What do you do with old owners post?

[Newhouse1111]

Been here for a while and still getting loads of letters for previous owners. I kept hold of them for a while and contacted EA to pass a message on we have their post and they can come and collect or I can forward to new address. No response to this. I even had a parcel again no response so I I have left it. What would you do? DH has opened some without looking st the name thinking it was ours so the opened ones I contacted the numbers on there (companies) and explained people don’t live here. DH thinks I’m stressing too much and it’s their problem not doing a redirection service like we did. I can’t keep letting letters pile up! What shall I do with them?

I’ve had bailiffs at my door recently for a previous tenant, fortunately I knew they were coming as I had randomly opened one letter and saw a debt had been passed to bailiffs. Most of the letters I just write return to sender on though. Got a load through this week for various council tax bills they owe. I’m hoping the letters tail off soon, I’ve been here nearly 2 years!

You can actually open mail if it's just for the purpose of informing the company that the previous owner no longer lives there.

After getting fed up of writing "return to sender - not here since XXXX" on the envelope for ages and getting more mail from the same company a couple of months later, I did a template letter on my laptop and wrote to all the senders, probably five or six, and the mail largely stopped coming. It was all stuff about debt so I think they did a flit. I didn't want bailiffs turning up.

I put “not known at this address” and stick it back in the postbox because I want it to stop coming.

I still get the odd item for the last but one owners of my house, who moved out 20 years ago. It's mainly junk, but the odd NHS thing gets through. If it looks important I return to sender, otherwise it gets binned.

Depends if it has a return address on it, if so I say not at address and return to sender. The old owner of our house has redirected hers quite efficiently but her fella hasn't and we have had things from HMRC which as I don't know the content of these letters could cause me issues so always return to sender.

This

We had their number so used to ring, but it's been over 18 months now M, so do the above

We've had so much - vendor only did mail redirection for a month and didn't bother to change his address with loads of companies. We've had DVLA (he's presumably driving around with car still registered at our new address), HMRC, British Gas. He also hasn't changed his address on orders so we've also had Amazon and Halfords parcels for him!
We initially contacted the estate agent who wasn't very interested. Now we just return to sender.

Get a Sharpie, write "Not resident at this address" on them and put them back in the post box. The PO will send them back and hopefully the senders will get the message.

One of mine was too mean to organise redirection (and was also too mean to put safe fittings on the bare electrical wires he left hanging out of the wall). I did redirect for at least three years then thought he isn't bothering to tell any of these senders even now. I then started throwing it in the bin. Imagine my surprise when the estate agent phoned to say that an important item of his post had been sent to my address. It gave me great pleasure to say 'sorry it's probably been chucked out'.

Our previous owners still get loads of stuff sent here. I bung it all back in the postbox with "not at this address" scribbled across the front.

For a while they did arrange a redirection, but they've never actually bothered to change addresses, so when their redirect ran out, it all came flooding back to us. Whats worse, we get post for their (adult) children as well - clearly they never bothered putting their names on the postal redirect

After a month, I wrote 'gone away' on everything and put it in the nearest postbox. It stopped after about six months. The previous people had clearly never bothered to do this because some of the post I got was for the person before THEM!

Just chucking it away won't solve the problem.

I got 8 years of Christmas cards from one family gif the previous owners. No return address and it made me wonder how they could still be friends!
I got parking ticket fines repeatedly from one previous owner - she is the partner of a B list celebrity on TV and she obviously never told DVLA she moved - she must owe thousands. I gave them to the estate agent for the first few months then wrote 'addressee unknown' after that but they were still coming when I sold the place.

For the first six months I opened anything official looking and contacted the phone number or email address on the letterhead. It's much more effective than returning to sender by mail. After six months I just binned it. The previous owner has now been dead for five years but still gets the odd thing!

We had post for the previous three owners. The earliest owner, I asked one of the neighbours who said he knew her son and that she was in a care home so gave him the post to pass on (to do with shares), the middle guy I binned everything as it was a lot of dodgy get rich quick schemes, gambling, and porn catalogues, the people we'd actually bought the house off I returned to sender as not known at this address, except for the debt collection letters, I phoned them up and explained the situation, after three calls they stopped sending letters to our address.

Just be careful. My mum recently moved and was passing the old owners post on for a year or two until we realised they'd left the country and were still using the address an a UK base to still access loans and healthcare. It's safer to bin it or write 'return to sender' so you're not unwittingly enabling fraud however low the chances.

Cross out your address on the envelope, write “not known at this address, return to sender” in big letters and put back in the post box. Then they normally remove you from the mailing list and don’t send further post. If you chuck in the bin then they continue and continue to send you junk.

For years I wrote “not at this address, return to sender” on the envelopes and posted them back, but I’m not convinced the companies (banks, building societies etc) took any notice or updated their systems. So now I just bin them.

Bin

Forst year i did return to sender. After many more years of them ignoring it I just chuck it without any bad feeling. Including brown envelopes which of couse I dutifully sent back first few years

Six years on I am still getting things from banks for the previous occupants. Latest was a child trust fund letter. I write Gone away on the envelope and stick it in the postbox.