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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To throw away previous owners post?

179 replies

CovidStoleTheRainbow · 06/11/2020 13:23

I haven't. But I want to. It's probably illegal, I will check in a minute.

Moved to this house a year ago, previous owners had 4 generations living here.
For the first 3-4 months I was sending tons and tons of post back with 'return to sender no longer at this address.

It worked for some, but others came again and again. I would write in massive capital letters and still they would keep sending. (What the hell is Whistl and why can't they read their returned post?!)
SO many catalogues (I didn't bother sending them back).

Eventually the previous owner got in touch because her scan date came through the post. Her husband still hasn't changed his address at the doctors because we all got a letter about our doctors changing and he had a letter that looked identical on the outside so if I'm right then he STILL hasn't changed it.

I've returned their post to them 7-8 times.

I made a point of saying "let me know who the companies are and I will call them myself and tell them you have moved."

But even that passive aggressive stance didn't work (I've asked nicely, but now it's just annoying)

And STILL it keeps coming.
I've had post yesterday and today for them.

I want to throw it away.

What else can I do?!

OP posts:
sunflowershine · 06/11/2020 14:28

We've been in our house 6.5 years. I forwarded their mail twice a year (i jiffy bagged and posted it to them as they left an address) for the first year and after that I binned it. We still get their mail. The ones that look like debt recovery I return to sender so that they can update their records (ha!) and other than that, it gets binned.

jessstan1 · 06/11/2020 14:29

Apart from obvious circulars and catalogues, I would mark 'return to sender, no longer here' and put in the post. It doesn't take a minute to do that. Thinking about it, it could put an end to the junk mail too.

Jaxhog · 06/11/2020 14:29

We still get the odd one from 30 years ago!! Including a recent one that looked like a doctor's letter.

I printed a sheet of stickers with 'no longer at this address' .

ScribblingPixie · 06/11/2020 14:31

I had some that were debts - I opened them as they looked like they were - and phoned the company giving them all the info I had on new address, full name etc. One debt seemed to be sold on to another company so I did the same thing - and then again. All stopped now but it took several years!

LindaEllen · 06/11/2020 14:31

@BeingATwatItsABingThing

We have the same issue. We’re in our 4th year in our house and we still get their post. We always send it back to sender or just throw the adverts away. It’s decreasing finally but still happens.

My concern was that there would be bills unpaid or something and I never wanted bailiffs turning up so we always return it even though it’s annoying.

This happened to us in a rented flat, but we just showed them ID and our tenancy agreement to show when we'd moved in, and it was fine - we never heard from them again.

They did ask if we knew where they had moved to, but as everything was done through a letting agent (they knew which one from seeing the agreement) we didn't. I don't think I'd have told them anyway.

Henio · 06/11/2020 14:32

All my hospital mail has Whistl on it, so it's not just unsolicited stuff

thatonesmine · 06/11/2020 14:36

We've been at our current address for 30 years and still get the odd bit of post for the previous owners.We just bin it.

Brogues · 06/11/2020 14:39

HMRC bizarrely sent a letter to our old address 10 years after being informed of a change of address (and had been using it). Whatever department it had come from wasn’t using a current list. In fact HMRC redundancy department also sent me something to not only the address before that but also in my maiden name. Surely a cross check of NI number wouldn’t have yielded a latest address?

TibetanTerrier · 06/11/2020 14:40

It is a crime to open someone else's mail or to delay its delivery to them, with two years imprisonment a possible sentence. Throwing it away can certainly be seen as delaying delivery by a court. You should mark it "Moved Away - Return to Sender", which tells Royal Mail that this isn't just a one-off delivered to the wrong person/place but a relocation, and it is up to them to then redirect delivery as appropriate.

Henio · 06/11/2020 14:41

@Mirrorxx

This has just happened to us. We have been putting loads of letters back in post with not at this address since we’ve owned the house. Then today there was a hand delivered address from a debt collector and when we phoned them they said they couldn’t take our word that they haven’t lived in the house for years. No idea what to do now as they were very rude on the phone
Nothing will happen, the most they can do is send letters, possibly a collector but they're not aloud into your home without a court order and they won't be able to get one basically because they would have to prove the previous owners left goods behind when they moved out. Best thing you can do is send the company proof of that you now live in the property (such as council tax details with your name on) that should stop them contacting you Smile
Dartsplayer · 06/11/2020 14:42

We've been in our house 7 years. The lady we brought it from had brought her childhood home from her parents when they moved to France years before. I don't get any mail from the lady we brought from but I still get post for her bloody parents despite sending it back "not at this address" so now it goes in the bin

Whatsnewpussyhat · 06/11/2020 14:44

Bailiffs can't do a thing as the person they want doesn't live at your address.

