Do I keep the voucher

[skipperjonce]

We’ve lived in our current house for nearly 2 years. Very rarely we receive mail for the previous owner. As I don’t have a forwarding address I normally return to sender.

Last week we received a Christmas card for her containing a £20 m & s voucher. I opened it as it felt bulky and there was no return address on the envelope. The card was from Uncle and Aunty whoever and again no return address, just the voucher and a short message.

So AIBU to keep the voucher and spend it. It’s already paid for after all?

So if post came addressed to your house with no return address what would you suggest? Just bin it without opening?

Yep, that's exactly what I do! I've owned it 2 years, the previous owner has had plenty of time to change his address and advise his family. If he hasn't bothered then its tough.

Straight in the bin with it (shredding bin at the office actually, in case it's sensitive. I do care the teeniest tiniest bit).

Careful OP Father Christmas is watching!

@ivfbeenbusy

Well it's illegal to open other people's mail

And illegal to steal

So of course you're bloody unreasonable- is this post a joke??????

It's not illegal to open post not addressed to you.

It is illegal to misappropriate anything contained within.

I'd have a good look on Facebook and the like to see if I could find them..

@lockupyourcinammon

So what did you do with it?

I put it back in the post with ‘not at this address’

What a waste of a voucher. It will have gone in the bin. There is no way for RM to track down the right address or to return to sender.

What a waste of a voucher. It will have gone in the bin. There is no way for RM to track down the right address or to return to sender.

Not my problem

@Monkeypeas exactly, Royal Mail don't have a secret database of everyone's names & addresses anymore than M&S do

It’s not stealing, if you can not resonantly find the owner and that is an honest belief then it’s not theft.
Crack on enjoy the £20

@FestiveChristmasLights

YABU. M&S will likely be able to trace the buyer so you should contact them.

I doubt it very much. They might be able to pinpoint the store and checkout it was purchased at. They might even be able to trace the credit card number that paid for it. But they wouldn't have access to the cardholders address. Even the credit card company wouldn't be able to divulge that to a third party.

OP writes,
So if post came addressed to your house with no return address what would you suggest? Just bin it without opening?

no, what most decent grown-up people would do. if it is an unknown name, you strike through the address, and write, not known at this address, and return to postie or put in pillar box.
if as in this case you know it was the previous occupant, you make enquiries of estate agent, or drop it in their office, your address struck out, having written on it, please forward.

So I have no moral compass, I would spend it. 2 years is a long time to not have told nearest and dearest relatives the new address.

The alternative is that you bin it. They wont know what you do. But 20 quid will be thrown in the bin.

If you found £20 quid on the street would you put it in the bin or your pocket?

@ivfbeenbusy

Well it's illegal to open other people's mail

And illegal to steal

So of course you're bloody unreasonable- is this post a joke??????

It isn’t illegal to open someone’s mail.

Why does this keep on getting repeated!

@Confusedandshaken I think you are underestimating the number of people who use loyalty points for stores when they shop. There is a likelihood of the voucher being bought in store with a Sparks card being linked to it.

when you bought the house you got documents with addresses for all concerned, including their solicitor. So you can contact the solicitor and ask if they have an address - they will but may not give it to you, but they will forward mail.

an honest solution.

I received a cheque from the grandad of the person who lived in my home before me. Opened it as I assumed it was mine and realised afterwards. I put the name in to facebook and sent a weird message asking if he used to live at my house. He was local still and came and collected it.

[quote NoGoodPunsLeft]@Monkeypeas exactly, Royal Mail don't have a secret database of everyone's names & addresses anymore than M&S do [/quote]
they have an investigations dept, i believe it is near belfast, where undeliverable items are returned to; and they often find ways of delivering or returning to sender. that is their job. they are the experts, and they take a pride in it.
some of the attitudes on here are startlingly self-centred.
perhaps these are the people who have no sense of being part of a wider community. society works on a complex pattern of inter-woven trust and confidence. and not merely looking out for one's own interests. why not at least try being generous ?

Unless someone contacts you before Christmas I’d personally spend it

@nzeire

The details of Aunty will be in the m and s customer system ?

Not if Auntie paid cash for it. I’d buy an M&S foodhall shop and donate it to a food bank too.

I would have a stab at locating the previous owners (I like the idea of trying the local fb group) but otherwise would use the voucher to buy food for shelter, refuge or a local food bank. In the same way that I would donate £20 I found in the street to one of those causes if I couldn’t work out where it came from.
That way it doesn’t go to waste but I don’t benefit personally from the value.

Luckily he had a unique name.

I’ve actually had cash in the post at Xmas two years in a row.

I tried hard to find them but ended up putting it in the neighbours drinks kitty - we had pub nights before lockdown.

I looked online, I went via the EA, who contacted their solicitor etc and then they said “we’ve all done our best”. That certainly didn’t take six months. I was particularly keen they got it as they sold this flat due to financial difficulties. But beyond that, what else could I do?

With a voucher, if you don’t keep it, then I’d go via M and S to see if they could alert the buyer.

Some years ago we bought a new build property. Somehow or other the address was used for a variety of card/phone frauds. For the first few years we got many, many letters addressed to people we had never heard of particularly a certain Mary `Jane Smith (not the actual name). We knew they had never lived at this address because no one but us has ever lived here.

We opened all these letters even though they weren't addressed to us because that was the only way we could alert the various companies involved to the fact that very extensive fraud was being committed using our address. It took nearly 5 years for it to come to an end.

It was an eye opener to me. The aforementioned 'Mary Jane Smith' ran up many thousands of pounds on credit cards. These debts would accumulate with interests and payment charges. Then the creditors would offer her a chance to make a one off payment in final settlement , so if she owed £3000 they would say they would settle for (say) £1400. Obviously the fictitious Mary didn't pay and the debt would be sold on and the whole process would start over again.

We opened every single letter that wasn't addressed to us. I wasn't risking my credit rating. We contacted every creditor every time. I still have the file with all the letters and details of every time we contacted the agencies concerned. It was over 10 years ago now but I want a full paper trail in case bailiffs ever come knocking.

I would try and find the rightful owners, look their name up on Facebook as they maybe on there, or ask on a local Fb page if anyone knows them (if the moved locally).

If you can’t find them then use it or give to food bank.

Why should the OP go to all that trouble of contacting estate agents, posting on facebook, going to M&S, and all the other suggestions when the intended recipient couldn't even be bothered to tell their auntie and uncle their new address? It's £20, not £20,000!

If you can't locate them via solicitor and FB then I like the idea people have suggested of spending it on food and donating it to a food bank.

And then if aunty and uncle turn up one day asking for it, at least you can say it went to a good cause.