To throw away previous owners post?

[CovidStoleTheRainbow]

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?!

Also it’s not illegal to open their mail unless there’s a nefarious reason behind it, ie theft/fraud

I get a Xmas card every year for the previous owner. Been 5 years 😂

Lived at our address 8 years. Previous owner deceased. I used to write no longer at this address and post back. Still received post from places like building society , specsavers etc , so wrote back deceased and returned. Still receive a few now and again . Binned.

@growinggreyer

Whistl is unsolicited mail from Very. I get it every so often even though I have never looked at their website and have no interest. Bin it all, if it is important the company will trace them through other means.

Whistl is used by the hospital I go to so please don't advise people to bin it.

I know how frustrating it is. I have lived here for 13 years and still get post for the previous owners. Frustration doesn't give anyone the right to destroy someone else's post.

@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.

Opening someone else's mail is allowed in certain circumstances under the Postal Services Act 2000. It is only an offence if you open someone else's mail 'without reasonable excuse' or if you 'intend to act to another's detriment'*

We gkt very little for the previous owners here, they must have redirected for some time. But they had lodgers so we got all sorts for people we had never heard of incliding new credit agreements, car insurance and details of someones new bank account. The fraud sections at the companies/bank concerned were very interested to hear that we had no idea who they were....

Passing on their mail to them, addressed at your address, gives them up to date letters from official sources that they can use as proof as address on new things ... such as loans.
Don’t pass them on. A few things shortly after moving is understandable but anything more is a risk.

You can also telephone, if you open mail, and advise them of the circumstances. We found this the only way to get some resolved, especially debt collectors and banks.

[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]
If you saw how much post arrives in rental flats for the wrong people you'd understand that people don't have time to do that. My hand would have dropped off.
I thought about making labels once, but then realised it's not my job.
I told my landlords because I'd also read it was illegal to throw them away.
In a couple of days the post was gone and I'm pretty sure the landlords threw them away. No way did they take them back to the office to write on each one.

I know how frustrating it is. I have lived here for 13 years and still get post for the previous owners. Frustration doesn't give anyone the right to destroy someone else's post.

So honestly what do you suggest people do with it?

Returning to sender doesn't always work. Contacting companies directly often doesn't resolve the problem and is time consuming when you're dealing with multiple companies.
Storing it indefinitely in the hope it's collected is futile.

Surley binning or shredding it is the most sensible option?

When you write return to sender also use a black permanent marker to block out the address. That's what we had to do otherwise the mail keeps coming back.
It's weird people not changing their address. Mind you we had a letter a few weeks ago for the previous owner who's been dead for 9 years!

@northbacchus

You can buy "return to sender - not known at this address" stickers to shove on any post you get, then just put them in the letterbox whenever you know you're going past one.

I still get post for the previous owner, plus several people's post who have rented here in the past. Rather annoying.

I was thinking that someone could make a fortune by producing a stamping doodad that says 'Not at this address'. The new owner might enjoy vigorously stamping the unwanted envelopes. Still got to find a postbox, though.

My mother used to received huge amounts of charity begging letters and scam type catalogues.

First step. Return to sender, address unknown.

Second step, especially with charities and catalogues. Email requesting to be taken off mailing list.

Third step...when all was left was those scam type catalogues that mainly seem to be French, was a phone call saying my mother had died (she had not, she had simply moved to sheltered housing) and that I was finding the continued mail very distressing.

Amazingly the last worked.

As a landlord I find sending stuff back mainly works and helps prevent heaps of mail arriving for previous tenants.

.

Now that you know it is debt related, consider writing back and telling them they have incorrect information and they have to correct it under data protection legislation. My DH would include a line which said his first letter was free but he reserved the right to charge £100 per follow up letters It all stopped.

I still get stuff after 1 year for the previous owner of my house - she didn't bother with redirection but gave me 36 printed labels with her new address and said just put the label on and repost. Reader, I did that and the labels lasted for about two weeks! Then I saved it up and took it round to the retirement complex where she now lives - THAT was a nightmare! The suggestion of the young man on the door - go and knock on her door. She didn't know me from Adam and it was dark! He kindly took it for me. I went back to saving up a weeks worth then posting it myself at my cost. Then I filtered out 'proper' post and chucked away the junk stuff. Now I am returning to sender - figure that after a year, its not going to be important.

13 years here ahaha! I bin it all.

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

But op does now have a nice black mark on her address which will affect her credit score. And also, who wants bailiffs and debt collectors knocking on their door?

We just bundled it up, wrote "not this address" and popped them back in a box (or dropped them in at the PO if one of us were going there). This was when we'd been here for a year. We did that for about 3 or 4 years and then we just threw them away unless one of us felt like writng on the envelope and putting them back into the postal system - which does occasionally happen even now, when we've been here 15 years!

@DryRoastPeanut no she doesn’t, her credit score wouldn’t be impacted at all. Address black marks are not a thing!

www.checkmyfile.com/articles/is-my-address-on-a-credit-blacklist.htm

Also as she has already opened the letters, she has now access to the contact details of the bailiffs. She can just provide them with the debtor’s new address, preventing them from visiting to begin with.

I still get an occasional letter for the people who I bought my house off 15 years ago! It’s diminished over the years in fairness.

For the first year or so I used to pass them on via a neighbour who was still in contact with them. After that, I went through several months of sticking them back in the post marked “not at this address”. Beyond that things have gone into the recycling/in the bin.

I throw it away. I still get post for someone who hasn't lived here in nearly 20 years. I spent a few years returning it to the energy company but they never update their mailing lists. It goes in the recycling bin.

We had the police turn up a few months ago looking for the previous occupant of our house, we have lived here for 12 years!

We got a lot of their post for a few years, a lot of debt collection stuff. At first we put in back in the post as not known at this address, eventually we started throwing it away. We still get a very occasional letter, but it has pretty much finished now.

I write on it and put it into the post, but annoyingly we still get post from the people who bought the house new who haven't lived here for 9+ years! Our address is listed as one of their contacts on companies house so we sometimes get enquiries which is annoying.

I thought credit records now follow an individual, not an address? . So hopefully shouldn't affect the OP's own credit record.

Read Martin Lewis for more on this.

Oh don’t stress about the debt letters

It was in the “olden” days that that used to be a problem

I have had debt letters from previous owners for 8.5 years.

Not been a squeak of a problem. Apparently I am in the top 0.5% with my credit history!

I still get Christmas cards for people who have not lived here for 6 years, and recently I got a replacement credit card for a tenant who lived here before I bought this place.

They all go in the bin by now.

All these posts about it being illegal, has anyone ever been prosecuted for binning old post? How would they provide any evidence?