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?

Open them, if it contains money, keep it.

IT IS NOT ILLEGAL

IT IS NOT ILLEGAL

IT IS NOT ILLEGAL

IT IS NOT ILLEGAL

IT IS NOT ILLEGAL

IT IS NOT ILLEGAL

IT IS NOT ILLEGAL

I'd open them and I'd keep the money. If you do the "not known at this address" they probably still won't get to the right one, and someone else will eventually open them and keep the money.

Very lucky if they get passed around that much and the money stays in there! (I've had cards sent to the DC and they arrive in a little bag with apologies from Royal Mail about the theft!)

I've had a ton of seriously important stuff arrive for the previous tenant (solicitors companies, NHS, banks stamped on the envelopes) who has disappeared into thin air. Couldn't find her on FB or anything. Kept it all 6 months but I've had to shred it all now - chances are she's had it all sent out again to her new address.

All the people saying take it to the estate agent
Honestly who has time?!??
I am of the opinion that I am not the old owners secretary
I barely have time to organise my own life never mind worry about their crap.
If they want their post they can put a redirect on it
Or do the admin themselves and tell people they’ve moved

And if you’re gonna bin it anyway you may as well open it. If there’s money in it I reckon it’s better with a charity than in a landfill. I know that’s illegal but honestly who’s gonna know, and logically giving money to charity is not a bad thing.

I’d also feel really bad if there was £100 in cash or something that has just been destroyed when a charity could use the money rather than burn it!

Not your call to make. Royal Mail wouldn’t destroy it in any case.
It is an offence to open someone else’s mail.
Either ask the estate agent or return to sender & forget about it.

Hand in to the police

Wtf do you think the police are going to do. Dont be so ridiculous

No it's not. At least read the full thread.

The Act goes on to say: "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."

I just open and bin the ones that come here. If they haven't told people of their new address after 7 years then they are obviously not that close to them.

Give to estate agent, I did and they delivered them. (They want my custom in the future!)

16 years on and we get a card-no return address. Must be close! Sadly, no round robin!

Open the envelopes and see if there's a return address.

If there is, great. Pop the contents of each envelope into a bigger envelope and return to sender.

If there isn't, pass on to the former owners' solicitor.

We get cards for the people who used to live in our house. We have been here 7 years now and I’ve opened them every year. Never any money in them, for the first few years we got round robins from a couple but this year, we were down to 3 cards for them, so it is dwindling. I would much rather Royal Mail lowered the cost of postage and stopped faffing around trying to trace the owners of post that has gone to the wrong place with no return address though. What a waste of time And resources to out Christmas cards back in the post box with a ‘return to sender’ when there is no sender on the envelope!

Read what you posted.

intending to act to a person's detriment

Nobody is looking to scam them.

I don't really understand why there would be a return address?
If just put down "not known at this address" and put them in the post. If it comes back then I'd open to se if something relevant. If not then I'd throw them away.

Come on!
Get them opened and tell us what's inside!
(If you haven't already)

Open them!

I’d just open them, have a look, see what they contain then take it from there. You maybe worrying over a card with nothing inside.

"return to sender" and shove them in post box

Do this, because you are then 100% OK legally
and it becomes the legal responsibility of the Royal Mail to sdeal with

Don't risk an awkward arse making trouble for you by opening this mail

Once you open the mail, you can't prove you didn't steal any money, if the amount is questioned

I still get post from the old owners (7 years ago now) and I return to sender if I can or bin it (like the Christmas cards we keep getting!)

We open letter addressed to the previous tenant who lived in our house as he owes money to various companies and debt collection agencies and we are concerned that if we do not respond to any letters in his name we will have problems when the Bailiffs inevitably come round.

It worries me how you can prove the items in the house belong to you when you haven't kept receipts for stuff!

I am sure what we are doing by opening his mail is not illegal. We are just covering our backs.

There will be zero trouble. Because firstly where's the proof. Secondly what self respecting cash strapped police force is going to follow a complaint over bloody cards.

I wanted to add a little something about the forwarding, etc. We just had two christmas cards delivered on Saturday. Two different sets of people who do not know each other. However, they'd each had change of address notices two years ago, and had sent a christmas card to the correct address both in 2017 and 2018. Not much you can do about people who don't update their address books consistently.

It's the job of the Royal Mail dept that deals with "dead letters" to open them

Let them do their job and don't risk aggro for trying to be "nice" to potentially litigious strangers

Open them and let us know, although j very much doubt they'd be close enough to this person to be sending cash gifts and yet not close enough to know they moved away years ago!