To stop forwarding their mail

[Randomlywondering]

We bought a new house a couple of months ago. The previous owners left a note saying they'd had their mail redirected but in case anything slipped through they'd left a few sheets of printed labels so we could forward it on to them.
We tend to get at least one letter a day. Often official, bank type looking letters. I stick on the labels and around once a week do the 20 minute walk to the post box. Ive now run out of labels. The amount of stuff coming here still makes me think they've not bothered with the redirection or updating their banks etc.
Would it be unreasonable at this point to start returning the mail to sender? No less effort in the short term but hopefully it will eventually stop and the old owners will realise ive stopped providing their free redirection service.

Not unreasonable.
You did until the stickers ran out. That was nice of you.
Return to sender or write new address on envelopes and put in postbox.

Yes stop forwarding!

People that can’t be bothered to pay for a redirection and change there addresss annoy me no end. Who in 2 months hasn’t bothered changing address with the bank etc? Pure laziness!

I didn’t think anything got through with a redirect. Can you check with the post office?

I’d be tempted to put ‘no longer at this address’ if there isn’t a redirect in place.

Of if you have a contact number for them, call them and ask them to sort it out as the amount of post you’re receiving is not acceptable anymore.

Not unreasonable. No need to return them daily either, just when you are going to postbox anyway.

(As an aside. We had similar once and had all sorts of trouble because unpaid bills were linked to our address. I had to ring the credit agencies and have a note put on my account saying I was nothing to do with the name of people who used to live at my address . Might be worth doing this if the letters look like bills.)

You can tell the post office they don't live there any more and ask them to stop delivering their stuff.
And/or write "Not known at this address" or "Gone away" on all their post and send it back.

I would just bin them now. The previous owners of our place didn't leave a forwarding address and so I just bin the letters.

If you wanted to, you could redirect one last letter and wrote a note saying you will not be redirecting any future post.

If they haven't paid for the redirect service, maybe RM are just returning their post to sender or destroying it?

Isn't it illegal to throw away other people's mail?

Why not write a note to them on the next piece of mail you forward? A couple of months isn't actually that long because banks etc. are often crap at updating their systems and you think you've got it sorted and realise that another department hasn't changed it on their bit of the system.

YANBU to no longer send them- I’d expect everything to have been sorted by now. Although don’t assume that everything gets “mopped up” by a redirection order. I’ve had stuff sent to old addresses that hasn’t managed to be redirected for whatever reason despite definitely having the redirect in effect as almost everything else has come to the right place. It’s also annoying when you pay for a certain period of redirection but then people/businesses who send you stuff sporadically (so sporadically you’d forgotten that they even send you stuff!) send it to your old address and it never ends up being corrected. I’d just stick them back in the post with “not known at this address” on.

It's illegal to knowingly open something which isn't addressed to you.

Pretty pointless to bin mail addressed to the previous owner or occupier as it won't stop things being delivered to you. Return it to sender instead.

Also yes to what Nikephorus says. I’ve had this with my bank where they’ve changed the address on the system that I can see (internet banking details etc), yet all my mail goes to the wrong address. When you ring them they tell you that for some reason it got “stuck” updating the address and didn’t do all their systems so although it knows you’ve moved it doesn’t know you also want your statements sent to the new address. Annoying but you don’t always realise until stuff materialises months later- or when you’ve been expecting something and it’s not come!

After 6 months I stopped. (Mug I know) and just put them all back in the post "return to sender no longer at this address"

Not actually illegal to open & contact the senders to give new address, or simply bin, but best option is probably to write 'Gone away-Return to sender' on them and pop in the postbox.

I'd put not known at this address, and let the banks/ other organisations sort it.
or just put them in the bin, they'll soon redirect then. Certainly don't put yourself out.
You could collect them all until you are ready to post something yourself and take a bundle with you.

Yep- return to sender.

We had this for nearly 3 years after we bought our house. Things kept turning up all that time later from Next and Amazon and Hush, so they were clearly using our address. When baillifs started knocking on the door we finally twigged they were still using it to avoid creditors. (Slow on the uptake).

I'd return to the sender. Save them up a while then pop them back in the postbox when it's convenient for you

I would return to sender.

you have done your share of forwarding.

I still get occasionally get mail and phonecalls for the last guy who lived at my address .. I have lived here 8 years... so yes do return to sender.

It's illegal to knowingly open something which isn't addressed to you.

That is untrue actually. It is illegal to withhold mail from reaching its actual addressee so that includes binning it.

OP I would forward it for another month, perhaps send them a note saying you will no longer forward on such and such date. FWIW we have been in this house for 3 years and I still get relevant important mail for the old owners. They never gave a forwarding address so I just return to sender.

Two months seems a bit soon to me. I'd suggest you forward one last batch and put a note on the back of one of the envelopes to say you won't be able to forward any more.

YANBU. I completely appreciate that there are sometimes delays/issues in banks etc updating addresses but I think even the previous people who lived there would appreciate you can't keep doing that forever and the forwarding was only a temporary measure.

We have had a similar issue - we moved into our new house in June and we still to this day get frequent post for the previous owners. We forwarded some at first but 3 months down the line DH started to write 'RTS - recipient no longer at this address' on them and putting them back in the postbox.

Just write MOVED in marker pen over the front. Wait until you have a stack & then re-post them.

If the mail keeps coming after a year, write DECEASED instead. That stops all mail, junk included.

You could write to them to say you will be binning returning any further mail sent to your address and they need to make their own arrangements/inform companies/new redirection. I do not think they had a redirection in place however, they are quite effective.

Forward one more and write on the envelope you can't send any more.

After that, bulk up all their post once a month and return to sender the shite out of it and chuck it in the post box.

I think I read on another thread that's it's only an offence to open other people's post if it's done maliciously.

Is this a record btw - got a letter today to a woman who lived in this house 20 years ago! It's from Nationwide, about her savings account. No idea where she is, I've written and told Nationwide this five times over the years.

She's got £12.86 waiting for her one day.

It cost me £100 to hire a skip to chuck out all her crap she left in the house, so I'm not especially minded to track her down.

Oh no your not BU at all. I think your wonderful for using the printed labels and once they had run out i would have also ‘returned to sender’. It does sound like they havent bothered changing addresses which is weird as they went to the trouble of giving you the labels?