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?

It is honestly not their fault, clearing up all the post can take many months. The people who used to live in this house definitely had postal redirection initially, then we still got other mail when it ended. We send on anything important and send back junk. I've complained to 3 junk senders who have then stopped. I agreed with the previous owners to return something important where he'd asked them twice to change the address. We also had some mail to stop from 4 previous owners / tenants / whatever; I had to contact a French bank to stop one that was addressed to the trustee of presumably a child, but they did then stop. I think we last had post for others some months ago now. If you bin it then they will keep sending, so that isn't in your interests and it's a shitty thing to do if you haven't confirmed that the post matters.

You will not get Capita registrars to stop if there was shareholding for a previous owner, I never managed it in my last house over 8 years, they said they are legally obliged to keep sending it. I diverted them to the person I bought from's solicitor, but they just helpfully diverted it back to my house. After a year that was the only incorrect post left, I returned those to sender sometimes months late, when I got around to it, presumably the new owners do similar.

I still get post daily for someone who moved out 4 years ago! I let a couple of months pile up and do a return to sender. I'm going to start chucking them as I've had enough!

Been in my house going on a decade. Person before was here 5yrs. Tenant before that still has letters coming here. Her name is the same as mine (first and middle and not common) so I automatically opened one one day and turns out there’s a massive debt. Like, huge. I called the company and told them how long since they had lived here but they wouldn’t believe it wasn’t the debtor. Fine, but you’re chasing down someone who for all I know could be dead.
The previous tenant also owes thousands. I used to send debt collectors to her new address and rts any letters. Then she moved again. Now I just bin them. A few weeks ago she turned up looking for a hospital letter she’d got sent to my address because she didn’t want the ‘scum’ knowing her new address to get money from her. I told her she’d had enough time to sort her shit out and I’d returned to sender (I hadn’t, I’d binned it)
She went loopy screaming and wailing, apparently I was ruining her life. I shut the door and carried on washing up 🤷🏻‍♀️

I have been returning post to sender for over 7 year

Shred not bin

In the past I've emailed the people. Eg DVLA, you can tell a letter is from them without opening but we had one about parking charges coming repeatedly - I caved and opened one, once I realised what it was I emailed them too. Now we get the Homer mag for someone who lived here before the prev owner. That makes me smile though, it's the retired greyhound Trust magazine and we used to have two.

We had debt collection letters for some previous tenants(pair of brothers), thankfully one of the neighbours had an idea where of the brothers lived and knew where one worked so when ever we got letters we put them back with"no longer living at this address, believed to be living at x", don't know if they caught up with them but the letters stopped quite quickly. It might be worth asking discreetly if any of the neighbours know where they may have moved to.

I'd bin them. We started receiving post about 2 years after we moved in for the occupants before the ones we bought the house from - they'd lived here 4 years prior to us purchasing our house. I dutifully sent them back, still received them. Opened them and emailed the companies (there were a lot of shares involved and share certificates etc, premium bonds etc) - assured they'd stop sending them, but still happened. I starting shredding them after the 6th year we'd been living here. I'd done enough to inform the companies they didn't live here.

If they had businesses registered at your address, check on the companies house website to see if they still have your address registered.
If so, contact companies house and tell them they've moved. Also, you may find another address for them on there.

This thread tickles me pink.

I see such law abiding moral mumsnetters ton other threads - eg Oh Tesco only charged Me for one can of baked beans when in fact I bought x2. Can I keep it?

Cue discussions on theft, moral compass, donating to charity etc etc

Yet here throwing post away is a criminal offence!! So I just don't do it...

Thanks all. I think I will contact their creditors from the letters I did open to say they no longer live here. I will continue to return the rest to sender. I opened their birthday cards in the hope someone might have included an address or phone number. The parents don't seem to be aware they've moved...
As other posters have pointed out I did track them down and when I decided to see if they'd done anything about their post, I discovered they'd blocked me!

As a person who sometimes has to deal with returned post to the organisation I work for, can I make a plea? If you completely obliterate the name and address on the envelope while writing RETURN TO SENDER, it's quite possible that when it's returned, they don't know who it was originally sent to. And therefore can't remove from the database... not all post has a name and address inside!

I still receive American Express statements for the person I bought my flat from 21 years ago. Recently I phoned them, they were very apologetic, took the account number from the statement I opened and said they would stop them. Then they sent a letter to my address asking the person to fill in a change-of-address form. The statements continue to come.

How about we start a national petition for every address on the post-office database to have a list of authorised recipients, and no non-authorised mail to be delivered?

When I moved to my current home I still continued to receive mail for the previous occupant and she collected a couple of times. She never came again so I returned to sender. I still get the occasional letter for her sixteen years later which goes straight in the bin.