To have opened this letter not addressed to me

[Theoccult]

It’s more of a what to do and am I going to get into trouble.

We usually receive post in the previous owner’s name. Junk Mail mostly and she doesn’t pick it up and I don’t know where she lives . I just put it in the recycling .

We have an outdoor post box which is emptied only when we are expecting something important (every 6-8weeks)

I recently received a posh looking letter in someone’s else’s name but with the address was the name of our property proper to it being changed. (On the lines of Was called orange house now called purple house)

This means it was two owners ago. We know when the name was changed.

Anyhow, my partner and I often receive posh looking mail addressed to us (like click bait) . Makes you want to open it. Then turns out to be utter garbage: Recently we’ve got used to the click bait type letters and just recycle them without opening mostly.

This particular letter we received addressed to a person who would have lived here two owners ago did have a return address.
So I googled it and it came up with ancient Egyptian stories and then something about an occult.

So I chucked it in the trash pile. Because I thought it was trash mail.

This was back in July.

Today I’ve gone through the post to ink out names addresses etc in our trash pile post and I’ve come across this letter again.

I googled it again and the same crap came up. I threw it in the recycle pile unopened. And then I decided to open it in case it had a number on I could call. I’ve done this once previously with a letter I recognised as important and it instructed me to call them on the outside and they asked me to open the letter for the reference.

I have in my hands a full blown will with fingerprints and a lot of information which is clearly very important.

I’ve packed it up to send back to the return address and will pay for the return.

I’ve only just realised I could have just taken it back to the post office unopened and they would return it free of charge !!!!! I didn’t know it was a thing until 5 mins ago.

I also now know it’s highly illegal to open someone else’s post!

I’m panicking because I have to send it back but it’s being sent back unopened.

Will I get into trouble?

Its only illegal to open post if you were going to do something bad with it. You will not get in trouble

It’s only illegal if it’s been mis delivered (eg it was addressed to your neighbour) and you do it with the intention of depriving them of it. If it’s addressed to your property it’s correctly delivered so you aren’t interfering with the delivery of mail which is what’s illegal. No one is going to care that you opened it to help tyem

Honest mistake - don’t worry. Heck I’ve received post in strange names without return address on the outside and opened it precisely to check whether I shred and recycle it or try to send it on.
If this were me I’d just seal it and send it on. option is also to put note saying ‘opened in error’ inside. Or not.

It's not even lowly illegal to open someone else's post... I'd have done exactly the same. So YANBU for having done it, YABU for even giving it a second thought... bit of sticky tape & job done

Seal it with tape, return to sender on envelope and forget about it. No one will care, its done often with old addresses, current occupiers opening unredirected maik

*not known at this address on the envelope I mean.

You absent mildly opened it whilst opening other post, it was only when you saw the contents you realised it wasn't meant for you. I'd go with this excuse as you didn't have a reasonable excuse to open the letter and you knew it wasn't intended for you. In reality you are not likely to be asked to provide a reason, you will probably hear nothing more about it.

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’. For example, if you are receiving bank statements/cards in someone else’s name then you should act on that immediately. You should tell the sender, either by returning it marked “not known at this address” or by opening the mail and calling any number provided within. The “reasonable excuse” for opening such items would then be that you were helping to prevent fraud against the companies involved.

The only way to stop unwanted mail for previous occupants is to mark every letter "not known at this address" and put it back in the post box even if it doesn't have a return address on the envelope.

Firstly it's only illegal to open post (in England) if you intend to cause detriment to the person who it's addressed to. Opening it to advise the poster of their error is completely OK.

Secondly, don't panic about it being a will etc. It's a game. It's a mystery to solve.

Like this www.mysteriousmail.com/product/pharaohs-curse/

You only check your mail box every 6-8 weeks?

You won't get into trouble OP, just return it.

Last year my mum got a hand addressed letter for the previous owner of her house. This would not normally be anything to be surprised by except that my parents bought the house in 1973!! She returned it but was burning up with curiosity!!

Sounds like a scam to me, no original will would ever be posted like that, and wouldn't have fingerprints.

I also now know it’s highly illegal to open someone else’s post!

Only if you intend to deprive them of the contents. You're fine. Don't worry.

Thank you for your responses . Breathing a sigh of relief.

I’ll just tape it back up and return to sender in hope they sort it out.

I don’t think it’s fake because it has a copy of confirmation from a bank which looks legitimate. Though I do question why they would send such important documentation without confirming with the recipient, their address!

We don’t open our post box often because spiders live in it. Whoever brings the post in usually has one of those full bodied large spider crawling up their arm during the process. Mostly DH because I manage to bully him into getting it.

What a long post for "I opened mail with my address and a previous owners name, will I get in trouble?"

I don’t understand the references to Egypt and fingerprints.

@Theoccult

Thank you for your responses . Breathing a sigh of relief.

I’ll just tape it back up and return to sender in hope they sort it out.

I don’t think it’s fake because it has a copy of confirmation from a bank which looks legitimate. Though I do question why they would send such important documentation without confirming with the recipient, their address!

We don’t open our post box often because spiders live in it. Whoever brings the post in usually has one of those full bodied large spider crawling up their arm during the process. Mostly DH because I manage to bully him into getting it.

Hahaha. Yes same here. Are you in Aus/nz OP?

We only look in the letterbox every 6-8 weeks too. There's never anything of importance (if anything).

It's too far away at the top of the drive up a steep hill
It's infested with ants and there's a massive spiders web protecting it so you get spidered
The key keeps getting lost and it's bloody fiddly to open (c.f. Spiders)
Previous owners planted a large aloe behind it which is sharp as hell.

So yeah. Fuck the mailbox

You check your post every 6 - 8 WEEKS???? and you put trash in a pile and sort through it later and the pile has been there since JULY? I can't fathom any of this. It is so strange.

But no, you won't get into trouble

Shortly after we bought our house we received a letter addressed to the (deceased) father of the women we bought it from. It had a hospital address on the back, so I opened it, to find an appointment offer. I rang the hospital and told them that the gentleman was deceased.

I am boggled by looking in the letter box every six to eight weeks. But it's not my post, so hey.

@honeybuns007 and @AlfonsoTheMango

It’s the spiders. But usually with most things are done online via email so we don’t really need to visit the letterbox. And if someone is sending a document we need we will nip into the box on the day we are expecting the letter and just pull that one out.

I would say 95% of it is junk. Just a few need filing away or inking out because they contain personal info. Sometimes we get to a point where the postman asks us to empty the letterbox because he can’t fit anymore in. He’s the reason we empty it.

The spiders really are horrid! Nasty huge fuckers .

We once received a letter for one of the kids for an important achievement. One per year group. So pretty big achievement for someone her age.

Teachers didn’t tell us because they wanted it to be a surprise.

We only found out because the day before she was supposed to collect her achievement award at one of those major assemblies they have where only certain pupils are invited too (name of event has completely slipped my mind) we were called by the office to ask whether our child would be picking up her prize.

We scrambled through the letter box to find the location and the invite in order to get in to the venue.

Our child forgot to tell us a few weeks earlier she along with the other achieving pupils were taken for a shoot with the headmaster for a special achievement booklet they made.

This was not on the newsletter because they don’t like to rub it in anyone’s face. It has partially hush hush but we were completely oblivious to it. Child did not mention it at all. Luckily we sent her in her proper uniform that day.

The teachers afterwards realised why we were so quiet about her achievement. We had no idea.