not to want to accept post for the people who moved out 6 months ago?

[LizaRose]

The previous occupants of our house moved out in December, we moved in in April. There has been quite a large amount of post for them, including vehicle tax forms, bank statements, mobile phone statements. Twice the people have come to our door and asked for us to put their mail through next-door-but-one's letterbox (friends who will forward it to them). I thought this was reasonable, but DH is concerned that they are still using this address for important correspondence, and could maybe use the letters as proof of address to obtain credit. He also thinks they still have a key to the house and were accessing it to collect their mail whilst empty as there was very little on the mat when we moved in. The lady (former occupant) came yesterday and said the postlady is still putting mail addresses to them in next-door-but-one's letterbox even though it has our address on it. DH wants to complain to Royal Mail as he thinks this is not allowed.

So, am I a complete arse to stick all this mail back in the post box as "not known" and complain to Royal Mail? Or would I be a mug to let them get away with it?

We still get things for the previous owners and we've lived here for 5 years nearly.

the only way to go about this is by doing as i said with the letters and if need be contacting customer services it wont get your postman in to trouble all that will happen is that his line manager will tell him notto deliver anymore to that adress with that name off and kill off all mail that is addressed there for the name of the tennant that no longer lives there and a bonus is customer services will send you a free book of stamps as an apology for your inconveniance.

Thanks TJacks - I'll get in touch with them. I was just worried that I'd be getting the postman in trouble, but am not now.

We get tons of stuff - the lady that lived here before must have signed up for every catelogue that exists, and we even get stuff from the people who must have lived here before that (at least 4 years ago). They did redirect, but only for the first couple of months I think. I give it all to the postman with "Not known at this address" on it. That works better than putting it in the recycler, because it lets the companies know that you don't want it and your address gets removed from their mailing lists. The other day I got something asking for a forwarding address, so I know it goes back. The postman is fine about this (I had to do it because some of the things were too big to go in the post box). We also got deliveries for a while - a box of wine for example, and that was a bit harder to send back - the delivery company really didn't want to take it away!

tbh I don't think that the postman putting it through someone elses's door is your concern . Keep whatever you get over a week or so then put in an enevelope and hand ot abck to him/her saying it is not for you and to return it to sender. Similarly tell your neighbour that 6 months is long enough for them to have notifed them all and that you won't be putting it through her letterbox any more but handing it back.

Did they rent or own it previously ? We only got one set of keys to our house , so , knowing that it had been rented otu and there must have been more in circulation we changed one of the door locks. If they rented let the landlord know that they are still usign the address and may have a key.

Might be worth apologising to the postlady, since you weren't trying to get her in trouble, just make sure the previous occupants do something about their mail.

You could also give a letter to your next-door-but-one neighbour to say enough is enough and they need to get their post sorted out. Things like Child Benefit are stopped if you don't give them your actual address.

I was getting debt collection letters for someone who must have lived in the house years ago, that someone was forwarding on for him from some address in Watford. I wrote back to them (as their address was visible on the envelope) saying 'he hasn't lived here in years, please don't forward his mail' and it stopped. The same people were using the address for Child Benefit until I sent it back to the agency as unknown at this address.

People need either to sort it or pay for redirection.

THe previous occcupant ran all sorts of business from this house and I've been writing 'no longer at this address' for 18months now. still get the same old shite every month from some companies. also get regular(min once a week)phone calls for them peeves me off.

Still at our last house I got two gentleman callers at the door. Turns out it had been used as a brothel and the landlord 'forgot' to tell me

six months i think is taking the pee.

its different, as i live in a council property but i had debt collectors at my door nearly every week when i first lived here, it was a pain.

me: "hello"
them: "is in"
me: "no, he doesnt live here anymore, hasnt for months"
them: "do you know where he is?"
me: "no, i dont know him, he was the previous tenant"
them: "but do you have a forwarding address for him?"
me: "no, i dont know him, he was the previous tenant"
them: "are you sure you dont know where he is"
me: "yes, absolutely, he was the previous tenant but he was gay and so its highly unlikely he ever lived with me, i can also show you proof of when i took on this tenancy"
them: "ok then....are you SURE you dont know where he is?"
me: "yes"
them: "and you dont have a forwarding address?"

arrrggghhhhh!

We are up to 2 years now and still receive quite a lot of important post for previous occupant, inc a speeding fine recently (and then a reminder taht it hadn't been paid!) I am fed up with forwarding it and have started putting it back in post box, return to sender

We bought our house 5.5 years ago and i am still recieving post for the previous owner i have now taken to shredding it! Even worse our next door neighbours moved out about a year ago and the new neighbour has taken to posting there post through our door as well! Dont get me wrong we were friends with our neighbours that was until they moved out now we no long see them!

our previous tenants moved out 2 years ago and we still get all their mail...and i mean all! tax stuff, phone bills, something came from the planning office the other day!

we also get health sentre stuff and a few other bits for the woman who lived here before them!

She also had the cheek to ring up about Xmas time and ask if we had received an HSBC letter for her which contained a free diary that they usually sent her for the upcoming year!
If she was taht bothered about it she should have changed her address with HSBC!

I agree! What a cheek! I think i would have been tempted to say that too her as well!

We have had huge problems with this, previous tenants of our proprty are using our address still, we get all there mail and then suddenly it stops for months and then we get everything again, I reckon they are using mail forwarding and keep renewing it.

Apparently though there is little you can do if someone is fraudulently using your address if they dont use your name. I was concerned as we where getting court threats and balif threats at this address. I didnt want to have to deal with possibly unscrupulas balifs..

They move out 2.5 years ago and we are still getting there tesco club card vouchers....

Its insane!

Royal Mail will only renew the forwarding once. We had to plead with them to continue it for us when we went abroad but retained our house in UK.

We have been here almost 16 years & the people we bought from were here over 2 -and we still get post for the people before last.......
When the new phone book came out I found their name & rang to check & have been forwarding it ever since - but I have no idea if they are actually still there....

Some of the fault with old post coming through may be with companies hanging onto old data and doing some sort of general mailshot - I registered with agencies some years ago and after I'd changed my job a good two or three years, one agency suddenly wrote to me to ascertain if I still wanted to change my job!! I'd actually got the job through that same agency so I was a bit surprised to say the least. I could easily have moved in that time and had no idea that they'd ever write to me again - who would notify everyone they'd ever written to??

Its been 6 yrs since we moved into our house and we are STILL getting letters for the previous tenants.
In our case, the previous occupants were very badly in debt and that is why they had to sell the house.
For up to 9 months they used to collect their post from us once a week, we would ask them where they were living but they would say that they were with friends and moving around
The new boyfriend of hers was a gypsy by the way, so did not have a proper address.
Every letter seemed to be from companies and credit firms demanding payment and threatening to send round bailifs, so i had to call them all and say we did not have a CLUE where they were.
After 4 yrs, did not get much and then the cheeky woman, applied for a job using OUR address, i only found out as it was a CRB form.
So i rang the company who requested it and told them that that woman does not live here.#
Hope she was not given the job. Cheek of it.
Thankfully now it seems to have totally dried up.
AB

We moved 3.5 years ago and still get loads of post for the previous family. About a year ago I started putting 'not at this address' on the letters and putting them back in the postbox.

This week I got 2 letters addressed to 'The Occupier' asking for a forwarding address for the previous occupants. They both expected me to fill in quite a lengthy form telling them the new address / phone number, when they moved etc and to pay for the postage to send the info back to them! These went straight into the recycling I'm afraid!!

we still get post for the people who live here before.......7 years ago. just junk mail so I bin it