AIBU to stop dealing with former owners mail?

[mistydaytoday]

We bought our house 18 months ago. The former owner has a range of different business activities that used this address - different company names etc. I also get his ton of junk mail.

For a couple of months after he moved out he'd pitch up at the house randomly to collect a pile of mail. He won't give us a forwarding address although we've asked a few times. Instead he has asked us to send him a text message, and he'll pop by and collect it, commenting once, 'This works quite well'. (We had the bailiffs pitch once looking for him so we think there might be some reason why he's not giving us his new address!)

It doesn't work for me: I don't like the former owner constantly at my house, commenting on changes I've made to the place etc. I don't want to have a discussion about it either.

Thing is, a flurry even more mail is coming now, including mail from HMRC and companies house and other important looking envelopes.

I've recently given his mail back to the Postie who is very apologetic by the amount and has said the mail will be returned to the senders address on the envelope. DH has even contacted a couple of companies by phone and asked them to remove our address from this guy's record.

But I know the former owner is probably waiting for us to text him that mail is waiting for him at our house again. And that he expects to pop by and have a nosey and get his mail.

I've really had enough, but AIBU?

Also, if I am NBU, what do I do with the mail that doesn't have a return address on it?

I think writing 'not known' on the envelope, crossing out your address and bunging it back in the mail is reasonable.

There were a lot of people using our last address as it was rented before us to a large Indian family who constantly had friends over and so on.

They went back to India and we got tonnes and tonnes of post for them all - random names, from random places - they hadn't bothered to redirect anything. I sent a few things back to the sender, having lost the forwarding address they had handed me, but it kept coming and I just didn't have time to keep track of all their stuff.

So I stacked it up till the pile was about a foot tall, on the shelf behind the door.

After about a year, no one had called round and I didn't know what to do with it, so I got really cross and in a moment of madness, binned the lot.

THE NEXT DAY, who should turn up asking if they could have a) their mail, and b) their old flat back?

OH MY GOD.

I still feel awful about it. But honestly, who doesn't let a hospital or a bank know they have moved house? Who DOES that?

I am so tempted to get one of those stamps - we have a nightmare with the post from the former owner. She almost certainly is trying to dodge tax too which is worrying - I'm just waiting for the bailiffs to turn up...

a doctor gave me my notes and asked me to visit a department on the floor above. I looked in my notes and found a sheet of pre-printed address labels - with my old address. I quietly put it in the bin, and have had no problems since.

Steady on lurking. I'm not a lawyer, but you could have committed a criminal offence. Wait a second; I'll find a website to back that up...

Have you checked your credit rating? If he's still using your address as his own it could have an impact on you. Better you know now while you have time to sort it out rather than at some future point when you're trying to remortgage.

This is a myth, as debts/loans are against a name. This may clarify things. Only if your identity has been cloned would it be an issue, but clearly the previous owner's post is in his own name. Given the sheer number of debts of previous tenants at our address, we have not had an issue getting the original mortgage and recently switching the mortgage for our house.

Steady on lurking. I'm not a lawyer, but you could have committed a criminal offence.

Bring it on !

Wait a second; I'll find a website to back that up...

Yes, but anybody can post anything on a website. I get all my legal advice from Facebook nowdays. It's my constitutional right. Apparently .

I would have started return to sender the moment the bailiffs appeared.

We had similar with previous owner, said he couldn't do a redirect as wife, children and business all had different names. Wouldn't give me new address, used to collect mail.
Several were brown envelope stamped local magistrates court... When the bailiffs turned up, I knew why!

I took the next load of mail round to his place of work - his own accountancy business- and demanded that he make sure we had no further visits from bailiffs.
It was a completely open plan office and my voice may have been a tad loud!

OP, YANBU You need to stop this now!!!
We still get loads of mail after 6 years!!! And I do mean loads.
Most of it is junk but it's a pain in the arse. There was nothing dodgy about the previous owners, they were just very elderly and had lived here all of their married life. There was a cheque for a couple of hundred pounds a few weeks ago and I felt bad for not sending it on but it's been 6 bloody years!!! When we moved in there was a pile of various sized envelopes, all pre-addressed and stamped, just left for us on the kitchen counter. No covering letter or verbal agreement or anything like that. We sent the important looking ones on for a good couple of years but have long since ran out of the pre-stamped-envelopes. I feel like a bit of a cow now I've said it

I still get stuff 7 years later. It all goes back to sender marked up to show I have no new address.

I would open the mail 'by mistake' and contact the companies or organisations directly.

I've done this myself and it was effective. No one gave me any grief for opening the mail.

I understand you want to be reasonable and co-operative OP, but you owe him nothing and he's taking the piss. Just return anything and everything to sender. No need to enter into a dialogue with him. Certainly don't open anything sent to him at your address. Why on earth would you want to get any more involved? Wash your hands of him.

Also, register his details with the mailing preference service INFO HERE

When I was thirteen we moved into a flat whose previous owner had been into the Shakespearean Authorship and Who Killed The Princes questions. She had died suddenly and apparently had no relations.

The post we got for her was fascinating. Those factions really got worked up about it, especially on the Shakespeare side. You would not believe how angry the Francis Bacon and the Earl of Oxford people could get with each other!

I would definitely return all post as 'Adressee no longer at address' especially as you are saying youve had Baliffs letters.
I rented and had baliffs turn up for the previous tenant, they had taken all my car details down and were in process of arranging to have it towed until i could prove this guy wasnt still at the address. Letting agents werent much help but managed to get it sorted in the end but was very stressful.

