To be pissed off with previous home owner asking for post in rude manner?

[Getusedtoit]

Ex owner of house couldn't be bothered to pay for Redirection on their post. "Oh Mrs Ex Owner works down the road she'll just pop by occasionally". socially conditioned to be nice I agreed.

We still get post, it's not an onerous task to keep it and pass it on, but I feel slightly uncomfortable when she turns up and wants a small look at our renovations (the house was in a right state when we bought it).

He messaged bluntly earlier this week and I read it, and was composing my response (took a few days), as he'd been abrupt before, and he just sent question marks in a text.

I replied I'd package them up and leave them outside on a day that suited. He hasn't replied.

DH said I missed a trick and should have sent a text back with just four asterisks and then follow message saying I've had enough and everything now would be returned to sender.

I'm torn, it's such a small thing to do to keep receiving post and holding it, but I'm cross at his bluntness. There seems to be still quite important post coming from authorities.

AIBU?

Exactly as @thehop says above

Jesus. Return to sender, every single one. Tell him this has gone on long enough and he needs to contact organisations he has dealings with and change his address. Ridiculous.

I have lived in my house for 11 years and every year we get a christmas card addressed to the previous owner....who died just before we bought the house.

So what are you actually going to do OP?

4 years is ridiculous.

When I first moved into my rented flat 2.5 years ago I kept all of the landlords post which was still being delivered and returned everything else to sender. Landlord hasn’t changed his address on everything but also rarely bothers to collect anything. I got fed up of constantly having a pile of his post sat on the table so now anything that comes through the door not addressed to me goes in the recycling bin. I haven’t got time to faff around returning to sender and anyone who’s been out of a property over a year has had ample time to change addresses if they wanted.

Had a text from him January 2017 saying Redirect lapsed. So he'd done it for a year

Well, he needed to do it for another. And another. And then another.

As you're in this deep, you need to sort it. Leave this lot on the doorstep - if he doesn't pick it up, return every last bit to sender and deny any knowledge of what happened to it when he asks. Advise him it's probably best he sets up another redirect for 6 months to see what might still be coming to your address, and then he can change the details. After all, it's been 4 years [whistles nonchalently]

Then keep returning to sender anything that shows up.

Silence then ‘ moving
Forward we request you get your post forwarded on . We have no legal obligation to do this and it’s becoming an inconvenience . Kindly confirm receipt of this message ‘

Cunt !

@Getusedtoit
Like many many have said, give them till 30/9/19 to sort their post out then tell them all post will be returned or destroyed and cease all contact.
However, then open it and see what is going on and i’ll tell you why.
In 1988 I rented a flat, previous tenant had defrauded various credit companies to the value of £34K. It took me 8 months to beat off the various threats of bailiffs and credit blacking including me making formal complaints to the chief executive of a big 4 bank and threatening legal action for defamation.
Also, in 2017 my wife and I purchased our bungalow and took to opening all post to previous tenant who moved out 8 moths before landlord sold us the place. Turns out she had bunked off from £8K of debt. Once again many calls later all these debt have been moved off my address credit record.
As previous respondents have said, getting shot of these debts took work, returning stuff as simply ‘No forwarding address’ did not do it. I have on both occasions had to call banks, council tax offices, HMRC, credit companies etc using the ref numbers and talk them through it.

I urge you, act now, make sure you are not being lined up as some sort of fall guy for them conning money out of companies. It’s not a matter of effort, it’s simple self protection.
ACT NOW.

You don’t come across as a doormat on this thread, so why in real life?

I’ve never needed to use a redirect service in my life, I’ve just changed my address with companies I used. I’d be very suspicious/intolerant of someone having official/bank post etc registered at my address.

You had the ideal moment, when he grumbled about things going missing, to say “well change your address, it’s been far too long anyway!” Just tell him straight! Otherwise fall into the habit of it not being convenient for you when they want to call, or not being able to find it when they do turn up. Make it a nuisance to them.

With the official type of mail you're receiving I would be looking into whether or not he is using your address to get credit?
4 years is an absolute joke and there is no logical explanation for not having contacted companies, especially HMRC stc of an address change. I'd be very suspicious.

I'd be RTS by now.
If you are still getting official looking post you wanna watch out.
At least you are covered if you return the post.
I do it with my Ex's. Just write 'Not lived here for over 4 years' RTS - Job done!!!!

