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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to ask what you do with previous occupants' post?

63 replies

myoriginal3 · 13/05/2017 06:35

Moving house and there is post there from previous occupiers.

Do you?

A: discard
B: state 'return to sender' and put in post box
C: state 'not know at this address' and put in post box
D: retain indefinitely
E: open to have a nose through?

OP posts:
thecatsarecrazy · 13/05/2017 06:38

If they have only just moved out keep hold incase they come round.
If not write not at this address and put back in post box. Don't bin that's awful.

Zhan · 13/05/2017 06:38

Not known at this address for first 6 months. After that I just chucked it. 4 years later we're still getting mail for them 🙄

LedaP · 13/05/2017 06:39

Depends on how long ago they moved out.

Usually i arrange with peoplr who i have bought off to drop theirs in to their new home. While they get sorted.

After a month or two it goes back in the post box as not knoen.

user1492287253 · 13/05/2017 06:43

First few weeks keep. Long enough for any redirection to work. After that i mark as return to sender for a few months. Then i bin unless it looks important. I had what looked like airline tickets once. I did open that as i didnt have the address so i called the airline who called the guy and he csme round to collect

user76895432 · 13/05/2017 06:45

I do C. Been in my new house 6 months and still doing this regularly!

Original poster
myoriginal3 · 13/05/2017 06:46

Only just moving and it's rental accommodation with post for various different names there...
I'll retain just in case.

OP posts:
KinkyAfro · 13/05/2017 06:50

If it's a rental, pass on to LA or LL

HappenedForAReisling · 13/05/2017 07:05

I write "not at this address. return to sender" and shove back in the mailbox"
I'm fed up of receiving mail for the family of 7 that left this place 3 years ago. I don't care if it looks important, they need to sort their shit out - I'm not a mail redirecting service.

Sukebind · 13/05/2017 07:14

I think that if it has been quite a while but suddenly random pieces of more personal looking post arrives then it is kind to do your best to get it to them by forwarding or returning to any sender given.
Dh's aunt and uncle forgot to change our address on their Christmas card mailing list and didn't notice that they were sticking a label on the envelope with our old address. The problem was that they handmade their cards and expected (rightly) some sort of comment when we saw them. There were two or three awkward years before we all managed to sort out what had happened. The annoying thing was that we only moved a few metres away from our old home. The new occupants (retired, middle-class couple) binned the cards rather than walk two minutes to drop it in to us.

Sunnysidegold · 13/05/2017 07:20

I have been in my new house two years and am still receiving some items of mail for previous owners. It's the kind of stuff from a mailing list or the odd random official letter where obviously they've not changed their address.as I had their new address I would either collect a pile and drop it in to them or relabel the letters and pop them back on the mail. I'm getting a bit fed up with it now I mean it's been two years! I wouldn't want them to miss anything important though so will keep on with the sending on.

marcopront · 13/05/2017 07:32

It depends what it is and how long it has been.

Catalogues etc I would bin.

Letters from debt collection agencies initially I would put not known at this address. (Fun fact : most debt collection agencies have the same return address). After a while I started opening them and contacting the agencies.

In my current flat, I had to refuse the courier delivery of the credit card of someone who moved out 4 years ago a few times before they stopped. The rest of their post I bin. I'm not in the UK and there is no easy way to return the post.

giantpurplepeopleeater · 13/05/2017 07:34

I've was doing C...... for 3 bloody years.

I know just chuck it safe in tge knowledge that after 3 bloody years if they haven't missed it, it can't be important!

jmh740 · 13/05/2017 07:39

I still get letters for the person who lived here before me, I moved in in 1996! I bin them now it's usually a bank statement I think 1 comes every year I rang the company who's name was on the envelope to say they didn't live here any more after about 5 years but they still send them.

christinarossetti · 13/05/2017 07:47

No longer at this address return to sender. Still doing this after 3 years.

If you do it with catalogues, they usually take your address off the mailing list

ShiningWhit · 13/05/2017 07:55

If you have a regular postie. Have a word with them. Mine deals with them letters before they get to me.
An on going issue unfortunately .
If they do get through I write 'unknown at this address' and put it back in the mail.

JohnLapsleyParlabane · 13/05/2017 08:02

After almost 3 years I'm still returning to sender letters from banks etc addressed to the previous owner. Recently I had a fit of the grumps and wrote 'rts ffs they moved in 2014 fgs'. Hope it gave the postie a laugh.

LPLPLP · 13/05/2017 08:05

It is easy to add the old occupiers details to the Mail Preference Service mpsonline - it will not stop everything but will reduce a bit so worth it for just 2 minutes of typing.

Milliways · 13/05/2017 08:07

We have always had previous owners new address to redirect, and we always pay for a 1 year divert on our mail but manage to forget to tell someone!

We forwarded a Christmas card for about 10 years, would have thought the old occupants would have told them the new address after 2? Maybe they didn't like them.

Someone form one of our old houses went the extra mile when Anthony Nolan sent them a " to the new owners" letter as they thought I may be a doner match. I hadn't remembered to tell them we moved as didn't send regular donations, just joined their database some years before.

LittleBearPad · 13/05/2017 08:08

At first Return to sender or not known at this address.

Now I open it and call the sender if at all possible. Three bailiff visits have made me rather proactive on making it clear they no longer live here!

GinIsIn · 13/05/2017 08:08

The previous owner didn't change his details on anything. We hung onto it for the first few months, then we started returning it as 'not at this address', and after 6 months we started binning it. After 8 months, the dickhead turned up on the doorstep demanding to know why we hadn't kept everything for him. Angry

dotandstripe · 13/05/2017 08:09

B and C in hopes that it will eventually stop. It's amazing how organisations like banks and pension providers will keep sending post after two years of returned mail even though they are technically in breach of the data protection act by using an incorrect address.

Chrisinthemorning · 13/05/2017 08:10

B and C to start with- for about 3 years. Now after 5 years I do A as I think after this long it must be junk.

Yogagirl123 · 13/05/2017 08:11

The family we brought our house from, moved locally, I was regularly popping their post through their door. But now after a decade of doing so, with never a thank you, enough was enough. I just RTS.

Applesandpears23 · 13/05/2017 08:12

Depends what it is and how long ago they moved. I once moved into a rental and in the first week I got a couple of letters from the hospital addressed to the parents of Child. I asked neighbours for the phone number of the old tennant and rang him. He was very grateful and came around to pick them up. Christmas cards I put in a pile and when it suitef me (March I think) I forwarded them all on. Junk mail goes back to sender or in the bin depending on how busy I am.

pigeondujour · 13/05/2017 08:13

We do nothing with it. If they wanted it, they should have given the place at least a cursory clean when they moved out.