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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To expect former owners to have mail re-directed?

60 replies

growl3th · 07/01/2014 10:48

We bought and moved in to our new house in September and we are still getting mail for the previous owner. Much of it is concerned with the business that he ran from the house (including loads of junk mail from building suppliers) but there is also personal stuff. He did leave a mobile number for us to phone if there was mail and he (or his wife) would come and pick it up. This obviously means we have to agree a time to be at home for the pick up.

We got our mail re-directed for a year when we moved which isn't difficult so AIBU to expect others to do this?

OP posts:

AngelaDaviesHair · 07/01/2014 10:50

He should have got it redirected. Why not ring ot text him to say that from, say, end of Jan you will return it and he has to get a redirection organised?

My sister's vendors didn't get post redirected ever but that was because they were shysters who had done a moonlit flit owing money. My sister sent anything important looking back and binned the rest.

JeanSeberg · 07/01/2014 10:52

I'd just stick it all back in the post box with "not at this address" written on.

SquinkiesRule · 07/01/2014 10:52

I'd call and let him know that this is the last load you will call him about and all his post will be sent back with not at this address written on from now on. Bloody annoying.
We redirected ours in September and there was only two companies who didn't get it right when I changed the address, they have since fallen in line and I would hope the new owner isn't getting our post now.

rockybalboa · 07/01/2014 10:53

What Jean said. Lazy fecker expecting you to forward it on.

MrsSteptoe · 07/01/2014 10:55

Total cheek. As others have said, I would let the previous owners know that from now on you will be marking "return to sender".

I don't think you're going to get anyone saying that you're being unreasonable, incidentally. I can't imagine who would think it was reasonable to expect you to arrange little meet-ups so that he can save himself £50-odd a year on redirection fees (or not reveal his current address, if that's why he doesn't want to redirect).

Topaz25 · 07/01/2014 11:44

YANBU. Let the previous owner know it is not convenient for you and he needs to get his mail redirected.

We had this when we moved into our rented house a couple of years ago. We received mail for the previous tenant, the landlady and several other people. Shortly after we moved in we even waited in for a massive parcel the previous tenant got off Amazon and said he was unable to change the delivery details for and arranged for him to pick it up, we told him then to get everything redirected because we weren't doing it again. The landlady said to forward any mail on to her but we struggled with that on top of all the stress of moving and told her to get it redirected. Now anything for them is returned to sender with not at this address written on it or filed in the bin.

HibernoCaledonian · 07/01/2014 11:49

DH and I were still getting mail for the previous owners 6 years after we moved into our house. After the first 3 months we brought everything into their solicitors (the previous owners had left us no forwarding details) asked them to forward it to their clients and told them that any further correspondence would be destroyed. Didn't seem to work so now if we get anything important for them I put it back in the postbox marked "Not Known at this Address" or we shred it.

hoobypickypicky · 07/01/2014 12:23

yanbu but you should consider yourself lucky, you got off lightly!

My friends, C and D, bought their house 18 months ago. They still receive regular visits from the previous owners to collect copious amounts of mail. Now it's got worse.

Now the previous owners are telling C exactly what items of mail they are to keep for collection and which they should discard.

They've also demanded asked (and been allowed to, because my friends are far nicer than me) to come back at intervals and to walk through C and D's house to see the beautiful back garden and "to make sure the plants are being properly cared for". C wants to chop down some ivy but doesn't dare to because ex-owner won't like it!

NinjaBunny · 07/01/2014 12:23

If you google 'mail preference service' you can register, type in your address and old tenants names, etc and it should no longer come to your house.

OodlesofOods · 07/01/2014 12:27

7 years we've been here and I've just returned something share related. I'm assuming the people actually forgot this as I've not had other things.

glasgowsteven · 07/01/2014 12:28

after over 12 months the old occupant of my rented flat still has mail sent to him.

Including bank statements and bank cards - I open the lot :)

I bin everything

hoobypickypicky · 07/01/2014 12:29

But that's only for marketing/junk mail, NinjaBunny. Like my friends, the OP is experiencing a deluge of business and personal letters as well as direct sales mail.