It's hard work getting companies to stop sending you mail - they hide behind Data Protection/GDPR.
I have lived in this house for 27 years - we bought it off plan, so no previous occupants. A few years ago I suddenly started getting mail from SKY for a woman I had never heard of. I couldn't get SKY to stop sending them by ringing them as initially I had no customer reference number so couldn't even get through to anyone on their phone system. I put all the mail back in the post with 'not known at this address' scrawled across them. Then one day a SKY van pulled up outside my house. The chap said he'd come to install my satellite tv. I told him I hadn't requested one and had no idea what he was talking about (although one of the letters did contain a subscription card). He claimed he had only spoken to me on the phone an hour earlier (not me guv!). I told him about the mystery mail and that I had no idea who the person was or where they lived. He got back in his van and made another phone call (presumably to the person he had rung earlier) and I watched where he went......... to a house across the road whose house number is nothing like ours. He then installed the box and dish at that house and guess what....... I still continued to get mail from SKY for this person .....including the bills which were not only for tv but broadband and mobile phone too. (I started to open them as I was worried that this would be left as a debt against my address)
It took many phone calls and hours to eventually convince SKY that this woman did not live at my address. I even had another engineer turn up months later to repair a fault on my SKY tv (which I don't even have in my own name).

OP I am normally a kind, considerate and helpful person/neighbour but no way would I be forwarding mail to someone after 4 years. Give the CF a deadline and stick to it - you've done your bit!

He is a tight wad,you already know this with the state of the house when you moved in,he is also very nosey and is enjoying popping back to nose at what you have done,you have been kind and patient but enough is enough, tell him no from now on.

Sod that!! 4 weeks max after moving for seller to change addresses etc - after that return to sender! They are just the people you bought a house off and mean nothing to you - some people are so entitled. Message to say
‘Not sure your last message (????) was meant for me? It’s no longer convenient for us to keep your post - by now hopefully you’ve arranged change of address’ so anything else that comes we will return to sender - send message then block the CF

I thought you were going to say something like 6 months. If I'm reading this correctly then he redirected for a year and you have now been holding for another 4 then that's
5 years which is crazy. After a year I would expect just the odd contact he's forgotten and junk mail.

Can't understand why we're still getting bank statements and HMRC and Professional Society letters. It's lazy on his behalf
If it's still those kinds of letters, I'd be worried that he was pretending to still be officially living at your address.

Do you have his current address?
If so, then I'd return everything to sender and write Mr CF moved to on on the back of the envelope.
If not, then that would increase my worry.

I would start returning to sender.

I still get post for the former tenant of my property, and its been 3 years since I moved in. He collected full housing benefit for the first 9 months of the time I lived there as well, and it was only when a letter arrived torn that I learned what he had been doing, despite returning 9 monthly statement letters to DWP. I ended up going in to the job centre and physically handing the letter over to someone. They still sent me the letter that told him the claim was suspended until he provided proof. To date he has not changed his address at the doctors, dentist or optician, and 18 months ago he renewed his phone contract, and has the bills come to me. I return to sender everything, but they still send things to me.

I also still frequently get late night visits from a friend of his who turns up absolutely steaming drunk looking for the old tenant, and a place to sleep it off. He's always very put out when I tell him no.

Just return everything to sender . If the previous owners query then tell them it was rts not known at this address because you haven’t been for four years .

I would not give warp . I would want to rts

The previous owners of our house had a lot of mail arriving after their redirection expired. I bundled it up and redirected it to their new address for a while, but got fed up.

I did a sheet of printer labels with 'No longer at this address - return to sender'. It made it much easier rather than writing on each one. I would suggest you do the same.

9 pages of this! Just no. Return everything to sender. Pandering to their inability to change their address just means they are less likely to ever get round to it.

Even the Royal Mail won't allow you to redirect for 4 years !!

You've done your duty, just write RTS on his post in really big letters then drop in the postbox when convenient (every month or so )

By the way - think it is illegal to bin mail so just put back in post box saying 'no longer at this address'

I’d ask for their address saying I’ll forward any post for a month after which it will be return to sender. That gives them time to sort it out.
Make and print off some labels to make it easier.

If they don’t send you an address, start return to sender now.

Nippy - what makes you think it's illegal?

Postal Services Act 2000 section 84 has this (I've picked out relevant bits):

----------
84 Interfering with the mail: general

(1)A person commits an offence if, without reasonable excuse, he—
(a)intentionally delays or opens a postal packet in the course of its transmission by post, or
(b)intentionally opens a mail-bag.
...
(3)A person commits an offence if, intending to act to a person’s detriment and without reasonable excuse, he opens a postal packet which he knows or reasonably suspects has been incorrectly delivered to him.
...
(5)A person who commits an offence under subsection (1) or (3) shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to both.
-----------

Once it's through your door (assuming that's the address on the envelope) then it's no longer in transmission, so (1) doesn't apply. (3) is very specific: you have to open the package (and you have to do so to the addressee's detriment and without reasonable excuse - I'm not sure if the "incorrectly delivered" part applies if they've delivered it to the address on the envelope even if the addressee has moved away).

Are you aware of a statute that would create an offence from throwing away someone's mail?