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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:
mummabubs · 13/05/2017 08:15

I write "no longer at this address" or "not known" and send back. We've had issues as one of the three men who owned our house before us ran up debt with numerous agencies so we've had final warning letters and threats of bailiffs coming. (Still getting these letters occasionally three years later!) That and another of the the men didn't change his address so we had hospital letters coming through for him (didn't open but from local hospital and marked private and confidential so had to call hospital to inform them that he didn't live here either!) Why people don't just pay the £20 a year or whatever it is to have mail redirected when they move I have no idea!!

HeadDreamer · 13/05/2017 08:15

It depends on what it is. I put return to sender but NatWest/RBS didn't deal with it. So I opened one and rang to report them as fraud. This is two years after I moved in. It was an active credit card account. It stopped after that and NatWest said I did the right thing. I just got a letter from HMRC but returned it. We don't get many of those so I guess the tax dept needs a bit more returns to sort it? If it comes again, I will ring and report them too.

Don't just chuck or ignore the important looking mail. You can google the return address to see who it is from if it's not marked.

sobeyondthehills · 13/05/2017 08:17

We sent it back for the first 6 months and then started binning it and now we have bailliffs coming round for them.

They should learn the parking rules in London

drspouse · 13/05/2017 08:22

Our previous occupants have moved to another country and we have no forwarding address. So C. Including bank statements, NHS letters etc.

mummabubs · 13/05/2017 08:24

Ha and reading your post @FenellaMaxwellsPony reminded me that when we moved in the previous owners had literally just abandoned loads of their furniture- wardrobes, garden swing set, bags full of beer cans and fag butts etc.... and then one of the cheeky f**kers turned up on our doorstep four months later saying could we get their Christmas tree out of the loft for them?!? It was my husband who answered the door and obliged- had it been me I would have told them we'd chucked it and laid into them for leaving so much crap everywhere! (And this was before we realised about the debt and bailiffs started calling!!)

DeeDooDee · 13/05/2017 08:28

For normal post

C for a bit then E but not for a nosy but so that I can contact the sender. I was returning important financial type letters for the previous owners of our house but they still kept coming - despite writing in the envelope Very clearly that there was no point repeatedly sending them to my house. Eventually I gave up and opened the letters and called the companies. They were helpful and actually stopped the letters

For junk mail and catalogues etc
I immediately contacted the companies and stopped the post.

limon · 13/05/2017 08:30

I write "gone away" and take it to the post office.

StylishDuck · 13/05/2017 08:31

We've been in our place for 2 years and still regularly receive mail for the previous owner. Most of it I write "no longer at this address" and stick back in the postbox. I will admit to chucking some in the bin. Only the stuff that looks unimportant. If she's not been arsed to change the address on her Waitrose account then she obviously doesn't want the letters that badly. We got a couple of polling cards through for her until we actually had to tell the electoral register she didn't live here anymore. Obviously not arsed about exercising her democratic rights either!

MajesticWhine · 13/05/2017 08:32

I do C unless it's obviously junk in which case A

MrsHathaway · 13/05/2017 08:35

At first we dropped it round roughly monthly. Quantities dropped as they notified people. They didn't do RM redirect because they all had different surnames and it would have cost a fortune (blended family).

Now I "Return to sender - not at this address since " except for things that would never get back, such as obvious wedding invitations. That's less than once a year and we pass their new house occasionally so it's no big deal to be helpful.

We left our buyers a few sheets of redirect labels for anything that slipped the net. At first there was loads.

OohAahBird · 13/05/2017 08:40

Did return to sender, not at this address, until baliffs started showing up being arsey and threatening to remove things from our garden, then i started opening things that looked like debt and contacting the companies involved.
Worst thing was they were expecting and hadnt even informed the hospital and i was getting all there midwife/scan appointments
They made my first year here very stressful

AnnaThursday · 13/05/2017 08:51

I still get mail for previous occupant 8 years later - very sad that a birthday card arrives every year for her. I write not known at this
address and give them back to the postman - sometimes they come
back to me again because the postman has dropped them in the postbox. Confused
I read somewhere it's illegal to open someone else's post.

RainyDayBear · 13/05/2017 09:06

C in the first instance, E with persistent letters as they usually tended to be linked to some arrears! Thankfully after nearly 3 years we barely get anything for them.

EdwardElric · 13/05/2017 09:07

It isn't illegal to open other people's post. Only if you do so with malicious intent.

MrsHathaway · 13/05/2017 09:26

It's illegal to intercept the post. If it's addressed to 4 High Street and delivered to 4 High Street then it hasn't been intercepted.

RandomlyGenerated · 13/05/2017 09:58

I finally did E with a previous tenants post - it was a massive Amex bill, run up in the previous few weeks (they had moved about 3 yrs previously). A bit of sleuthing on Facebook and Linked In soon tracked him down though - he didn't reply to emails so just passed his details on to Amex.

harderandharder2breathe · 13/05/2017 10:04

C

After the first few weeks in case the person comes round to collect it

I once opened one by accident as it was from my employer so I assumed it was for me, turns out the previous occupant worked for the same company Blush can't remember what I did with it though, it was five or six years ago now.

ChickenVindaloo2 · 13/05/2017 10:05

Previous occupant here (moved out over 10 years ago) still gets an annual savings account statement sent to my address (i assume not on purpose). Every year I put back in post box. Except this year I phoned the bank. Suggested they contact her eg by email to ask her new postal address. No, they said, can't do that, data protection. (No further explanation just "computer says no".

Mermaidinthesea123 · 13/05/2017 10:06

I'm still getting mail for the previous owners who died over 10 years ago.
I do open it becasue they are dead, it's mostly Cornish nationalist stuff.

JensenAcklesUndercrackers · 13/05/2017 10:08

We have lived in our house for 13 years and still get stuff addressed to the people who lived here before us at first I used to do A or B but now we just bin it.

Pinkheart5917 · 13/05/2017 10:09

Write "return to sender, not at this address" and put back in the post box.

Tight arses should pay for a redirection like everyone else!

I have never held on to someone's mail in case they "call round" for it, umm they moved out pay for a redirection. I have never tracked someone down to pass on the post that was so prescious they didn't pay for a redirection

kel1493 · 13/05/2017 10:14

We had no forwarding address so we just put not known at this address, return to sender on them.
Though the previous occupier of our house apparently didn't change her address with anyone, even dvla. As got something from them for her (it said dvla on the envelope, obviously we don't ever open post addressed to anyone else)

drspouse · 13/05/2017 12:33

I once opened one by accident as it was from my employer so I assumed it was for me, turns out the previous occupant worked for the same company

Me too, it was a pay slip!

Awwlookatmybabyspider · 13/05/2017 12:38

Just write on them. No longer at this address and pop them in the post box.
Don't open them. What ever you do. Its actually an offence to open someone elses mail.

PNGirl · 13/05/2017 12:47

I opened some recently because it was someone else's name and our address - not the name of any neighbours. It's a new build too so no previous owners. I opened it because it was a debt collection for a TV License and we have one for this address in my name! So I phoned to advise that name and address combo doesn't exist.