To not want to deal with previous house owners mail?

[Annonnn]

I recently moved in to a property, when I arrived there was an instruction list for things like where to find the gas/electric meters etc. But at the end it also asked me to pass any mail for them on to my new next door neighbour for them to collect.
At first I was okay with this, I assumed they had arranged to have their post redirected to their new address but some things would inevitably be missed. Since then it has become clear they haven't tried to redirect it at all, I've received everything from packages to letters marked important, I get more mail for them than for me, I really don't think I should have to deal with it.
Now maybe I would be more willing to go out of my way to help them if they had been better about the move but they left so much junk I had to pay a private uplift to get rid of it all, when my solicitor contacted them about it they denied leaving anything so I'm a bit miffed at them as it is.
Anyway, aibu to want to just write "not known at this address" on everything and post it back to the senders?

I’d stop taking stuff in. Especially if they left a load of junk behind for your to clear up.

They're taking the piss.

Shove it all back in the post and don't accept any parcel deliveries.

This is all their junk I finally got uplifted today.

I get tonnes, I just chuck it in the bin

My previous owners left the house so filthy it took me a week to clean off all their bodily fluids from the walls, and I had to throw away all the toilet seats. Every single piece of mail of theirs got filed in B - black bin.

I think I’d contact them, or give them a letter via the neighbour, saying that as of [date], you won’t be passing on anymore mail.

Gives them a final chance to set up a redirection before you start returning all mail to sender.

Although I’d be inclined to start refusing parcels immediately. Why order stuff and then choose to have it delivered to a house they no longer live in?

And I do agree that they should have done redirections already.

Put the letters in the bin. You're not responsible for their mail. If they miss important stuff, that's their problem.

@SixDegrees

I think I’d contact them, or give them a letter via the neighbour, saying that as of [date], you won’t be passing on anymore mail.

Gives them a final chance to set up a redirection before you start returning all mail to sender.

Although I’d be inclined to start refusing parcels immediately. Why order stuff and then choose to have it delivered to a house they no longer live in?

And I do agree that they should have done redirections already.

I agree with this.

We were in a very similar situation, asked by the previous owner to pass on mail to a neighbour, which we were happy to do, esp as the previous owner was a friend of a family member. However, it soon became clear they hadn't bothered to either re-direct mail or change any addresses. We gave a deadline, then stopped passing on post/returned as not known at this address.

After 2 years we still get mail from the previous owners. Now every thing gets returned to sender. I'm giving that another month, then it just going to be binned.

I'm leaning towards writing "not at this address" and reposting the letters but my husband is definitely ready to throw the lot in the bin, we've gave a couple of bundles of the previous owners post to the neighbour already but probably have around 8 letters still sitting by the door. It's been almost 3 weeks since they moved out so not a long time but I don't know how long they expected us to keep taking in their mail for

YANBU, but unless you want a discussion with bailiffs, don't simply put it in the bin - I speak from personal experience. Return to sender is fine, if you're feeling kind you could tell them first.

Let it pile up for a long while then send it all back with not known at this address on the envelope

Of all the problems in the world this is not one.

I agree, I'd give them a deadline to get it sorted by, 2 weeks seems reasonable to me and then bin or return to sender anything else.

Our previous home owner didn't live here as our house was empty for 19 years but he was clearly using the address to use the local GP rather than in the next town where he lives. After 4 years of NHS letters which we kept returning to sender I emailed the doctors surgery and told them he hadn't lived here for 23 years... why it took me so long I don't know, wish I'd done it sooner. I bin anything else now.

Tell them you're no longer going to pass it on and will be returning it to sender, and if it keeps coming after that, you'll be opening it and contacting the senders directly to get it stopped.

There will be people who come along in this thread and say it's a crime to open their post, it isn't, it's only a crime if you do so to the detriment of the intended recipient, it's also; addressed your house, not anybody elses.

@Cactusesi

Of all the problems in the world this is not one.

But it is, isn't it, as OP has clearly explained. I would hand over a final bundle to the neighbour, with a note card stating this is the last bundle you will be passing on, and a link to Royal Mail redirect. Then put anything else in the recycling bin.

Also judging from the state the house was left in for you to sort, I wouldn't put it past it for them to be the type of people who would be getting all manner of credit addressed to your house, with an aim of saying "it wasn't us, we moved out on the 1st May" when payment is required.

My previous owner didn’t change her delivery address and then accused me of stealing her John Lewis rug that was ‘delivered’ to the back garden. Returned everything to sender from then on. Maybe if she’d been nicer I’d have told her when a parking ticket was delivered 🤷🏻‍♀️

You just put a line through their name/your address on the mail and write RTS in all caps very big and put in postbox. That is Royal Mail code for Return to Sender. I’d start doing that before binning (in BLUE bin, it’s recyclable!). Give it a year of RTSs because there could be odd things like a long lost pension account that they only get a letter from once a year and they forgot to contact them with new address.

Bin it. They sound like they deserve it.

I paid for a redirection of my mail and only half of it makes it to the new address but the previous owners of my new house obviously didn't bother. We've had company information, packages of paperwork from solicitors, dvla stuff, bank statements etc - they haven't actually lived here for 5 bloody years so I just return it to sender. Any more and I'm tempted to start chucking it in the bin. They left the house filthy and weren't honest about a lot of issues so even though I know their new address, I won't be sending on.

I'd be sending your rubbish uplift bill to the previous owners, OP. They are taking the piss.

That happened to the guy who sold me the house where I am now. Cheeky sod. I sent the first week or two then got sick of it so everything got Return to Sender written on the envelopes after that!

When I bought my place the previous owner left me a couple of bottles of wine and a polite request to forward any last bits of mail.

I diligently did this for the first 3-4 months, by which point I'd have thought he'd have caught anything important that got missed during address changes. When it was still coming thick & fast after that I stopped forwarding it on and started dropping it into the shredding bin at work.

Please don’t bin it as you’ll just get more of the same. It’s not the senders’ fault that they haven’t got the new address. If you return to sender, you give them the opportunity to update their records and the amount will diminish in future (says I who continued to get previous tenants mail for 17 years!)

However, they are using the neighbour as an alternative to post office redirection service and that isn’t really on. It is still early days but I agree with a previous poster to send them a note via the neighbour that you will forward mail for another 2 weeks- be precise about the date - after which you’ll return to sender.

I had this problem in a property some time ago. Fed up with all the mail. Solved the problem by sending it all back. Not only crossed off the address at the front but wrote "XYZ left this property on (date), return to sender, and please update your records"...I then did a bit of a squiggle signature and dated it.
On every single bit of mail.
That soon stopped it arriving!! And no, I didn't warn the previous owner, I had no idea where they'd gone to and they should have paid for redirection anyway, just like I did...

Mine were still calling around to see if they had any mail 2yrs later, unbelievable.
R.T.S seemed to have little effect as the same mail kept coming.
I took to opening some mail in the end, luckily I did as they were demand letters. I rang the companies in question.
In fact one was a solicitors letter regarding a recent arrest....unbelievably despite not living here they gave my address as their current address!