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?

I genuinely think that...IF it's genuine, the person could have accidentally missed off putting their details, as a genuine error. Imagine the balls/adrenaline it takes to reach out to someone you think is your father...in that moment, I feel like they could have easily forgotten to put contact details if they were in a heightened state of emotion.

Check the tracking number and see what it shows.

Try reaching out on social media?

It's also quite strange they've not put a name on it though...even if you thought someone was your Dad, surely you'd address it to Tom Smith or whatever?

Hmmmm.

I think the lack of details makes it sound scammy. No contact info, no name on envelope just the address, a Darth, I might be your son or daughter sent to years out of date address, supposedly signed delivery but OP didn't sign for it, naw, I wouldn't touch this other than do the not at this address, return to sender.

If the person wants to find the former owner so badly, they can search public records or pay for database searches. I've found people tend to give a lot of detail when they're contacting previously unknown relatives.

A signed for tracking number won't provide the recipient with the sender's name or address.

OP says no-one signed for the letter, either, so it won't show a signature via the tracking page (unless the postman has fudged a signature or a neighbour signed for it).

Yep this. There’s no return address on the envelope so there won’t be a record with RM even if tracked. The postie will have scanned it before posting it through OP’s letterbox so a signature will show but if OP marks it ‘not known at this address’ and puts it back in the postbox it will simply be binned because RM won’t have an address to send it to, so she might as well do that herself.

The tracking app would show the signature of the person who accepted the delivery (which may take up to 72 hrs after delivery to display).

OP says she did not sign for the letter.

Return to post office labelled addressee unknown and leave it at that

There's been a lot talk of "moral obligation" to forward this communication to the previous owner. But think about this.

If this is a scam and OP were successful in locating the previous owner's address and he receives this missive - it could be lobbing a grenade into a family with no connection whatsoever with the sender. How many of those who are so keen to see this letter forwarded would be comfortable with that?

And would the estate agent want to get involved in forwarding a letter that does not even have a name on the envelope?

But the postman would have done. The RM website explains this. For recorded delivery if there is no answer the postie scans the letter as delivered and the system records a generic signature. It’s just a confirmation that RM have delivered. If OP puts it back in the postbox marked ‘no longer at this address’ or similar, eventually RM will bin it because there is no return address recorded.

At least if he turned up he’d know the previous owner no longer lives here.

I’m not being weird about it.
if I have any paperwork from when we bought the house it will be in the loft, goodness knows where. It’s going to take some effort to get up there and start sorting through boxes to find where it might be.

and contacting the EA, that just seems
strange after so many years. Will they really be bothered about trying to forward a letter

There’s is a name on the letter and it matches the name of the previous owner

Absolutely this.

But would they then not know that this man has moved house?

Thank you. Maybe I wasn’t clear but this is correct

OP the more I think about it the more I think there’s something very dodgy. There are so many scams circulating - this could just be another. In any case there is no forwarding address on the letter so l think it would just be simpler to mark the envelope ‘not known at this address’ and bung it back in the post box. The obligation here is not on you to act - if anything it’s on the sender to make sure that they can be contacted once the letter has been received.

Your options are:
Do nothing
Contact the estate agent and explain
Contact you/their solicitors and explain.

I'm sure the estate agent would write to the previous owner at their new address.
I guess their solicitors would also write to them at their new address.

Your solicitor would provide not want to get involved with charging you a few.

You are unlikely to have a new address on your paperwork as you would have had no need to know it.

I don’t know why people are so quick to think I’m lying! How strange.
my thought about not having the name on the envelope was maybe they wanted the possibility of the wife opening it and knowing what was inside

That’s a very good point.

I just keep coming back to some sort of scam. It’s just strange that there are no contact details. And there’s nothing really specific in the letter just things like, this may come as a shock, I hope you’ll reach out and I’d like to make contact etc

Yes, one of my theories too.

The OP has a moral responsibility??? (To track down the man who may be the sender's birth father?)

😂😂😂😂😂 LMFAO!!!!!!!

FORWARD IT TO WHO?????????

Have you read ANY of the thread??? 😂

I just realised that when I first responded I had misread the OP. And many others seem to have too.

The letter was sent to OP - not directly addressed to her but sent to the house for the people currently living there and asking them to forward the enclosed letter as the sender knows the believed father no longer lives there but, presumably, has no knowledge of his new location and hopes current owners have a forwarding address.

So YANBU OP. I would be reluctant, even if I had the forwarding address for the previous owner. The lack of any sort of way for the believed father to get back in touch with the letter writer seems like if could be quite distressing. Not sure I'd want to be a part of that.