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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think this was a bit odd?!

78 replies

bumblebee1987 · 17/09/2021 18:17

We moved into our house almost two years ago. We still get SO MUCH post for the previous owners. Really important stuff like bank cards, a national insurance card, UCAS letters, NHS letters etc. We kept everything for a few weeks when we first moved in, thinking they might come back and ask for it, but they never did, so since then we have just written 'Not at this address, return to sender' on everything and put it back in the postbox. We did approach both neighbours and ask if they had a forwarding address but they didn't, so we kind of figured there wasn't much more that we could do!

Fast forward almost two years, and we still get seemingly all of their post, I don't think they have changed the address on anything?! I actually had an annoying conversation with my GP surgery a few weeks ago as they are all still registered as living here, and a comment was made about the space in my house with so many people under one roof as they were a family of 6 and we are a family of 4, and it's a 3 bedroom house.

Anyway, last week there was a knock at my door, and it was the previous owners who had come to collect their post?! I said that we kept it for a while but since then everything is returned to sender because we don't have a forwarding address, but they were annoyed about it. They highlighted a few important things that they need that have been sent here and asked if I could check that we don't still have them, and were cross when I said that we don't.

AIBU to think this was a bit odd, and that it was unreasonable to expect us to have kept two years worth of post? Or have I missed something here?

OP posts:
Biscuitandacuppa · 17/09/2021 22:45

It’ll be 16 years this November that I’ve lived in my house and I still get building society letters for the previous owners!

worriedatthemoment · 17/09/2021 22:47

I still get letters for previous tenant from 4 years ago and was an exchange so know her address so post them through every couole months and some look important , I have the the odd junk mail go there and a family member of them brought couple letters around and asked me to make sure i changed all letters as they don't want them going there , explained i had for everything important and to bin , whilst I then handed over a huge pile of their post.
So now I bin theres after she was so snotty

Original poster
bumblebee1987 · 17/09/2021 22:48

@Cherrysoup -I did think afterwards that when they knocked I should have asked for a forwarding address, but actually I'm glad I didn't because I don't really want to get into a game of sending all of their post to them, I just want them to actually change their address like they are supposed to 😂 If it was the first few months then I would happily have forwarded it on, but two years later is a bit ridiculous! We just put return to sender on everything unless it's obviously crap.

OP posts:
desperate4spring · 17/09/2021 22:50

I reckon they've been in prison for the past couple of years ...

thecatneuterer · 17/09/2021 22:51

Who on earth has voted YABU? Did you accidentally press the wrong button?

Original poster
bumblebee1987 · 17/09/2021 22:51

@Aquamarine1029 - I wish I had told him that, but to be honest, I was a bit taken aback by the entire situation that I sort of apologised 😂 I'm crap with any kind of confrontation, especially when it is totally unexpected!

OP posts:
Original poster
bumblebee1987 · 17/09/2021 22:55

@desperate4spring

All 6 of them though?! Maybe I should check under my floorboards for bodies/drugs 😂

OP posts:
00100001 · 17/09/2021 22:57

We have that.

A recurring important looking letter from an accountant or something. Sent it back as. It at this address for year 1 and 2.
Year 3 I opened it up to see what it was, annual accounts or something. Then rang the firm to tell them address is wrong. Thy apologised and said they'll get the correct address erc
Year 4 it turns up.... rang them again.
Year 5,6,7,8,9,10,11 and counting... chuck it away with junk mail.

SleepingStandingUp · 17/09/2021 22:58

So, they left briefly but got caught in some type of time travel kinda wormhole. To them it's been a few weeks and yabu, but to you it's been several years.

LST · 17/09/2021 22:58

We've been here for 2 years and after almost one the postman after knocking on with parcels and me declining them took the names of who actually lives at the address and doesn't bother to post anything anymore with the old owners names on. We did used to write on not at this address. But if on the odd occasion we get anything now we just bin it.

whynotwhatknot · 17/09/2021 23:01

Were they on flight 828 and its been 5 years

Junkmail · 17/09/2021 23:02

We’ve also lived in our house for 2 years and are still getting a lot of the previous owner’s mail. Important letters relating to his business and court letters too. The strangest thing though was when this guy showed up at the door and asked for the previous owner. I said he doesn’t live here anymore and this guy asked if I was sure?? I think I know who lives in my house Hmm

LST · 17/09/2021 23:05

@Junkmail

We’ve also lived in our house for 2 years and are still getting a lot of the previous owner’s mail. Important letters relating to his business and court letters too. The strangest thing though was when this guy showed up at the door and asked for the previous owner. I said he doesn’t live here anymore and this guy asked if I was sure?? I think I know who lives in my house Hmm
We had the police turn up for the previous owner about 8 months after we moved in !!
StoneofDestiny · 17/09/2021 23:09

Weird as we've just had a census and it should be clear who lives there. I'd have sent it back 'not known at this address' for a few weeks and binned it after that.

