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?

Open it, look for contact details inside, and Google the sender? Depends if you view this sort of thing as intriguing or just plain annoying. From your post I suspect the latter.

Card? What card? Why would anyone send things here for a complete stranger?

I would definitely open it to find out if there is an address for the sender.

If there is, I would scribble my address out, write their address on the front, tape the envelope back up and put it back in the post.
No new stamp.

They will get a Royal Mail card asking them to collect it from the sorting office.
They will get it back if they pay for the missing postage.

Yes, I know I’m petty.

The lad who owned the house before us used me like this for a while. I dutifully spent money forwarding it on with no thanks. It was when his parents turned up to collect his latest load of post that they confirned he hadn't bothered because it cost money and he was saving, they weren't impressed with him, he was living at their house at that point.

So I refused his parcels and binned his post from then on. He turned up a week or so later a bit miffed that I didn't have his new shoes and shirt for his night out.

I'd open it, see if their address is in there & see if it's important. If it is I'd do what I could to get it forwarded to them (via solicitors) if not I'd keep I for a while to see if the old owners turn up after Christmas to see if there was any Mail. If they do, I'd get their new address to forward anything onto.

In this day and age with social media, mobile phones etc, I find it hard to believe they have no other way of finding out the address. And if they REALLY want the address they could have sent the letter to you asking you to bloody tell them. It’s been a year FFS.

Send it to their solicitors (but bot with a new stamp)

The royal mail have places specifically to try to find the owners of wrongly addressed mail.

I do think that binning it would be classed as intentionally depriving the recipient or whatever the wording is.

If you bin it, that's every chance they'll do this again. If it gets returned to them, they probably won't.

It's not a bit of junk mail. Someone has gone to effort to contact them for whatever reason. Could be to inform them of a death.
If you have the previous occupants number, would it really be such a hardship to text them and say 'there is a handwritten card here for you, I will leave it on the doorstep/ round the side in a tupperware box til Wednesday'.
Presumably you get very little for them any more so it's hardly opening the floodgates.
The sender has clearly done this because they have no other way of contacting and I would assume there is therefore some significance to this attempt to get in touch.
I'd hope someone might do it for me in the same circumstances.
Or shove it in post without a stamp to their new address and they can pay to get at sorting office.
Honestly, it's taken you more effort to write this post than either of the above

We’ve lived in our house for 8 years and still get some post for the old owners. I used to send it on (for 6 months), then did return to sender for a few months and now it all gets binned. FFS, 8 years!!

Don't bin it what if it has vouchers or cash in just keep it for now if you don't hear open it and get down boots and spend that voucher.

@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?

We get loads of mail to this house which is weird because a newsworthy crime happened here and then it was abandoned for ages because no one wanted to live here (I'm not superstitious and love a bargain though lol).

The old lady next door has lived here about 60 years and doesn't recognise the names of the people the mail comes to, some I think are just chances (we get debt collectors looking for people etc...) who used the address of an empty house but one confuses me.

I get DVLA updates to 'Danny' (so he obviously exists) and every year randomly a few hand-delivered Xmas and Birthday cards to the same name but no one on the street remembers a Danny ever living here and as like you I cant forward them on or send them back because they are handwritten and delivered.

To be honest and I know it sounds dodgy but I held onto them for a bloody decade and got bored last year while tidying and wanted to chuck them but opened them to check. They seem to be from grandparents and aunts/uncles and some even had money in (now out of circulation old 'paper' money it been going on that long lol), there were no contact details so I chucked the cards and kept the money (think its in a money wallet somewhere as like I said shops don't even accept it anymore).

Danny can have the money back if he shows up but mostly I feel bad for these people who obviously have had no contact with 'Danny' for well over a decade but still clearly care and are still trying to reach out.

@Calmdown14

It's not a bit of junk mail. Someone has gone to effort to contact them for whatever reason. Could be to inform them of a death. If you have the previous occupants number, would it really be such a hardship to text them and say 'there is a handwritten card here for you, I will leave it on the doorstep/ round the side in a tupperware box til Wednesday'. Presumably you get very little for them any more so it's hardly opening the floodgates. The sender has clearly done this because they have no other way of contacting and I would assume there is therefore some significance to this attempt to get in touch. I'd hope someone might do it for me in the same circumstances. Or shove it in post without a stamp to their new address and they can pay to get at sorting office. Honestly, it's taken you more effort to write this post than either of the above

The OP has said quite clearly that she does not know their address and deleted their phone number a year ago. Whether the card contains something of significance or not, OP has no way of making contact with the previous owners.

just put it back in the post box with No Longer at this address

Sorry I missed you saying you had deleted the number. Open then and return it is your only option

@Calmdown14

Sorry I missed you saying you had deleted the number. Open then and return it is your only option

No need to open. The royal mail can do that. Just write 'not at this address' and put it in the postbox

@Calmdown14

It's not a bit of junk mail. Someone has gone to effort to contact them for whatever reason. Could be to inform them of a death. If you have the previous occupants number, would it really be such a hardship to text them and say 'there is a handwritten card here for you, I will leave it on the doorstep/ round the side in a tupperware box til Wednesday'. Presumably you get very little for them any more so it's hardly opening the floodgates. The sender has clearly done this because they have no other way of contacting and I would assume there is therefore some significance to this attempt to get in touch. I'd hope someone might do it for me in the same circumstances. Or shove it in post without a stamp to their new address and they can pay to get at sorting office. Honestly, it's taken you more effort to write this post than either of the above

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

It's right there in the OP.

If it had been in the 1st year after moving fair enough I’d make an effort, but 4 years later? Not a chance

I've lived in my house for 23 years it was a new build. From the first year I have had Christmas cards to the woman next door but 2, I got her name from the electoral roll and returned the cards to her where she said "oh my house used to be your number" which seemed odd.

After a few years got pissed off then stopped sending them back and now depends how I feel

I mean 23 fricking years

I don't think that's cheeky from the card sender particularly. By this point there wouldn't be post forwarding so that's a bit irrelevant to them. They're asking, and obviously don't know that you don't have the address, so it's probably a last ditch attempt to contact them having tried other methods.

I'd pop it back in the post box saying return to sender-as we do if we get anything for the previous occupants. We've lived here 12 years now and still get stuff.

The previous occupants may well have been CF, but I don't think the senders of the card are.
After all, if you had the address, then it would have taken less time to put the new address on and pop it in the postbox next time you go there, than it took to start this thread.

Open it. See if there's anything interesting in there.

I get Christmas cards and the occasional bailiff letter for the previous occupant. I’ve lived here since 1995

There isn't much you can do if you can't pass it on anymore. Though I personally wouldn't have deleted their number. The previous owner of our house was the same but I had no issue with leaving his mail in the porch and he'd come and get it when he was passing, wasn't exactly an inconvenience. You sound a bit childish to be honest

How would you forward it if you don’t know the forwarding address?

I’d probably just shove it in a drawer in case someone turned up for it and in a few weeks time, open the card to see if any cash (to donate to charity) then bin it.