People down the road with no address using ours!

[houseofisms]

We live on a road with a camping/touring park down the end. There’s only 4 addresses on our road (including the holiday park)
we often get loads of post for random people whom we assumed lived here previously but from years ago (we suspect it was an unofficial HMO at some point due the Yale locks on every internal door so not an issue, they just get binned)

we had a few Amazon packages delivered here by people staying at the park and needing an address to send it to (without asking) Annoying but fine.

about a year ago, the manager of the park knocked on the door asking for their credit card!!! (I must have binned it but said I hadn’t seen anything) turns out that they can’t get a bank account due to no address (they live in a big caravan with their feral kids on the park so no address) bad credit and this card was their only way of getting money. It took us flippin ages to get it removed from our address as the company refused to make amendments without full details etc.

Ive just had an Amazon delivery in their name! (Partner took it in thinking it was for us)

AIBU - suck it up and behave like a good neighbour and wait for them to collect

YANBU - leave the parcel outside in the pouring rain with a note asking not to use our address again

*they are quite loud and scary and I don’t like confrontation

Ah ok thanks. I didn't know that. How do travellers have addresses? It seems a bit odd. But I guess it's not classed as a permanent structure?

Yeah so he'd need to pay to have it sent elsewhere I think. I am guessing that's what a po box is? Though at work we had ones that got sent to our address but we just didn't want them clogging our regular post as they were national surveys. So they were sending it to us without knowing our address type thing.

Mostly traveller sites have a communal post box at the sites main entrance.
caravan parks are licensed by the council with strict rules. Even 12 month sites can’t officially become the residents full time address. Every caravan owner must show proof of a permanent residence by showing the park owners a valid council tax bill for their off park residence. Copies of All the owner’s respective council tax bills must be produced if the council requests to see them.

Thank you very much. That's interesting.
I wonder happens to the post if it just says John Smith, Pumpkin patch caravan park. With street name and correct postcode?

So if they run up debts and don't pay them, it'll be you with bailiffs at the door? No no no. "Lose" all their stuff; they'll get the message.

Most parks don’t accept it when postie comes. If mail is left at the parks site office with their own site owner’s mail then its marked return to sender or sometimes binned. The parks terms and conditions some of which are enforced by the local council dont allow owners personal mail, that needs to go to their official permanent residence.

This.
Any debt they had run up would be listed to your address. This is fraud.
Similarly, they may be ordering high-value items from Amazon on credit, again at your address. Fraud.

You need to take this very seriously or you could end up in all sorts of trouble and a decimated credit score.

Your address could be in danger of becoming blacklisted, this could badly affect your credit score especially if they are using your address for credit cards they could potentially max out and items they order cannot pay for.
Id call the fraud squad and get some advice.

Totally unbelievable question .

I’d log it with the police as a non emergency. But they could have anything delivered to your house… drugs packages?! Anything. It’s odd behaviour and especially taking out a credit card at your address could have been disastrous.

Can you have some large electric gates fitted with an intercom for deliveries?

Open it then leave it outside.

If you’re in when the parcels are delivered check the name on them - if they’re not for someone in your household refuse them. If they get left at your door contact Amazon and tell them they aren’t for you. IME Amazon are really good at sorting these kind of issues out

Or an 11 foot fence with barbed wire on top and a watchtower with machine gun emplacement? There might be a local authority grant to help with the cost, they’re usually great with this kind of thing.

Royal Mail do a redirection service so the sorting office would have the facility to do this

I can't believe anyone thinks you are BU, OP!

We have lived at our house since Spring 2023. Still very hospital letters, clubcard vouchers and stuff for previous owners. Texted them a few times, they replied saying they would sort it, they didn't. I now write RTS NOT AT THIS ADDRESS SINCE 2023 and put it in the postbox. It is slowly getting less.

They should use the trailer park address supplemented by the 'what three words'/W3W location address (accurate to a couple of meters). W3W is recognised by post office, most couriers, emergency services, vehicle recovery services. It is what building sites use before there is an address, how amazing delivers to shanty towns in South America, and how emergency services find hikers in the middle of moorland or even in the middle of a lake. It is up to the camp site to communicate this to their residents.
You are at risk of unwittingly becoming involved with credit card fraud, credit blacklisting, drugs smuggling, and cyber crime (hacked Amazon accounts delivery to a 'safe address' that the fraudsters can pick up from without risk). Inform the police to cover yourself (but they will do nothing) put a message in your window stating your names and not to accept deliveries for any one else) perhaps take deliveries to the cops as lost property, when your friends come asking for them explain where they are, tell them about W3W. They'll soon get the message.

How do delivery drivers know that the name on the parcel is the officiant occupant though? I’m never in for mine so difficult for OP to intercept & not accept. And how does OP return the parcels if not from Royal Maid? Agree that this is fraud & serious though. I’d be taking advice & informing all parties inc the police. Isn’t it a form of identity theft as well? I’d be wary though OP bcos if they are (well they obviously are) wrong’uns involving the police could have repercussions.

Does OP leaving their names in their window not pose other issues - like them being used for further identity fraud though? Now they’d have their full names & their address? 🤷‍♀️

Yanbu. But I'd not even give them the opportunity to get their post. If they aren't an occupant at your address refuse the package/post or return to sender. If they turn up asking for it, you tell them they don't live there and therefore it has been sent back and you will not be taking in their packages/post at your address and they can either use their own address or set up a PO box. Do not tolerate this any longer OP.

If you accept a parcel or letter addressed to Joe Bloggs, and an unknown person comes to your door asking you to give it to them....

Don't

Return it to sender.

I'm new - worries me you all seem so selfish. No one seems bothered about the poor people who have no address. What are they supposed to do ?

Not co-opt someone else’s address! They need to get a PO Box address for mail. It’s fraud to pretend you live at an address when you don’t, and affects things like your insurance premiums and so on, which are based on your postcode and the likelihood of someone needing to make a claim in that place.

Why cant someone go and help them sort it out with the post office?

It’s not selfish - they’ve people using OPs address haven’t asked and it’s not even a one off

It’s easy enough for them to arrange a P.O. Box

You are absolutely wrong to say it is ever fine for someone to use your address eg for an Amazon package. You should have returned every single item to the sender 'Not at this address return to sender'. You should never have accepted even one item. What were you thinking?