AIBU to bin previous occupant's post?

[Kittenbittenmitten]

OK. Let me be crystal clear. I haven't binned anything...yet.
When we moved in I noticed there were a large number of letters for a previous occupant. I wrote on the front of all of them "Not known at this address" and put them in postbox. We kept receiving them and I kept doing this. I managed to track the occupant down and told them. They said this shouldn't be happening but "they may need to get a redirection set up" and would I keep returning to sender if anything comes along. I have. Months later, it still appears nothing has been done. Quite literally, we receive post for this occupant most days. I went back to contact them but I found I was blocked. I'm sick of it so would AIBU?

Sounds like you’ve tried all you can. So yanbu, stick it in the bin.

I've been in the very same situation, OP. I found that binning it was the only thing that slowed the flow.

Yes. Just keep putting return to sender on and put them in the post box. You don't need to return each one every day. Let them pile up and do it once a week or so.

I'd collect a load. Elastic band round them and put return to sender on the front one. Drop them in a post box when I was passing one.

If you have a forwarding address - you say you tracked them down - just print out some labels that say "Please forward to [X]" stick them over the address and bung them in the post box.

If you don't, then just forward them to whoever was dealing with them (their solicitor if it was a purchase, the letting agent if it was a buyer).

It's not nice to just chuck post out as sometimes there is stuff that really matters that isn't obvious - like letters from the NI and.

When I moved out, I left a sheet of sticky labels like that for the next occupiers to send to me.

How would you want to be treated if you forgot to organise a re-direct?

It costs little to be nice.

@DeathStare. I'm not that silly. I do let them build up. It's quite a chore.

YANBU it's what I do. You are not the previous person's secretary. If they cba to set up a redirection, it's not your problem.

My limit was 6 months of returning to sender. Since then it all goes straight into recycling.

How would you want to be treated if you forgot to organise a re-direct?

I’d be chuffed to bits if the new resident took the time to track me down, let me know I’d forgotten to organise a redirect, and I’d actually organise one.

I certainly wouldn’t block the person who’d been nice enough to do so.

When I moved into my last house I had this. I returned to sender for months. That sorted some of it out, but I guess they considered unimportant they didnt bother to re-arrange.

I threw them out after that.

@dywabwtjobn. I think I have been nice... for months. I will try other avenues of locating them before giving up. It seems the verdict is split.

I think it’s actually illegal to bin someone else’s mail. Return to sender or send to the solicitor.

Our previous occupant hasn't sorted anything after 2 years and probably doesn't want to as she owes a ton of money! Yes I looked. I'm not her ruddy secretary.

I see what others are saying, and people forget things but if it is important stuff - bank statements etc - then isn’t that their own fault for not changing their address at their bank?

I'm still getting mail from the previous tenant from 5 years ago.
I look what it is too.

Don't have her address.
Neighbours don't either.

I just bin it.

@dywabwtjobn

it costs little to be nice!

The same could be applied to the dipshit who 'forgot' to organise a re-direct, and is expecting the new tenant (the OP,) to be their fecking postmasters!

Even MONTHS later, the mail is still coming.

Why are people expected to be a mug, and let people walk all over them, and if they don't kowtow, they are not 'nice?' Boils my piss it really does.

@kittenbittenmitten

All that said, I would not like to bin anyone's post; I would just keep sticking - not known at this address - on every letter, and popping it back in the postbox. Annoying I know, but I wouldn't like to bin peoples post tbh.

Although all THAT said, there would be a limit on the time I would do it for. After 12 months, if I was still getting their mail, then I would be binning it then. Any normal person would surely have given everyone their forwarding address by then - friends, acquaintances, work, the bank, the doctors, etc etc etc. So anything that came over 12 months after they'd left, would obviously be spam mail, or just nothing important.

I think the period of grace has passed whereby the previous occupant could reasonably set up a redirect. This is just plain lazy or tight on their behalf.

Totally shove it all in the bin without a second thought.

I really don’t get why people do any of this. I’d just chuck it. You can open it by the way, it’s not illegal

You can buy sheets of “return to sender” stickers for a couple of quid on amazon.

Better to persist with getting the address removed from accounts by the businesses concerned, than to deal with debt collectors later.

5 years late we still get this mail.

I've added their names to a not at this address list with the Royal Mail but we still get post.
They had about 6 different business names it seem.

Yes, the letters look "businessy" and it appears that they've had a number of business names.

It's an absolute pain in the arse, but actually contacting each company, and telling them post was arriving incorrectly had a much greater effect than "unknown, return to sender".

On catalogues and stuff you can usually cancel online without speaking to anyone. Ball ache at the time, but better in the long run.

Bin them.

Open it, open it now. It might require urgent action, ie telling creditors they have moved out.
Previous tenant of a flat I lived in ran up £34k of debts through defrauding cards & banks in 1988.
It took 4 months to beat off all the creditors and their recovery agent looking for money.
Whilst any debts would be provably not yours a bailiff on the door step is no joke.

I think there has to be a time limit. We started binning after about 18 months or so, during which we even took stuff to their house (it was walkable). Frankly they usually seemed affronted that we'd turned up at their door, so we gave up and started binning. It slowed the flow.

But now, 27 years later we still occasionally get one that's about the previous owner's pension!!! Actually from their pension company, not just a company looking for some business.

Even if I wanted to track down the right person now I couldn't, after all this time.

I would open them and make sure they are not using your address for cards etc.... I had to do this and emailed each company and told them to stop sending letters to the address. This was after getting enforcement officers arriving at my door for unpaid debts that had nothing to do with me