Opened previous owners mail

[justalittlelemondrizzle]

Since buying the house almost a year ago we have recieved all the old owners mail. Everything from car insurance and bank statements to birthday cards and junk mail. I've been returning everything to sender and for the last couple of months letters have greatly reduced and have almost stopped. It was my birthday the other day and today a birthday card came in the post. I didn't look at the name on the envelope as it was clearly a birthday card so just opened it like a giddy child wondering who it could be from. Well it wasn't for me but the previous owners son and £50 fell out. I'm not sure what to do. I have no forwarding address and I can't return this to sender.

I would honestly keep it, without a second thought.

Sucks to be them.

even giving it to police with the name, they would no doubt manage to trace it

I hope the police really aren't wasting time tracking down people who haven't bothered to give people their new address!

I didn't know there was such a thing as theft by finding ,NeedsAsock.
I found a £20 note blowing around on a beach when on holiday in Yorkshire.
I put it in a dog rescue collection tin in a nearby shop.
Once a Brownie, always a Brownie.

Check over the stuff you got at the time you bought. It will have the solicitors details on. Call them and explain. They will have their onward address

Around here if it was a simple job with a name and a not to long ago previous address then the police would attempt to make contact with them.

£50 for some people is a huge huge chunk of their weekly money a teenager working at minimum wage would only be earning something like £3.90 an hour bumping up to £5.30 on his or her birthday.

Nobody knows that they haven't told people a new address for all anybody knows it could be a elderly/disabled relative with a carer whose inadvertently used an old address book.

If the police do not locate the actual owner or they do not make contact with the police themselves then the police give you back the money and it is legitimately yours to keep at that point.

No matter what way you are looking at it just keeping it and spending it is taking something that you know does not belong to you

I don't think this would be considered theft by finding. Theft by finding is chancing upon an item and not taking proper steps to establish whether it was truly abandoned. I can't see how something which pops through your door misdirected can be considered under that criteria.

To the people saying that it's legal to keep it: it's not.
Whether or not it's legal open someone else's post, taking someone else's property with the intent of depriving them of it is theft.
You aren't obliged to make any effort to get it to them, but if you decide to keep it and get caught, you will be convicted.

Brotherphil that is nonsense.
Hilarious nonsense, but still nonsense.

PS - if a company won't stop sending you post, look to see if they include a reader reply envelope.

I once had a book club that wouldn't get the point, so I taped it to a brick and took it to the sorting office. The guy behind the counter said that he couldn't accept it, but that if the envelope was on a jiffy bag, then he wouldn't know what was in there.

Never heard from them again.

Theft Act (1968):
(1)A person’s appropriation of property belonging to another is not to be regarded as dishonest—

(a)if he appropriates the property in the belief that he has in law the right to deprive the other of it, on behalf of himself or of a third person; or

(b)if he appropriates the property in the belief that he would have the other’s consent if the other knew of the appropriation and the circumstances of it; or

(c)(except where the property came to him as trustee or personal representative) if he appropriates the property in the belief that the person to whom the property belongs cannot be discovered by taking reasonable steps.
[...]
“Appropriates”.

(1)Any assumption by a person of the rights of an owner amounts to an appropriation, and this includes, where he has come by the property (innocently or not) without stealing it, any later assumption of a right to it by keeping or dealing with it as owner.

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1968/60

Missed a bit:
1 Basic definition of theft.

(1)A person is guilty of theft if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it; and “thief” and “steal” shall be construed accordingly.

(2)It is immaterial whether the appropriation is made with a view to gain, or is made for the thief’s own benefit.

Basically, if you know whose it is, it's theft to keep it, even if you don't know where they are.

Do people seriously think the police have nothing better to do than to try and trace the owner of someone's misdirected birthday card?

I'd say that if after a year this relative doesn't have the new address then it's probably not been given to them, most likely because the previous owners are NC with said relative.

If I found an amount of money in the street then I may put it in a charity tin. Not a chance in hell would I go to the police if it was purposely sent to my house and posted through my door.

No-one would ever be able to prove that it was sent or received. Sending money through the post is stupid anyway.

but if you decide to keep it and get caught, you will be convicted

How would the OP get caught? There's no proof that it ever arrived at her address. It's not unknown for unscrupulous postal workers to steal birthday cards because they often have cash in them.

So on what evidence would the OP be convicted?

Do people seriously think the police have nothing better to do than to try and trace the owner of someone's misdirected birthday card?

This is one of those MN parallel universe/WTF?! moments, isn't it?

if you decide to keep and get caught, you will be convicted 😂😂

FGS! do you really think the police have nothing better to do than charge people for opening other mail. There are real criminals in this world to catch and I'm afraid OP isn't one of them.

How are they going to prove without any doubt OP received the card?

only on mumsnet would people tell you your get a conviction and chased by police for a birthday card.
Love the posting a definition of theft 😂

This thread is great, such a giggle

I wouldn't give it to Estate agents that's for sure.

I used to return mail to sender after a while I got pissed of so I binned the letters, was nosey once and opened on it was debt collectors.

Anyway isn't it illegal you

Sometimes on MN it's a case of a little bit of knowledge being dangerous

I meant fraudulent to use someone else's address when you not living there, I don't mean personal letters.

Keep it to one side for a while, then spend it and should anyone come claim it write them a IOU

Don't keep it. Nothing to do with being convicted, just being a decent person. Look them up on FB as pp suggested.

Seriously this threads gone mad!! Taking about convictions, police hunting OP down for a birthday card. Do you not think the police have enough on with you know catching real criminals?

Only on mumsnet 😂

"but if you decide to keep it and get caught, you will be convicted" pmsl. Really. Do people actually believe this bollocks?

Presumably these are the same people who are allowed to vote? .

You'd probably get away with it, but personally I tend to work on the basis of whether something is right or wrong, not on whether I can get away with it.

Maybe it's just my goody-two-shoes aspie OCD side coming through.

On the other had, if they find out - as someone else pointed out - and decide to go to the police (£50 is not a small amount)...

wannabe I think some mumsnetters do believe this bollocks and really think the police have nothing better to do.

They are probably 😇 Model citizens even taking 1 pennies they find to hand in as lost property

Presumably these are the same people who are allowed to vote?

I agree - imagine letting anyone who wanted to remain vote! ;)