Still receiving their post! Right to be annoyed?

[MillieS76]

We moved into a new house around this time last year. The family that where in the house before where lovely before the purchase but on moving day it was a complete 180.

The house was a state, an oven tray left with tin foil full of fat and a freezer full of ice and food as well as a fridge with mouldy cheese left. That’s ignoring the faulty electric box, the boiler that wasn’t working and the fact they took their outside bins with them🤦🏻‍♀️

Anyway, we are still getting their post a year on. We have messaged them on Facebook a few times when it looked important, like letters from HMRC. 4 months ago we got a handwritten letter from what appeared to be an elderly relative (from the writing) which I accidentally opened (didn’t think I’d still need to check the name on the front 8 months on) with £150 in it, we messaged again and they asked us to post it through their letter box which we did. Yesterday we got another one of these handwritten letters, I haven’t opened it this time but am I right to be frustrated by this? It’s been a year and they still haven’t bothered to update a family member never mind companies. If it was just this person I’d put it down to them maybe forgetting they had moved but we are getting payslips, mobile phone bills, union newsletters, HMRC reminder’s & insurance company renewal letters.

I don’t want to waste my time travelling 20 minutes to their house and certainly don’t want to pay to forward on the letter. What can we do without being a rubbish person- we’ve given a years notice to update these things!

We bought our house almost 7 years ago get some letters including numerous Christmas cards every year for last owners we just bin them. However the old owners seem incapable of updating their address on websites & we get online shopping every couple of months. They live in the same town so for the first 12 months we gave them the benefit the doubt & dropped stuff round but got fed up of that. We don’t have a contact number for them but one of their children works for the same company as my DH so now we just email the daughter to say package has arrived we’ll leave it on our doorstep for your parents to pick up, which to be fair they do. It is so frustrating though as normally the DPD man has zoomed off before you realise it’s not for you. I feel your pain OP - If I were you I’d just bin the letters.

You don’t have to pay to redirect OP, just write the new address (or return to sender) and put it back in the postbox.

Not that I’d still be doing it a year later, but FYI!

If you are opening for the purpose of finding a return address this is allowed

We've been in our house 11 years. We're still getting odd bits of post for the previous owners. We just mark it Return to Sender and put it in the box.

I don't get how it is an issue to read the name on the front of an envelope. Surely you do this anyway, as you clearly don't live alone?
Anyway, it's not a massive problem to re-direct post to their new address by crossing out your address and putting theirs on it.. you don't have to go out of your way to do it, just do it when you are passing a postbox. You don't have to pay anything, or put yourself out other then by writing an address.
Alternatively mark the letter"return to sender" and put in the post box when it's convenient.
They sound a bit disorganised but who's perfect..?

I'd get in touch with them one last time and say that you're no longer going to send on (or return to sender) any of their post, so they will need to ensure that all family members and important contacts have their new address.

Stop engaging. And stop opening their post.

Return everything with an address on, keep the personal ones to one side. Let them know. Then it's up to them to collect.

Or re-direct as advised by @DelphiniumBlue.

This really doesn't have to be an issue.

I get the old tenants letters 7 years later! Even had someone turn up asking for them the other month.
I just throw them in the bin, they couldn't even be bothered to update their bank account address.

@Eternallyfrazzled

Why are you still doing this? return to sender stick in post box!

This.

Tell them one final time that if they don’t set up a redirection you will not be dealing with their post and will be saving it up to dump the whole lot back in a postbox with RTS on a day which is convenient to you. That day could be yearly - simply not your problem.

If you know their addess could you just write it on the handwritten envelope and just post it in the postbox with the rest not known at this address next time you're passing the postbox. Dont go out your way.

@saraclara

I'd get in touch with them one last time and say that you're no longer going to send on (or return to sender) any of their post, so they will need to ensure that all family members and important contacts have their new address.

This for definite. Then everything gets returned to sender.

@babywalker2

And before someone comes along with the usual response to these threads about mail - no, it’s not illegal to open someone else’s post. It is in the UK...

No, it's not.

Only a crime if you are deliberately opening the letter and using the contents to cause harm to the intended recipient. Accidently opening a letter is not a crime, nor is opening a letter to find a return address to send the letter on to.

There is no return address on the letter

It doesn't matter. Put "return to sender" and Royal Mail will open it to see if the sender has put their address on the top of the letter they wrote. Older people often do.

A year on? This isn't slightly disorganised, they just CFs. "Return to sender" for everything.

We had this.

I had their new address so just wrote “redirect to (and the address)” and put it in the post box. Doesn’t cost you to do that.

I found writing RTS and FRAUD in big letters on the envelope was a quick way to get most mail for our previous occupants to stop. TBF, I think there was some sort of fraudulent activity going on as they had two sets of names (but was definitely the same people).

Came home from work pre Christmas to find a few cards on the mat.
Opened them without looking to find a bereavement card to previous owners.
We’ve been here 14 years.
Straight in the recycling bin

I wouldn’t tell them you are going to return things to the sender. That keeps it as your problem to keep doing.

Previous owners or my current home did this. Unfortunately they owed significant sums to a bank, various credit card companies and bizarrely thought they could just walk away. I did not want any debts attached to the address so had to go through the ball ache of contacting various lenders to explain the situation. We also had letters from HMRC, DVLA and other important documents. We still get kids birthday cards with money in them.

Return to sender. It's not your Problem if there's no return address.

Oh and don't feel you have to do it promptly. Just save them up and put them in next time you're going to the post box.

Throw in bin

Get on with life

They aren't bothered, why are you?