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AIBU?

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Original poster

Opened previous owners mail

260 replies

justalittlelemondrizzle · 30/06/2016 11:21

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.

OP posts:
Pearlman · 01/07/2016 18:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PanGalaticGargleBlaster · 01/07/2016 18:55

WHT

We had similar with our previous owners, credit card statements, hmrc, dvla, bank and dozens of mail order catalogues kept coming through the door for years after we moved in. They left no forwarding address so we kept it for a while expecting someone to pop around to collect it but nothing. Got seriously pissed off when debt collector agencies started knocking on the door so eventually ended burning the lot. They must if he several kids and lots of relatives as we received loads of birthday cards with cash in them, we put the money to one side out of guilt but after getting door stepped by a particularly unpleasant set of bailiffs we took all the money (a few hundred quid) and treated ourselves at the local swish restaurant. Fuck them, they dicked us around during the sales process, left the attic full of shite, mouldy food in the fridge and involved us in their debts.

DancingDinosaur · 01/07/2016 19:36

I opened a card that had cash in it accidentally that was for the previous owner. I contacted the estate agent and they passed my phone number on, then the previous owner came to collect it. Really easy. Couldn't keep cash that didn't belong to me personally.

RaqsMax · 01/07/2016 21:19

Stunned at modern morals (or lack of them). Shame on those who say keep the money...it's theft. You wouldn't keep someone's purse if you found it, would you? Oh wait.....you probably would. Well, next time you lose something valuable/of great sentimental value, just hope that it doesn't get picked up by someone like you. Karma's a bitch....

Absolutely take it to the Estate Agent to forward on to the family; they will have the new address in their records.

I work in an FE College and I have to say that I am so proud of the honesty shown by our students (mainly 16-18yrs) on a daily basis. We get money, purses/wallets, cash, bank cards, expensive phones, etc., handed in every day and we nearly always can reunite them with their owners. Young people often get a bad rap, but our students are brilliant!

NavyAndWhite · 01/07/2016 21:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Sara107 · 01/07/2016 22:14

It's neither complicated nor expensive to get Royal Mail to automatically redirect mail to your new address. If you don't bother doing this, and don't leave a forwarding address for the new owners, and don't bother contacting people you must know pretty well (£50 is a generous Bday gift), then I don't really see that anybody else has an obligation to try and track you down. I would say in this case you can keep the money with a perfectly clear conscience. Do something nice with it.

JudyCoolibar · 01/07/2016 22:18

Is it really that difficult to drop it in at the Estate Agents? I assume they're somewhere local? I'm not suggesting you go out of your way, but if you might be passing at some point it would be easy enough. You could maybe pass on the message that you are going to bin anything else that turns up so it's their last chance to organise a mail redirect.

LondonDove · 01/07/2016 22:20

I got sick of previous owners mail. I return all stuff with a return address but the cards are a quandary. I opened one at Christmas out of curiosity. It was from the (clearly estranged) Dad of the son of the previous owner 😳 He seemed to have no idea they didn't live here any more and haven't for two years.
The one other letter I opened was from an ex-flatmate of the previous owner's son, who apparently owed him quite a lot of bill and rent money. It was so polite and again he clearly had no idea they had bunked off to France.

RaspberryOverload · 01/07/2016 22:20

We've now been in our house for nearly 10 years, and still get the odd item through for the previous owners.

Estate agent would be a non starter, they closed down.

I also believe that the previous owners have since moved, out of the town we live in, so very little chance of finding them. So the annual Xmas cards from people they didn't bother to notify get chucked in the bin.

mum2Bomg · 02/07/2016 08:25

I find it VERY hard to believe that the card didn't have a first name written in it: "Dear James" etc...

Stealing is stealing - it's not your money and if you would feel bad taking it from a child you should feel bad taking it from an adult.

loopylinda · 02/07/2016 09:41

You could try looking on the electoral role if they are still local they will be on there

SouthWesterlyWinds · 02/07/2016 09:42

Mum2 has a point. The envelope would have a surname and the card could possibly have a first name on it. Whether if could be easily read is another matter

Clawdy · 02/07/2016 09:45

We've had a few letters for the previous owner, and the estate agent has dealt with all of them, no problem.

