Someone is opening our mail

[PinataDonk]

Myself and DH live in a block of 10 flats. Post is put through the communal main door and everyone collects their own.

For a while someone has been occasionally opening letters so when we get them they are torn open with the letter inside. I don't know if post is going missing or not.

I have now come home to an NHS letter for DH about a referral, through our individual door, NOT in an envelope and it's black and white. I think this is a photocopy of the original. Pic attached.

What do I do?

All my nhs letters are b+w. Have you had any letters from the same department that were in coloured ink?

It would depend on the printer - letter headed paper is too expensive - staff use a template. If there isnt a colour printer, plus coloured ink is more expensive, it will come out as B&W.

Incidentally my leters from the DWP seem to be written on green oilet paper. Cost cutting is your answer I'm afraid.

Yep they are often via.and white. Doesmt answer why it's through your door like that though.

Nhs letter would not be in colour especially if cc. Is your post properly addressed, could you get a secure letter box for each flat.

Aside from the colour it's also not even in an envelope and it's folded in a weird way that makes me think it's a copy, not folded in a way that would fit in an envelope.

All post is properly addressed so either way even if it's not a copy someone has removed the envelope and thrown the envelope away.

You can request post is held at the post office and you can then go and collect your post a few times a week. Not sure how to do this as I knew a neighbour who did this as his dog used to piss on his mail every day.

Can you get a box out outside and ask the postman to put yours in there ? Sounds weird .

We had this and in the end I wrote myself a letter from work, very
Official looking and said we would call the police if it didn’t stop. That letter went missing, as we thought it would. We did call the police who knocked on all the other flats & had a word. Seemed to help.

Do you know if you have a similar name to anyone else in the flats? If you and your H are A and B Smith and another household is D and J Smith then someone might be opening your post in confusion.

Otherwise, someone in your flats is a light-fingered chancer, hoping for cheques or bank cards. Can you get a lockable mail box for your flat?

It may not necessarily be your neighbours. I knew someone who had a landlord who did this.

I would suggest some kind of cctv.

How odd! I don't think that's a photo copy though.
I live in a house, so no opportunity for anyone other than the postman to open it, but I've very occasionally in the past had letters opened. Maybe it's not the other flats? Maybe it comes like it?

It might also be someone looking for identity theft? If it is mainly official letters that are being taken? We had a problem where I lived a few years ago and the police said that this was the reason.

Are you sure the postie is sorting correctly, as we sometimes get mail for others pushed through our door and i open it because i open all the mail, obvs not looking at the name. Not done on purpose but sometimes it happens.

A careless postie?

Someone looking for cash is unlikely to then kindly post any letters which haven't got money in through your letter box. Much more likely to be post is going to the wrong flat.

We live on an estate where all the streets have the same name (X Road, X Place, X Close, X Avenue etc). We are forever getting post and deliveries from neighbours with the same house number on different streets etc). Sometimes I have accidentally opened mail before noticing it's not mine. I'd stick it through neighbour's letter box as yours has.

I would contact the police. Why on earth is someone opening your mail?

If someone has the same name as you, presumably there is still a different number flat on the envelope. No one would make that mistake more than once surely?

I'd suspect ID theft to be honest. You need mail boxes

Post box in the nearest post office is your only solution I'm afraid.

I'd get advice from the police and the post office - have a google. Also let the landlord know.

This can't go on though so collecting your mail fro a sorting office might be the only answer, at least for now.

I don't think it's necessarily a photocopy. We are not allowed to print in colour at our NHS Trust anymore unless for patient safety reasons.

I would be concerned about the lack of security with people opening your mail if it happens regularly. It's very risky these days.

If it’s not in an envelope and has been posted through your actual door then clearly someone is opening your mail.

I like the suggestion of sending an official looking letter to yourself telling the to stop.

It can’t be postman error as it’s all post d through one door, it has to be one of the 9 other flats.

"Can you get a lockable mail box for your flat?" That's unlikely to work, ReanimatedSGB, because the postie just posts all mail through the OP's communal front door for all 10 flats.

I'd go with autumnboys suggestion about sending yourselves official looking letters with a warning inside.

B&W NHS letter shouldn't raise alarm bells.

How is your mail dealt with?

In my block it is sorted by our porter into our individual mailboxes.

Unfortunately porter can't read very well (not sure if this is educational/ dyslexia or eyesight related) and often mis-sorts post.

Despite knowing this I have on more than one occasion opened all the envelopes in my mailbox without checking they were mine to find stuff for one of my neighbours. Same has happened to some of my letters.

When I've done it I tend to put the mail by their door with the envelope taped closed and an apology scrawled on. HOwever when my mail has been opened I've just been given the letter plus envelope. No note.

if you're getting letters that are torn open, you have your answer

someone is opening your post and that's clear

only thing to be done is to have one of those box systems fitted outside the door or arrange to collect your post from a pick up point - or could you get it sent to work?