There are 2 main reasons people don't change address/redirect mail,

  1. laziness
  2. don't want their debts etc following them.

In my case the whole family had bought loads on credit/ran up debts etc. One in particular. Years later most have stopped except this particular one. Pay day loans, catalogues etc.

I used to ring up the debt agencies to remove my address. The issue is the debts constantly get passed in or sold so the cycle starts again.
Had a lovely chat with one lady and I asked where the info comes from to suggest person still lived here. She said could be car still registered with dvla at that address or still have an old unused credit card etc.

Bin them.

TheDogsMother · 06/11/2020 14:44

This drives me mad as it really is not expensive to have post redirected. I spent years writing 'moved away' and putting back in the post but it just kept coming. In the end I just binned it and one day I got a panicky call from the previous owner asking about a specific letter (there was no love lost as he was a complete arse during the conveyancing) so I said I genuinely had no idea about it and perhaps he should have used the redirection service.

SchrodingersImmigrant · 06/11/2020 14:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SchrodingersImmigrant · 06/11/2020 14:47

Oh no! Wrong thread. Apologies!

LittleMissLockdown · 06/11/2020 14:48

@TibetanTerrier

It is a crime to open someone else's mail or to delay its delivery to them, with two years imprisonment a possible sentence. Throwing it away can certainly be seen as delaying delivery by a court. You should mark it "Moved Away - Return to Sender", which tells Royal Mail that this isn't just a one-off delivered to the wrong person/place but a relocation, and it is up to them to then redirect delivery as appropriate.
And what do you advise doing when people like the OP have done exactly that and it comes straight back? Do you suggest we spend eternity repeating this process? How long do yoy suggest doing so until we can bin it?

Honestly no one is going to jail because people were too lazy to update their address and the new owners either got fed up of returning to sender or finally cracked and opened the letters to contact the companies directly.

FuzzyPuffling · 06/11/2020 14:48

"Deceased" will trigger a removal from a mailing list.

TwoLeftSocksWithHoles · 06/11/2020 14:49

Well OP you're probably finding so many of the suggestions that you just write on the envelope...
... as irritating as the people who haven't bothered to inform anyone of their new address! Wink

Love51 · 06/11/2020 14:49

@IsThisNameTaken I was able to use the previous owners protection on my boiler. Completely above board. It was the boiler they paid for a plan on, not their ownership of it. Thank you my helpful plumber.

Marnie76 · 06/11/2020 14:50

[quote Calmandmeasured1]Why would you throw it away? Just write "Not known at this address" and put it in a postbox per Royal Mail's instructions.

personal.help.royalmail.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5156/~/ive-received-someone-elses-mail[/quote]
Did you read the OP? They’ve done this many times already.

saraclara · 06/11/2020 14:53

We had this problem. The previous owners had every catalogue going and we'd have at least half a dozen items of post for them every day.

We registered their name with the mailing preference service, and it all stopped within a few weeks

www.mpsonline.org.uk/#

TurquoiseDress · 06/11/2020 14:54

I just write "Return to sender, no longer at this address" and pop it in the postbox, seems to have stopped most of it.

It's tempting to just chuck it in the bin, but it will just keep coming.
By returning to sender at least you are doing something to help make it stop!

saraclara · 06/11/2020 14:55

Also you know their present address, OP. So just write to them and say you will no longer be sending post to them, and point out that they need to make sure that their change of address is registered with everyone important.

throwaway10000 · 06/11/2020 14:55

Why are you “so fucking angry now”? You’re not responsible for their debts.

Going forward just keep all their letters in a draw and them dump them into your nearest post box with not at this address every 6 months or so.

You have only lived there for a year, it’s not that strange that there’s still address issues.

MRex · 06/11/2020 14:57

It's really annoying, but it genuinely is possible to stop it. Each time I've moved, I've had post from at least 4 previous groups of residents, and each time by diligently returning unknown / sending new address / forwarding etc I've stopped all of it from coming.

If anyone could tell me how to stop the array of leaflets that come through the door though, I'd appreciate it.