AIBU to do nothing after receiving a letter for the previous owner

[Onemoret1me]

I came home tonight to find a handwritten envelope that had been posted through Royal Mail, signed for delivery.
we hadn’t signed for it, it was just through the letterbox and had my address but no name in

opened the letter and it’s a letter addressed to the previous owner, a male who must be at least early 60’s ( not lived in the house for approx 7 years)
the letter is from a potential child of theirs saying they’ve been informed previous owner may be their biological dad and asking if he would get in touch

The letter is signed with first and last name but no contact number or address

would I be unreasonable to do nothing? I feel if I start trying to see if I have previous owners forwarding address still then I’m sticking my nose in something that doesn’t involve me.
equally, I feel if I do nothing then this person will assume previous owner has received the letter and chosen not to reach out.

what would you do, if anything?

Awwww, bless.......

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The OP does not NEED to do ANYthing.

A few things strike me here.

The sender may have been feeling emotional about trying to contact their long-lost relative and forgot to put their own address on the letter.
If the letter was sent 'signed for' they will have tracked it and seen that it was delivered. If they don't get a response they may try again or give up, thinking the person doesn't want to know them.
An estate agent is unlikely to still have all the details of a house sale 7 years ago but the solicitor probably would, however they would charge for their time.
It might not be the previous owner of the house that the person is looking for anyway; it could be someone who lived there prior to that. @Onemoret1me you said there was no addressee name on the envelope, but what about on the letter inside?

If it were me, I'd probably put it in a drawer and forget about it for now, and see whether the person tries to make contact again.

1. Put it back in the envelope.
2. Write "Opened in error - no longer at this address." on the envelope.
3. Put it in the nearest pillar box.

This is what the OP should do. She should not spend time trying to find people on Facebook or contacting solicitors.

Let Royal Mail deal with it.

www.postoffice.co.uk/mail/wrongly-delivered

So no name on the envelope.
No contact details for the sender.
No forwarding address known.
7 years after you’ve moved in!!!

That is getting filed under B for Bin.
Its all ridiculous nonsense, no time for that.

You need to be discerning about what you get involved in, it's not just about being kind. Definitely leave this for the post office to deal with.

They would surely know to put a name on the front of the envelope though?

It may not even be genuine.

It's not up to the OP to play amateur detective.

As for posting images of the letter on Facebook!

Who writes an envelope containing a letter with potentially life-changing information in it but omits to include the recipient's name on the envelope?

The right thing to do is to put in back in the post and let Royal Mail deal with it.

This! It’s absolutely nothing to do with you so why would you get involved?

Exactly. Not the OP's circus, not her monkeys etc...

I would not be getting involved in some random family's personal shite. Some family I don't even know, and have never met. Spending time fishing around trying to locate the person this letter writer is on about. Some posters on here must have a lot of time to kill if they would spend time doing this!

time for mumsnet it seems

I would ordinarily scrawl NOT AT THIS ADDRESS on the envelope and either hand it back to the postie or stick it in an envelope but for some reason they didn’t add their address so it’s pointless. It’s so strange they sent it recorded so they could see if it had been delivered yet didn’t provide details for their long lost father to contact them?!! Odd decision making.

There isn’t much you can do to be honest. If you can find the person on social media (this would only really work if it’s a rare name especially since you have no location!) then perhaps message to let them know. I wouldn’t be tracking down the previous owner personally.

I would try find the sender or the recipient of the letter anyway I could, estate agent, social media etc. I wouldn't want the sender sat thinking the recipient had received it and just didn't care enough to respond.

Does the sender not have to put their name and address on a form when they pay for tracked post (it's been a while since I used that method so the form might not exist anymore)? It might be worth taking it to your nearest main Post Office and let them try and track the person who sent it and return it to them.

Apologies if this has already been suggested, I've committed the MN sin of not RTFT.

I would go to a neighbour who knew them to ask for address or phone number. Or to the estate agent who sold you the house. It is important and you have a moral responsibility.

For something so important I would do my best to find the sender. For all those saying bin it, how would you feel if you were trying to find your father?

Call your estate agent for advice, they can contact the previous owners solicitor. Op doesn't need to pay any attention to the morals here.

If there was no name on the envelope, how do you know it was for the previous owner?

If its recorded or signed for I'd put it in the post Not known at thsi address.

Then at least the sender knows its not deliver

Royal Mail don’t record the identity of the sender in their standard tracked services . The printed receipt only shows the tracking reference, date and destination postcode. Basically if the sender doesn’t write a return address on the envelope there is nothing to identify them.

Even Special Delivery next day service won’t record the senders personal details in the tracking system unless the sender uses the return address part of the label on the outside of the letter or parcel. And just to make it even more difficult cash or card payments made over the counter are anonymous regarding the destination tracking.

They wouldn’t though - because it would have been scanned and marked as delivered at the point it was posted through OP’s letterbox. If there’s no return address marked on the outside of the envelope RM will treat it as undeliverable, keep it for around a month and then it’ll be disposed of.

It is important and you have a moral responsibility.

Rot.

Where is the moral responsibility for OP here though. If this was so important to the sender why did they not put their details on the letter ?

OP says his name was on the letter but not the envelope. You can’t really do much with just a name.