AIBU to throw previous house owners mail away?

[Annoy]

We bought this house 8yrs ago! And still occasionally receive letters for previous owners... today a driving license renewal form arrived.

I’ve thrown it in the bin

8 years is more than long enough to sort your address out.

Dump it

What have you previously been doing over the last 8 years?

Returning to sender, letting the various organisations know they have the wrong address, does work eventually. If you just throw throw things away then if the previous owners default on a debt that is registered to your address it will cause headaches down the line. The driving licence renewal would be concerning as that means the previous owners still has a "gold standard" proof of address and identity using your address and could be misusing it, so I would be writing to DVLA to let them know this person hasn't lived there for 8 years.

Yep, been in my house 9 years and previous owners mail goes straight into the bin.

YANBU. I started doing this after a year. Our previous owners were CF’s and were too tight to re-direct their mail. Didn’t change any addresses for months. Thought they could just “nip in” as and when they pleased to pick it up because they knew us. Drove me crazy!

I agree with KihoBebiluPute.. Although annoying, any official letters should be returned to sender. I recently received a driving licence renewal for the previous owner. We’ve lived here nearly 10 years!

I re-addressed for 18 months ( they only paid for 3 months redirecting which isn't long enough). Then I did return to sender for 6 months. After that they were binned.

@Chailatteplease

YANBU. I started doing this after a year. Our previous owners were CF’s and were too tight to re-direct their mail. Didn’t change any addresses for months. Thought they could just “nip in” as and when they pleased to pick it up because they knew us. Drove me crazy!

We had similar except I didn't know them. Previous owners wanted us to post to their friend across the road. I did it once but accidentally put it through the wrong door. They were pissed of so that was the end of that and I thought if the tight bastards want their post so badly they can pay the measly £30 or whatever it is to have the post redirected.

I write "No longer at this address" and shove it back in the post box if it looks official. (Eg government return address, bank). If its clearly junk mail I bin it.

We've been here four years and still get official stuff for the previous owners and before them. I write Gone Away on the envelopes and put them back in the post box. If we had been of a criminal persuasion we could have easily committed identity fraud as we have had lots of bank mail and professional membership things. I do throw away Christmas cards now, though I only started that last year.

I was going to plead for leniency. I moved just prior to covid and paid for redirection - but during covid this mostly failed.

But 8 years

Junk looking stuff - I would bin

Official stuff I would write on the front in black sharpie - no longer at this address - and put in a postbox

No I do the same. Still get mail 5 yrs later it's actually a bank statement that's the only thing I get. It goes straight on the bin now. Also get a gardening magazine every now and then for the owner before that!

It's up to you what you do but I would have written, 'Not known at this address', on the envelope and put it back in the post. It hardly takes any time and seems like the right thing to do.

I have had the same problem for the last 4 years. At the beginning if there was an address on the envelope I wrote return to sender. Did this for 3 years! Before I realised a lot of the letters coming through were insurance renewals being taken out again and they were still giving my address when calling them up. Obviously the paperwork that i was receiving they could also access online so they didn’t need what I had. So now I shred all letters. Recently had a letter from their bank with their new online banking number they requested😡So they can call the bank to request the new number but can’t change their address? it got shredded, now hopefully because it’s something they actually need they might change their address!

Dump it, I used to be forever taking post around to the people we brought our house from, once we had been in our house 15 YEARS, I though fuck it, in the bin it goes. Never had a thank you for taking it around either.

The man who lived here before us actually tried to let himself in with his key to collect mail a few weeks after we bought the house. We were having building work done so not living there. He was most put out that we'd changed the locks. I so wish DH or I had been there that day.

I mostly do put Return to Sender and stick it in the postbox as I hope it might stop marginally sooner that way.

i write "not at this address since xx/xx/xx and stick it back in the postbox.

if you don't, it will keep coming back, and anything from the DVLA definitely needs doing that with!

We rented our house out when we moved to Oz for two years. We came back in 2013 and we still get post from the tenants. I had her message me a few months ago saying she ordered something from a company and it still had our address 🙄
Anything that comes for them goes in the bin.

@KihoBebiluPute

What have you previously been doing over the last 8 years?

Returning to sender, letting the various organisations know they have the wrong address, does work eventually. If you just throw throw things away then if the previous owners default on a debt that is registered to your address it will cause headaches down the line. The driving licence renewal would be concerning as that means the previous owners still has a "gold standard" proof of address and identity using your address and could be misusing it, so I would be writing to DVLA to let them know this person hasn't lived there for 8 years.

This absolutely. I would definitely put this in writing to the DVLA ASAP.. Send a copy of your council tax bill so they can see the names of the current residents.

When I moved into my house, I got lots of post for the previous owner, but they'd passed away. So I wrote "Return to Sender, Named is deceased" on every letter and returned them.

One day, I went through the stack, and then realised that the day's post was actually for my neighbour, and wasn't Mr Deceased... by that time I'd already written "Return to Sender, Named is deceased" on all the letters.

I posted them through my neighbour's door but I was a bit mortified and ran as soon as I posted them...

I still get mail for the previous owners 8 years on.
Bank statements, pension forecasts and statements, family allowance stuff, credit card statements, threatening letters and in the beginning, the police! Though to be fair, the police didn't come through the letterbox.
I had no idea where they'd moved to so I used to put it in a bag in the utility room.
After 5 years I finally opened it, which is how I knew the contents, then promptly shredded it all.

I do this and have done after a couple of years. I couldn't care less.

If they can't get their admin in order after 2 years then it's not my problem.

Every goes in the bin.

Royal mail should do free mail forwarding for a year, as the USPS does. The USPS then makes a fortune by selling the change of address information to companies that want it, like charities and catalog retailers.

My Mum got an archaeological magazine - a subscription one - for 13 years after we bought the house. She tried all sorts but they kept sending it. Gave up after a while and just read it every month. Was actually quite interesting...