

I had a parcel and a letter the other week addressed to someone I'd never heard of at my address (correct postcode). No return address, so I opened the padded envelope to see if there were any clues - it was a law textbook, so I tried asking at the two closest student houses on my road, and at one of them the girl who answered the door thought she'd heard of the person it was addressed to. So I asked her to track him down on the university email system, and ask him to collect the stuff from me. Cue a rather embarrassed third-year law student turning up a couple of days later, who had given his parents the wrong house number...

see? it may not have got to him if you had just returned to the post office

thread killer at large

Previous owners lived here for 7 years they did not get their post redirected by royal mail, not even for a week, they left a few envelopes. We forward a few things for 6 months, then I did return to sender for a year and now I bin it. I think if you can't be bothered to spend the money to have your mail redirected you don't deserve to get your post.

Jux I would be concerned about someone using your address for credit. That happened to a friend of mine, someone took out several store/credit cards using her address. She only found out when bills started arriving.

I've lived in my house for nearly 10 years. The previous owners were here for at least 5. Once or twice a year I still get post for the people who lived here before them (so 15+ years ago). I return it to the address on the envelope, but the companies concerned obviously don't update their databases......

I didn't think it was illegal to bin it once it's been delivered to the correct address.

I open it, read it then bin it...{whistles that tune people do when they're not being suspicious and stares at the ceiling - we soo need a smiley for that btw)

I registered all my address' previous residents' names with the Mailing Preference Service - mail dwindled quickly after that. Trinity, I think they have some kind of special service for relatives of deceased people.

I also open all mail that isn't addressed to me and call the senders to let them know that the intended recipient is no longer here. I don't care if it's illegal to open someone else's mail; some of the letters have turned out to be chasing unpaid debts and I don't want to be surprised by bailiffs on my doorstep. Also, I'm nosy and finding out what the letter's about is my compensation for having to deal with other people's disorganisation

i religously forward mail or return to sender, which came back to bite me on the arse when i discovered a former tenant (not even the LAST former tenant) had registered her car to my address a few weeks after we moved in. i had been dutifully returning all their final demands to sender and for my thanks I got the %$£^ing bailiffs on the doorstep at 7am saying they had verified she lived at the address from dvla records and wanted to seize our property.

meanwhile, i spent ££££s with royal mail forwarding all my mail under every possible name. but being completely useless, they missed most of it and it all ended up piling up at my old house, including a tax refund cheque i couldn't redirect which i had been waiting for from overseas. new tenants posted it to me in the end - 5 months late....

rant over.

PS Jux, i would also be worried about someone using your address to apply for credit. can you tell who is sending them?

wellwisher, wish i had thought of mailing preference service! thanks.

I got a postcard from the school of the previous occupant of my house, congratulating him on his excellent performance in history last term.

I think it's a bit weird that you don't let your kid's school know you've moved

The previous owners of our house had conveniently forgot to tell most of their creditors that they had moved. I spent a few months one a dedicated 'return to sender' campaign and the mail eventually dried up. Just collect everything on a big pile and take a trip to the mailbox once a month to send it all back. Bit of hassle, but it does the job.

It's illegal to open mail that is not in your name as my sis found out when she received a letter with her surname but different first-she has lived at this address for 30 years!!. She opened it & rang the company concerned to tell them of their mistake and was told she had no right to open it . Keep writing 'Gone Away' or 'No longer at this Address' and put back in post box......

We have only just stopped getting the odd letter for the previous owners. We bought in 1994. They were here for 27 years though and are really lovely. Never had a problem with it and love to have a chat with her in Sainsburys when I see her.

When we moved back to England we spent one month at pil's house before we got our own place. Our GP are still sending letters for us there even though we have told them at least 10 times we've moved!
They seem to have loads of different databases and if they change the address on one database it doesn't get changed on the other.

After we had a baby the health visitor even tried to visit us at that address, and that time we had noticed that they had pil's address for us and phoned them up to tell them before the health visitor was due.

I used to be very helpful for the first few years, even taking stuff to the old owners' house - nearby, but then they moved so I've been binning it for the last 6 years or so

i nearly had my electricity cut off. despite informing them i had moved in, they wrote to previous tennant, a couple of times i think and luckily i opened it!

there was a website i tried where you could ask for mail not to be delivered. perhaps it was mail preference service or something.
i couldnt get the hang of it and still Return to sender

Laughing at all the it's Illegal posts.

So bloody what, do you have cameras in your house with a direct link to the illegal letter opening police department?

Or you might get a telling off from some random on the phone !
I'm quaking !