You would have a nightmare if they did turn up so nip it in the bud now, and if he gets arsey explain why!! You shouldnt have to deal with that 18months on.

Cut and paste from Citizens Advice.org.uk (so legit! )

Opening someone else's mail

You can legally someone else's mail in some circumstances under the Postal Services Act 2000. It's only illegal if you open mail ‘without reasonable excuse’ or if you ‘intend to act to another’s detriment'

Example: If you're getting bank statements or cards in someone else’s name, you should tell the sender immediately. You can either:

open the letter and call the bank
write “not known at this address” on the envelope and put it in a postbox
Example: You can't open someone else's mail, find a credit card and use it yourself

This is a myth, as debts/loans are against a name.

I'm glad you said that acatcalledjohn. A few months ago I accepted a package with someone else's name but my address. I thought it was for the new next door neighbour but it wasn't. I managed to track the person down and she arrived full of thanks and insisting she'd given the correct address. I said she hadn't and she insisted she had. I didn't want to argue and gave her the package.

At work I mentioned that I'd found the mystery woman - it's dead exciting where I work. One person said the woman was probably using my address for nefarious purposes. I said that when she got home and read the label she probably realised she'd made a mistake. No, I was being stupidly naive. She'd watched a programme where it turned out that international fraudsters ran up enormous debts and the person ended up on the streets all because she had foolishly accepted a misdirected package from Hermes.

I was starting to get twitchy until I realised that this person is a drama queen who does it all the time.

Three months on I am still in my house. That could change...

return to sender

• make sure electoral roll is correct ignore his messages, his problem if he isn't updating essential records...

We forwarded on everything to the people we bought the house from for about a year. But we weren't getting excessive amounts. I figured it would give them a chance to amend any accounts they had forgotten about. After that though, we just put "not known at this address" and re-posted.

If he contacts you when he hasn't heard about post for a while, you can tell him that's what you've done. He's had ample time to sort it already.

Fraudsters are clever, Limited, but I think your colleague is definitely a drama queen (mundane job? ). The mystery woman most likely fraudulently obtained something and is simply hiding her tracks by having it delivered to an address she has no links to whatsoever.

Basically, anything signed for that shows your address but a name that isn't yours or your partner's you should refuse to sign for, even if the addressee is your neighbour. Because then the addressee could claim that you haven't passed them the item, and the only proof available would be your signature accepting the parcel. I'm sure neighbours from hell would play this game.

I'm pretty certain you'll still be in your house in 9 months time

I was asked to put it through next door, but stopped after 6 months and now return to sender. They should have been aable to inform everyone of their new address by now.

I had a few bits arrive a second time, but just keep sending it on. If they have an issue they can pay for a redirect.

I also signed up for mail preference to this address and listed their names.

I wouldn't be happy with them constantly popping round.

I've also been reassigned a phone number that used to be someone else an am bored of people arguing with me that this is definitely Gill's number. Well I'm not Gill and she doesn't live here. I'm going to tell the next one I've buried her under the patio and am living in her house.

I disagree with peace. In this case, the post is being delivered to the OP's address rather than the OP having randomly intercepted something intended for another address. (My postie quite often gets my address confused with a very similar address nearby - we regularly swap post without opening it.)

In this case, I think the OP can reasonably open the post because it has been sent to them, albeit a different name, and it's reasonable to be concerned about this. A friend of mine bought a house where the previous owner was moving overseas - post kept coming for the previous owner and my friend started opening it to find out that the previous owner was using her address to take out finance on a £200k supercar ...

PerfectlyPurple- same situation here. 6 years on, still receiving mail for previous owners (and they lived here for less than 3 years before that, ffs!) Mostly junk brochures but some white envelopes that look like correspondence from insurers, banks and utilities (going by return addresses and logos, I haven't opened anything). They obviously had a redirect in place for a while but it lapsed after a few months.

NDN are still in contact with them (or at least were for a while) and for a good few years we saved the post up and passed a bundle on via them periodically. But I'm sick of doing it. We've told them they need to change the mailing address. But still it comes. Six years! Enough's enough!

oh I get it, people are taking the piss because I showed a link to a website. It's tough on here when people always demand evidence. I have C&P the actual act. I hope that's okay.
Think it's quite hard to get a prosecution but that's different to saying that it's legal.

*Interfering with the mail: general. Gov.Uk

(1)A person commits an offence if, without reasonable excuse, he—

(a)intentionally delays or opens a postal packet in the course of its transmission by post, or

(b)intentionally opens a mail-bag.

(2)Subsections (2) to (5) of section 83 apply to subsection (1) above as they apply to subsection (1) of that section.

(3)A person commits an offence if, intending to act to a person’s detriment and without reasonable excuse, he opens a postal packet which he knows or reasonably suspects has been incorrectly delivered to him.

(4)Subsections (2) and (3) of section 83 (so far as they relate to the opening of postal packets) apply to subsection (3) above as they apply to subsection (1) of that section.

(5)A person who commits an offence under subsection (1) or (3) shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to both.

Yes and I agree that debt is linked to name not address.

Our previous owner left a forwarding address. She also left some hideous furniture she could not get out of the house, which took us half a day to get out and damaged the walls, so all of her post was marked as 'moved' and put back in the post box. Took a couple of years for it all to stop, but better than it keep coming! Plus, you don't want him associated with your address surely!

Haha natty, don't you just love these callers who insist you are who they think you are! Lol!