To think this was a bit odd?!

[bumblebee1987]

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?

@desperate4spring

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

That was exactly what I thought.

Or at least one of them has.

I cannot think of any other explanation for not wanting your post for 2 years and not changing address.

Wow, an entirely unanimous AIBU, I feel proud 🤣

We still get cold calls for the previous residents who moved out 14 years ago. I feel your frustration.

@rattlemehearties I am a bit puzzled by the boiler story too.

We live in a house like this; couldn’t understand why absolutely EVERYTHING seemed to end up here, really important post – NHS, HMRC, bank accounts, etc – until the bailiffs came looking for the previous owner. She’s properly gone to ground.

We do “return to sender, no longer at this address” even on unimportant junk so catalogues and mailing list stuff eventually stops arriving. If you just bin/recycle it they’ll keep sending it out.

@rattlemehearties Me too! I'm not sure how the price of the house being reduced due to an aging boiler relates to her not having her post redirected and therefore losing an "important cheque". 😆

I moved 7 years ago. The old owner still comes once a month to pick her post. It is quite annoying but not a massive deal, and I am a wuss to say no.

I am however proud of myself that I said NO to her kind offer of delivering her post myself to her new address (she moved ~30mins away).

@forinborin That is some bold CFery!

[quote TheChiefJo]@forinborin That is some bold CFery![/quote]
Apparently, automatic redirection costs serious money (did not know that, I redirected all mine with providers).

It's not cheap but it's not too bad. I think about 40 quid for 12 weeks, which gives time to work through all the firms and orgs you need to contact.

Getting the new householder to deliver to you for free would be cheaper though

@forinborin

I moved 7 years ago. The old owner still comes once a month to pick her post. It is quite annoying but not a massive deal, and I am a wuss to say no.

I am however proud of myself that I said NO to her kind offer of delivering her post myself to her new address (she moved ~30mins away).

Good grief, that's insane! What on earth are they still getting at your house that's in any way important after 7 years? You need to stop doing this - next time she comes, tell her the following month will be the last time you do it and she needs to sort out anything that's important before then.

YANBU. We have the same issue but I’m not as generous as to send it back; I just bin it all.

We've been in our house nearly 7 years and still regularly get post for the previous occupants. We got a parcel sent here for them last week . I really don't understand why they haven't changed their address.

Some years ago when I moved into a property as a tenant the previous CF tenant put a hand written letter through my door. They has gone bankrupt and were asking me to help them cheat their trustee in bankruptcy by forwarding on various cheques that they were expecting. This meant I knew their forwarding address! My solicitor advised me to return the cheques which I did.

I had three sets of debt collectors arrive. First two were polite and I directed them to the LL for further information. The third one was snotty and aggressive. I was so angry at the previous tenant's attempt to involve me in their dubious financial dealings that I gave the third debt collector their forwarding address. Any subsequesnt mail I returned or binned.

I later learned from the LL that they quickly moved on from the "new" address and broke many of the windows to the despair of their new LL. Not their kinds of people I wish to become involved with.

Glad when we moved that we moved into a new build. I paid for redirection of post probably for longer than I should have. procrastination but at least the people who bought our house didn't have any unwanted post

I had this . Kept it for 4-5 months .

They withdrew the money kept on account for some leasehold fees they owed as they moved before the billing date - and ignored my solicitor trying to contact them about it and caused all sorts of hassle so I lost any goodwill towards them .

After this everything that comes through is returned to sender . All sorts ! Nhs / pension companies / other important looking envelopes after 5 years still!

YANBU

We got post for the original owner of our house last week - he moved out over 12 years ago. In fact, I think the neighbours said he was quite elderly then so possibly not even still alive.

I always redirect for 12 months when we move, to catch anything that might have fallen through the net. However, we got married while living at our last house and the owner posts a few bits with my maiden name through sometimes (slips through the net!) - I make a point of texting her to thank her and saying I will action it asap. And I do. It's just courtesy.

YANBU

I'm about to shop the previous resident of our house to the dvla. Sick of getting her parking tickets and returning the mail (googled return address postcode)

We had a similar situation, but I got fed up with returning to sender it went on so long. We had court demands and phone calls from education welfare officer (I did deal with those properly) they only bothered sorting it when I apparently binned a check.

They were a bit irate but when I pointed out that we’d had letters from courts they disappeared looking a bit sheepish.

[quote bumblebee1987]@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![/quote]
If the CF's turn up again, make sure you can't be made to feel taken aback.

Because THIS time, it will be your turn to act all huffy, & tell them that they are illegally & knowingly using your address, so they'd better give you theirs so you can inform the police.

After a bit of outraged blustering, you'll never hear from them again, & can happily bin all their errant post for evermore.

and they said they have six other people listed at the same address and was I sure they didn't live there!

What? 'are you sure?'

Hope you went home and checked that you didn't have another six people lying around the house that you hadn't noticed?

Reckon they are dividing their time between countries tbh - but wanting full use of nhs etc. Don’t answer door if thy come back if you can stand it. They should have reorganised their own mail. That’s why it’s not been redirected I imagine.

@ThanksIGotItInMorrisons

Reckon they are dividing their time between countries tbh - but wanting full use of nhs etc. Don’t answer door if thy come back if you can stand it. They should have reorganised their own mail. That’s why it’s not been redirected I imagine.

Then they should pay for a mailbox - such as mbe.co.uk Not difficult, been a happy customer for 15 years.

We've lived in our house for 9 years. We've had DVLA letters, bank statements, letters from an employer and even the police turn up for the previous owners. Actually we've had multiple DVLA letters and quite a lot of mail from debt collection agencies. We've never had a forwarding address.
Actually, the frequency of receiving their post has only dropped during covid. They've either finally updated their details or....

I've had this situation, ex owners turning up for post up to 2 years later.
I initially kept it for them and reminded them to get things redirected.
I opened the odd one as you do when you simply assume any post that comes through your door is for you. One was a vets bill for £1400, so I chased that one up. Another one a court summons relating to a recent arrest, so obviously I chased that one up. They are clearly still giving their old address out.