To think this is rude and bin it?

[JakeyRolling]

We bought out house four years ago.

Old owners were cheapskates and refused to set up a mail redirect so we had their number and for a couple of years (far too long imho) they would come and collect mail when we said we had some for them.

We had no mail for over a year so deleted their number (we've never known their new address).

Today we got a (what feels like) a card through the door with a handwritten note on the back effectively demanding we forward it as sender has lost their number/new address.

The sender fully acknowledges that they know the recipient no longer lives here, so it's been sent in the expectation that we will do the final legwork.

There's also no return address on the envelope so we can't even stick it back in the post box (which involves a trek into town).

Aibu to think sender is a CF and just bin the bloody card?

I’ve started chucking and putting RTS on post for the previous owners of my house now. It’s four years and they moved round the corner so I used to drop the post off. But when the same shit keeps coming here and they haven’t bothered to change the address I can’t be arsed anymore ! One is her pension (marked on the outside) but she’s had four years to change the address.

@Regularsizedrudy

I can’t believe the amount of people that don’t realise writing “return to sender” on an envelope that has NO RETURN ADDRESS is absolutely mental.

No it's not. The royal mail have two centres in the UK to deal with mail like this.

Whats the point? If there's no return address the postal service will just have to bin it, why not save them a job and bin it yourself? The sender would never know the difference

The royal mail have centres to deal with it. Yes, ultimately they may have to dump it. But it's very little hardship to put it in a postbox or hand it to the postie, and at least you would have done the right thing. Legally as well as morally.

I wonder if this is a test type thing? The previous owner has sent a bogus card to see what you do with it maybe? They might think you have been stealing mail? But I have an overreactive imagination 😂 I would open it then bin it.

@SueblueNZ

I haven't ploughed through all nine pages of responses but have read JakeyRolling's posts. Some will call me paranoid as they have other posters, but I am convinced that the card was generated by the entitled lazy cheapskate ex-residents. They have clocked that they haven't had any contact for ages re mail to collect so they have tried to re-start the process by putting the card through the box. Or they have asked someone to do it on their behalf. Cheeky sods. Don't respond, Jakey. It is not your problem. Ignore.

Wouldn’t most people think that, after four years, they haven’t been contacted about mail because there isn’t any?

Not much you can do other than RTS if you happen to be near a post box soon, OP. The sender will have tried the social media/Google route presumably.

It could be really important or from someone they will lose touch with forever if you don't forward. I see why you're a bi annoyed but imo that's a bit mean-spirited, just forward it and say that's the last time we will forward something.

@saltandherbsandnothingnice

It could be really important or from someone they will lose touch with forever if you don't forward. I see why you're a bi annoyed but imo that's a bit mean-spirited, just forward it and say that's the last time we will forward something.

Except that the OP has clearly said she doesn’t have their new address or a phone number for them...

I think ‘Just forward it’ is going to be the new ‘Cancel the cheque’…

It could be really important or from someone they will lose touch with forever if you don't forward.

These people couldn’t have been that desperate to get in touch, given they haven’t even left her any contact details. They had no idea if the OP even had the forwarding address (which it turns out she hasn’t) - all they’ve done is given her the letter and hoped for the best. If they’d left a phone number, maybe OP could have just sent a ‘Sorry, no forwarding address’ text; or, if she’d still had the previous occupant’s phone number, passed that on. (I know she hasn’t, but the letter writers don’t know that, yet they didn’t even consider the possibility.) Now these people who are so worried about losing touch forever are in a state of limbo of their own making - they’ll never know whether the OP binned the letter, sent it on and got no reply, never saw it in the first place because it got mixed with the junk mail, sent it on to what’s now an old address…

If these people haven’t had contact details for the previous occupant in four years - no phone number, no email address, no social media; just an old postal address - I wonder if perhaps the previous occupant was actually more than happy to leave them behind!

@WomanStanleyWoman

I think ‘Just forward it’ is going to be the new ‘Cancel the cheque’…

It could be really important or from someone they will lose touch with forever if you don't forward.

These people couldn’t have been that desperate to get in touch, given they haven’t even left her any contact details. They had no idea if the OP even had the forwarding address (which it turns out she hasn’t) - all they’ve done is given her the letter and hoped for the best. If they’d left a phone number, maybe OP could have just sent a ‘Sorry, no forwarding address’ text; or, if she’d still had the previous occupant’s phone number, passed that on. (I know she hasn’t, but the letter writers don’t know that, yet they didn’t even consider the possibility.) Now these people who are so worried about losing touch forever are in a state of limbo of their own making - they’ll never know whether the OP binned the letter, sent it on and got no reply, never saw it in the first place because it got mixed with the junk mail, sent it on to what’s now an old address…

If these people haven’t had contact details for the previous occupant in four years - no phone number, no email address, no social media; just an old postal address - I wonder if perhaps the previous occupant was actually more than happy to leave them behind!

Exactly. It's common sense if you're so worried to say why and give your own details The anonymity is strange and off-putting frankly

Don't open it - it's illegal to open anyone else's mail without their express permission. I'd just bin it. It's not your problem that the previous owners of your home are too irresponsible to have notified people of their new address and haven't paid for a RM forwarding programme either.

@a1poshpaws

Don't open it - it's illegal to open anyone else's mail without their express permission. I'd just bin it. It's not your problem that the previous owners of your home are too irresponsible to have notified people of their new address and haven't paid for a RM forwarding programme either.

That’s not true. Under the Postal Services Act 2000 it is only an offence to open someone else’s mail if ‘intending to act to a person’s detriment and without reasonable excuse.’

Opening someone else’s mail to find out their address and forward it onto them is a reasonable excuse and is not acting towards their detriment so it is not an offence.

You can read the legislation for yourself here: www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/26/section/84

In any case, who’s going to find out? Do people think Scotland Yard’s Misdirected Mail Theft Division spends millions a year analysing the contents of bin bags nationwide in case of a heartlessly dumped Christmas card meant for the woman who lived at No. 47 Willow Tree Avenue back in 1993?

All that can be done is open it, in case there is a return address inside on the card...

No!

As (many) PP have said, you write on the envelope 'no longer at this address' and re-post it.

This happened with our house. We just waited until we had a load and dropped it off at the estate agents who knew the sellers new address. Even they got a bit sick of being the middle man. Anyway there was nothing for ages until a huge card arrived with a gift from somewhere like Moonpig. This time we just rang the estate agents and told them to give the previous people our mobile number and arrange to collect which they did. Apparently it was their wedding Anniversary. When the man came we took the opportunity to show all the changes we had made to his old home and he was gob smacked and most impressed! He said he would tell his dw and that she would be jealous!