Rowanhart · 02/07/2016 09:47

Not a criminal offence. Until you keep the money. Then surely it becomes theft? Like when they're are those accidental bank transfers and if you spend cash you're the one nicked....

I would make all genuine efforts to find the lad or a relative in Facebook to return. It's just the right thing to do.

raviolidreaming · 02/07/2016 10:33

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!

About the same number of people who would turn up at the police station in the area they used to live in to enquire about any post that has been handed in for them?

RaspberryOverload · 02/07/2016 10:46

Can people forget about facebook for this? OP already said she's looked and found nothing useable.

Greenyogagirl · 02/07/2016 11:29

I'd pass the karma on by giving some to a homeless guy and spend the rest.
You've been there a year, previous occupiers will assume you've binned it as its been so long.

UptownFunk00 · 02/07/2016 11:33

We've been a tour property for 18 months and only recently not had letters for the previous tenant.

They owed a lot of money and we've had to contact loads of companies so they don't send the bayliff out.

They've been nothing but a PiTA.

indieblack · 02/07/2016 13:17

I feel your pain OP. We've been here 7 years and still get 5+ pieces of previous owners stuff each week. No forwarding address and after a few years of dutifully doing return to sender (seemingly with little effect) now everything goes in the bin/ recycling including bank cards, tax stuff, congestion charge bills (we've had the foreign driving offence stuff too) and private medical letters. The irony is the woman works in direct marketing and I get her professional magazine every quarter!

Consider the money payment for your time wasted. Lazy freeloading knobbers.

And breathe!

JulesJules · 02/07/2016 15:45

Ugh, I feel your pain. We bought a house from a pompous pair of junior professionals who did not want to share their new address with us.

The wife turned up on the doorstep once demanding to know where some very important letter was, as if it was my fault. She kept saying 'It's very important' very slowly, as if i was a halfwit.

All we knew was the name of the solicitors he worked for, so when a summons for an unpaid traffic offence arrived, I had no option but to send it to them with a covering note asking them 'Please give this to your employee and ask him to update his address details with the people he owes money to' Grin

They left the house absolutely filthy, too.

SapphireStrange · 02/07/2016 16:23

In all honesty I think you should keep it. I would, shameful as that may be. (I'm neither stony broke nor loaded).

It's a long time not to have sorted out forwarding their mail. And, as you say, if they're close enough to send £50 why do they not know their new address?

CocktailQueen · 03/07/2016 19:52

Don't you have a forwarding address? You've stolen their money!

Just sent everything back marked Return to Sender.

Notsunkinyet · 03/07/2016 19:59

You were completely ok to open that letter and shouldn't feel guilty about it because it has happened to me all the time. I open things from the back or with seeing my number house then realise afterwards that it wasn't for me! I give it back to the postman.
BUT in these situations I always by the motto of 'if roles were reversed what would I want somebody to do for me?' I would want somebody to be honest and at least make some small effort in finding me.
I strongly believe in Karma. When I have found things in taxis, till assistants have given me the wrong change or somebody drops something on the floor, I have ALWAYS made an attempt to return it.
When I list my phone, somebody rang my boyfriend and came and met me with it so 'treat other people how you would want to be treated yourself.'

Maryann1975 · 03/07/2016 20:01

I can not believe that people don't redirect mail when they move. It's 2016, it is sooo simple to do this. We moved in 2013 and still get so much crap through the letter box. I started off returning it all to sender, but now I bin it or let the kids open it, then bin it. One thing that got opened was from her old employer saying that they had miscalculated her wage, could she get in touch with how to pay the outstanding money. Straight in the bin with that. If you can't be bothered to redirect your mail, I can't be bothered to forward important stuff on.
I agree with those saying to keep the money for maybe three months. If you don't hear anything, treat it as yours. If they come asking for it then, it's a bit tough.

Notsunkinyet · 03/07/2016 20:05

Oh and the fact it was a birthday card makes it even more important to return it.
It could cause a rift in the relationship between father and son with the son thinking he hadn't bothered sending anything and the father thinking he hadn't said thank you!