Original poster
bumblebee1987 · 17/09/2021 23:11

I think I might just start chucking everything! No one seems to take any notice of the return to sender notice anyway, as they carry on sending post here!

OP posts:
Bargebill19 · 17/09/2021 23:14

I’m so sorry op. I hit Yabu by mistake. (Blame tea and pop tart). I meant yanbu.

They are idiots.

Ninkanink · 17/09/2021 23:45

@Bargebill19 you can change your vote - just hit the other button 🙂

GhostsInSnow · 18/09/2021 00:43

I had full accounts too. Previous occupant rather annoyed when I said I'd returned them.
Also had several speeding fines that had first been sent to the accountant as the car was a business vehicle and then forwarded to me. Contacted the accountant who basically said "fuck knows we've not represented them for years".

House was a short term let for many years so I have:

Bank statements for one previous renter (she pays £7 a month in fees). Binned.
Monthly copy of some expensive woman's magazine for previous owner. Crap magazine or I'd have just read it. Contacted magazine directly She'd not lived here for 7 years. Stopped.
O2 contract for iPhone. O2 refused to speak to me as I wasn't the customer.
Repeated letters for various school events. Binned.
Makro Mail for 3 different businesses.

I did return to sender for about a year. Can't be arsed with it now so it just gets thrown. Their lack of organisation after all these years isn't my problem anymore.

Bargebill19 · 18/09/2021 01:42

[quote Ninkanink]@Bargebill19 you can change your vote - just hit the other button 🙂[/quote]
Done! Thank you

Anordinarymum · 18/09/2021 02:37

When I sold my house it was in pristine condition. I had renovated and decorated and cleaned it to perfection.

The only thing that was a bug bear was the boiler. I had it serviced.

The buyer knew it was old. They knew. We had discussed it. It was working perfectly when we exchanged and the age of the boiler was reflected in the price. I could have put a new one in but the buyer would have had to pay more so we settled at a service.

Some weeks after we had sold we called down to collect any mail and we knew there was mail because I had been informed about it and it was important. ( A cheque)

My daughter knocked on the door. They guy answered and told her there was no mail and slammed the door so hard in her face it almost shook the building.

After that we never went back. Some things you just can't resolve.

PinniGig · 18/09/2021 03:19

I'd have probably laughed. Two weeks or months you could understand them thinking maybe you had received post they need but two years is taking the absolute piss.

I used to manage a care home and the son of one elderly lady rocked up at the front door asking for a pair of her slippers and getting a bit irate with staff when they explained we didn't have them. His Mum died over a year earlier which he knew about anyway although what possessed him and why the sudden urgency over this pair of slippers I will never know.

Once had a bizarre encounter with a fortunately very friendly guy but it amazed me how his mind worked.

I was in the front room and heard the door go, someone slowly tiptoeing in the hallway and into the living room. Kids both very little at the time were sat watching TV and I could see in the piano reflection a man or lower half of a man in black trousers and shoes
I thought it was my husband tiptoeing in and trying to “Boo!” me so seeing his reflection thought I'd get in and Boo him first. We both jumped at each other and I'm standing face to face with a bloke I'd never seen before in my life.

He was paying a surprise visit to his old friend who lived there and he assumed still did even though we'd been there over ten years by then.
Lovely guy but who goes walking inside someone's house after not seeing or speaking to the for 10yrs and expects them to be there still?

mummaelle · 18/09/2021 03:31

There's something a bit dodgy going on there!!

1forAll74 · 18/09/2021 03:54

I had this problem once when I had moved into my house. I got loads of mail for the woman who lived here before me. She had split up with her Husband, and the house had to be sold. I open some of the mail that kept coming here, as in the important looking stuff, and I contacted all the places where the mail came from.

Everything got sorted then, as all the places concerned, said they will deal with all the things..

I asked around the village here, to see if anyone knew the whereabouts of this woman., and one person told me. that this woman had took off to live in Spain somewhere, with a new guy, and nobody heard from her again.This was 16 years ago. She had debts with quite a few places, I saw from the letters that it totalled about
£20.000. in all. No idea if anyone caught up with her over the years.

SnowyPetals · 18/09/2021 04:04

Wow, I am shamed at how diligent some posters are. I have lived in my current house for six years. If anything arrives at my house addressed to someone who doesn't live here it goes straight in the recycling without a second thought.

rattlemehearties · 18/09/2021 04:14

@anordinarymum It feels like your reply has nothing to do with the thread? 1. You should have got your mail redirected. 2. You've no idea why the new owner didn't want to interact with you/your daughter, but he's not obliged anyway. Boiler might have nothing to do with it - in fact he was probably tired of still receiving all your important post!