Could be illegal but wwyd?

[Mollychristmas]

This might sound awful (and illegal although I can’t see how anyone would know!) but what would you do in this situation?

We’ve had some Christmas cards delivered to our house addressed to the old owners. This is the first year we have got them so I imagine the old owners redirect has ended. (We have lived here just over 2 years)
From feeling the weight and how flexible the cards aren’t I think a couple might have money/gifts cards/letters in them.
Now for the AIBU, would you open them and hope for a return address?
Or would you just chuck?

I am of the mind to open and see if there is a return address, if not I would donate any money and chuck the cards, DH thinks that’s awful not to mention illegal and we should just chuck them even if there is money etc in them.

We don’t know the old owners new address but I suppose the estate agents might do something although having been over two years now I don’t know if they would or even could help (data protection et al) and it seems a huge amount of hassle for a few Christmas cards. The cards don’t have a return address.

What would you do?

DH thinks that’s awful not to mention illegal and we should just chuck them even if there is money etc in them.

😱 Sorry, but that is just stupid. There are charities who could really use that money.

" I'd just write - return to sender and shove them in post box."

Yup!

Do you just want to open them because you're curious to see what, if anything is inside?

@sashh the Police won’t take these. They have more important things to worry about. Personally I would just stick them back in the post box marked “no longer at address”.

Send them to the conveyancer with a covering letter to say nonfurther mail will be forwarded. Conveyancer should forward. They will have the address.

We bought our house last April and got a Christmas card addressed to the couple who lived here. He passed away in 2016 and she passed in 2017 . No return address so nothing we could do except open it and consign it to the bin.

Legally, I think you are supposed to put them to Royal Mail to deal with.

Open them all, round robins may have addresses on them. You can always post them back, if so, with a note saying "Opened in error". I opened one last year that the postman put through the door in error (right number, wrong road}. I didn't even look at the envelope, was just opening a pile of cards.

If you can’t take to the estate agents, then hand them in at the Post Office or put Return To Sender and re-post.

I moved a few years ago but the owners of my old house kindly forward anything they get. It’s only one or two things a year and usually Xmas cards where people tend to go on auto-pilot and write my old address without meaning to.

Open them. See what’s inside.
Personally I’d spend any money or gift cards but I see I’m in the minority.
Estate agent will just chuck them surely.

I must be an absolutely morality free zone- I would open without a moments hesitation just out of nosiness.

Open and see if there are any clues as to who they have come from

Contact the estate agent and ask if they can forward them on.

Ask the neighbours if they have contact details for the previous owner.

Email Royal Mail and explain the situation; they obviously can't give out any details but they may have a suggestion?

Just write, "No longer at this address. Return to sender," and drop into the nearest post box." Job done.

I've had this with our current house and our precious house. There was one elderly woman used to send a card every year to the people before the people we bought the previous house from. It was the third year we were in the house before there was a return address included that we could use to write to and let her and let her know they weren't living there any more.

Do open them. Put them safely to one side if there's anything in them. It's quite possible that what you can feel in the envelope is a letter (with an address?) rather than cash.

I'd put "not known at this address" and pop back in the post box. Let the local sorting office take.ot from there

It's not illegal unless you're intending to maliciously deprive someone of the contents. Since you're actually opening them to find out if you can return them, that's the exact opposite, and definitely what you should do I would say.

On this subject though, for nearly 40 years, my parents have been sending christmas cards to my aunt in Ireland. It turns out, to the name of the plot of land that the house was subsequently built on, not to the actual address (and the two addresses are completely unrelated - there's no way you'd guess one from the other). For 40 years, those cards have still been arriving. The postal service is occasionally absolutely awesome.

I'd just write 'person unknown at this address' and put them back in the post.

Pop them back in the post box marked 'no longer at this address'. The Post Office will sort it out and either open them to get the return address or find the right address.

Don't make it your problem when there are people whose job it is to do this. And then, if anything is opened and the adressee has cause to complain about missing money or anything, it isn't down to you.

it is probably just a round robin type of letter.

Estate agent or return to post office I think

Just open them. If money inside then tricky. If cheque then just bin it. If think it is that someone close enough to send a gift wouldn't know they had moved.

If the cards contain money/gift cards, the senders may discover their error in the near future and knock on your door to ask for them back. Unless you get proof that you gave the money/gift cards to charity they could call the police and report you for theft.

I would write "no longer at this address" on them and put them in the nearest post box. If the sender comes knocking they can sort it out with the Royal Mail.

A few years ago my sister moved house just before Christmas. I asked my Mother for my sisters new address and she gave me the wrong house number. I posted £150.00 of gift cards and Christmas cards to the wrong house. Luckily the people living in the wrong house sent the parcel back to the Royal Mail and I got it back, many weeks later. My sister got her Christmas presents in March. Genuine mistakes can happen.

Another one saying just put in a post box marked 'No longer at this address'. This will have the greatest chance of reaching the intended recipient. The Post Office can probably trace the whereabouts more easily from the Electoral Register and their old forwarding instructions.

If there is any chance of it containing money intended for someone else, I definitely would not open it.

If it was only two years ago I'm pretty sure the "info before selling" which they filled in for you will include the name of their solicitors - certainly mine did

Useful, perhaps, if there's anythong worth having in the cards?

Can you Google the previous owner? That's what I did with ours (we still receive cards for them after nine years) - found an email address for one of them as they have a band, so contacted them that way. Some years I forward, some years I forget, some years I open by accident assuming they are for us. They might have some kind of a presence on social media?

I just bin stuff/recycle stuff like this without opening. Don’t give it a second thought