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 don't think you'd be on Crimewatch's most wanted for putting the £50 in a charity jar.

The previous owners took the piss with deliveries and letters when we moved in. They would deliberately send parcels as we have an outdoor porch that the postman pops them into until we get home. When I text the previous owner she told me to leave it in the porch and she would pick it up. This happened a number of times so I started holding onto them for a few months before texting, that cut it down a bit. We've now lived here 5 years and the other day I got the previous owners p45. I binned it. I don't really care if it's illegal that I opened it. If you can't be arsed to tell your employer after 5 years that you have moved, I cba to chase around after you.

We have lived in our current house for 19yrs in August. For about 15 of those, we got mail addressed to previous owners, regarding some shares registered in Dublin. For years I had no forwarding address, so returned to sender, also rang sender, but they kept coming!

Eventually my neighbour mentioned she had bumped into previous owners, who had moved again, back near here, and they gave neighbour their contact details. So I started re-directing the letters to previous owner, but still they came!! Why on earth didn't they tell share company their new address at this point???

Only when I heard that the husband died, and his mail was still arriving, did I write a nice letter to the widow, and suggest that whilst she was changing the shares into her name, maybe she should change the address too. It must have worked as we not had any of the letters for about 4yrs now.

We have just completed sale of my mums house this week, after her death in Feb. Whilst official mail has stopped, or coming to me/brother, I suspect she may get some xmas cards from people who dont know she died (its hard at 90, they have made many friends and acquaintances but her address book was a mess, and not all had phone numbers). But - I printed a load of labels with my address, and left a nice note for new owners, asking if they could use the labels to re-direct any mail. Thay may not, they may bin them, but at least I have made an effort. And if some do arrive, I can look again into her addrss book, see if I can trace the senders.

I would spend it but be prepared to 'find' it again if the previous owner suddenly gets in touch.

I would do as maggiethemagpie has just said or keep it for a couple of months incase someone gets in touch.

I certainly wouldn't put myself out with it like troupsing to a police station.

talk of handing money into the police etc is very clearly just made up to make this thread seem more interesting. In the real world no-one would actually do this. Ever

Bollocks, I would take it to the police station lost property, I have never and would never keep or use money that I knew did not belong to me, ive done it if I found a tenner in the street and ive done it when I found an envelope in the street with no identifying details but a fair bit of cash in.

It's just a basic thing. If it is not yours you don't use it, it makes no difference to me if it comes through my door by mistake or if it's on the path outside my house or in someone else's purse in a hedge or in their pocket.

I'm not some weird pious super person I'm just a normal person who does not take things that do not belong to me because I wouldn't like someone to steal from me so I won't do it to other people,

The mail redirect thing though - as someone said up thread - isn't as simple as that.

I couldn't get one set up despite three attempts, because I don't have the same last name as DH. Apparently the Royal Mail cannot compute.
In the end, I had to pay twice for the same address(es). Even for mail that was jointly addressed. I was mighty unimpressed.

Some people don't have local police station to take stuff to.

We had the same situation with our previous owners. There isn't even a convenient post box to shove stuff in. They were taking the piss. We found a phone number for them and they suggested we hand it in to a neighbour. Feck that, we took the pile to their lawyer and told them to deal with it. I hope they charged them for doing so. They left the house as a shit tip with buckets of skanky water in the back garden knowing that we were moving in with toddlers.

Further down the line we received another letter addressed to "current occupants" at our address. We opened it and it was from a debt company looking to trace them. We gave them all their details. Karma.

Some people don't have local police station to take stuff to

It does not need to be a local police station just one you can get to.

Very few people never leave their house unless they have a significant disability, and very few people don't have at least a occasional temp pop up police hub somewhere nearby or at least somewhere they are going to be in the near future.

It doesn't even need a special trip usually it wouldn't even be an effort. I don't have a proper police station closer than 90 minutes to me but easily enough without to much effort I could find a police officer who could direct me to a temp station in one of the nearer towns or villages and I could divert past next time I had cause to be in that area

Needs, a tenner in the street with nothing to identify an owner is fair game. I certainly wouldn't go to the police station to hand in a tenner I found in the street, and I'm sure that 9/10 people wouldn't either.

Come to think of it, how many people who lost a tenner in the street would think of going to the police station to see if someone had handed it in? Bonkers!

Perhaps they wouldn't but to me I know it's not mine so I wouldn't keep it.

A tenner in the street is still theft by finding.

wouldnt it be nice if people who did drop a tenner in the street could rely on honesty and go claim their tenner because 9 out of 10 people would hand it in?

Pipe dream perhaps but one I'm happy to contribute towards and one where I'm happy to be apparently one of the few who would hand it in.

As far as I know, a tenner in the open street would not be theft by finding, as you have no chance of finding who it belonged to.
OTOH, money left where you can reasonably expect to trace the owner is theft by finding, eg a purse left in a shop.

My nephew was prosecuted for a broken mainstream none interesting none identifiable necklace with a monetary value of £6.there was no chance of him knowing who it belonged to.

You don't need to have an ability to trace the owner you just don't need to pretend it's yours. Finders keepers is not an accurate thing.

Reasonable steps I guess it depends if you think reasonable steps mean glancing around and seeing if anybody is there then pocketing someone else's money or perhaps handing the lost property to a police officer/some other type of official who has responsibility for lost property.

I guess it all boils down to what honest people think reasonable is

Is it possible a neighbour will know the 18yr olds first name, making a face book search easier?

I've been in my house for 10 years and still get mail for two previous occupants, I initially returned to sender but I open anything that looks like hills now after a nasty experience with a bailiff, he would not believe I wasn't the person who ran up debt and was very intimidating. He said returning debt letters is a common avoidance tactic.

I open anything that looks like a debt now so that I can contact the company straight away in case bailiffs turn up again.

Missing cards have caused massive fallout it's on my Dad's side of the family, a bday to my step brother was genuinely lost in post but step mum took it as a deliberate snub and didn't speak to my grandparents for years and years over it.

I am just as shocked at the posters who say pocket it as they are about attempting to trace it.

I had this scenario with a gift card for Bluewater shopping centre, I handed it to the letting agent. The owners had moved three years previously but I still could not keep it.
I have been called a PO on here often enough though so maybe I am.

The OP decided what to do about 24 hours ago!

Keep it. A lesson to all to redirect your mail. This happened to us for nearly two years. She expected me to readdress it.

Hopefully more will come next year!!!!!!!! 😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆

Don't misunderstand me- no money came for my previous owner- I would have sent it on. But you have no address.

Different.

Found a fiver on the street the other day and kept it.

Can't you contact the estate agent who sold you the house? They wd have a forwarding address or phone number for previous owner and could contact them and explain situ?

Keep it in a rainy day jar so you can return it if you need to x