I'd be tempted to tell the old owners that "We found Royal Mail's redirection service very efficient, perhaps you'd like to try it".

snowed · 07/01/2014 12:30

What did you say when he left the mobile number? Did you agree to let him come and pick up his mail? If so, then I think you should arrange for him to come and collect it for the last time, but say any future mail will be returned to sender and he'll need to arrange a redirection.

glasgowsteven · 07/01/2014 12:31

HOOBY

WTAF

I have never heard the likes

firawla · 07/01/2014 12:33

hooby that is ridiculous, they need to put a stop to that!!! they sold the house, why on earth do they think they get a say over the garden

craftynclothy · 07/01/2014 12:36

Hooby. There's no way I'd have put up with that. That's just crazy.

When we bought this house, the owner did pay for redirection but Royal Mail still delivered all her mail here . We had to phone her numerous times to let her know they weren't redirecting it. I think she was given her money back in the end because they'd done such a crap job.

NinjaBunny · 07/01/2014 12:36

But that's only for marketing/junk mail, NinjaBunny.

No. you can type in certain names and it should filter out that person's post.

Whether it works or not I don't know!

tobiasfunke · 07/01/2014 12:37

This happened us. People lived here 30 years and then redirected their post for a month only. They told us to take it round to their daughter who lived 6 miles away- which I did twice and then gave up. I just marked return to sender on everything and that stopped most things coming. All except the obvious debt collection ones for their daughters which I at first forwarded to their new address where they were promptly ignored. Then I opened them and phoned the agencies involved and gave them their new address. The people were loaded as well.

I felt a little aggrieved as I had my post redirected for 18 months and asked the new owners of our house to pop any stray letters through my friend's letter box who lived next door to them. They knew I had an ongoing redirection and they just marked them return to sender and I missed a couple of really important things. Bastards.

Perfectlypurple · 07/01/2014 12:37

We have been in our house for over 4 years. We don't know the new address but our neighbours are in contact with them. But our neighbour is awful so getting to the point of binning stuff now.

FryOneFatManic · 07/01/2014 12:38

Hooby I think you need to tell your friends to stop this. It's their own house now and nothing to do with the previous owners any more. Who cares whether the previous owners get upset over a tree?

I'm a nice person. I also would not allow a previous owner access to a house just because they want to see it. I certainly would not accept them dictating to me what I could/couldn't do with the house/garden.

CrohnicallySick · 07/01/2014 12:39

Hobby- not that uncommon it seems, I have friends who moved into a house with a beautiful garden, apparently the previous owner has been round more than once checking in the garden and asking for cuttings of plants etc!

DrinkFeckArseGirls · 07/01/2014 12:45

hooby your friends are idiots. You can quote me on that.

Itsallabout · 07/01/2014 12:47

We had some-one knock on our door last week to say his brother used to rent our house and run a business from it. It got into trouble so he did a bunk but he was expecting a cheque in the mail and did we have it? I asked why would it come here when we moved in 7 months ago and bought the property. He said that he owed money and didn't want to pay it back so gave his old business address to receive future cheques.

HoratiaDrelincourt · 07/01/2014 12:54

When we moved, we had redirect, and left the new owners a few sheets of "please forward to " labels in case anything slipped the net - which some things did.

We discovered that if the address didn't precisely match the redirect (eg a spelling mistake, or using "Flat" or "Apt" instead of "Apartment" ) then it would slip through.

Our vendors didn't set a redirect - a blended family with five surnames between them, and you pay per surname per address. At first they called or we delivered every couple of weeks, but since they'd only moved a few miles down the road, on our way to nursery, it wasn't much hassle. It didn't take long to dry up. Now we just get the odd card, esp at Christmas, but we RTS or bin. It's been three years.

MrsSquirrel · 07/01/2014 13:00

YANBU - just say no!

OK growl3th you are a nice person and agreed to give the previous owner his post, but he is taking the piss. Just tell him you are no longer willing to do it and will be returing any post to the senders from now on.

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