How to stop mail from previous owners?

[Lily78123]

Hi all,

I’ve just been on the phone with Royal Mail and they said they cannot stop mail from previous owners coming to our address.

It’s been 5 years and we’ve been posting most of the letters back with “Return to sender”.

Anybody has a real life advice, how to actually stop this? Most of them are addressed to a limited company.

Got this going on. Had a property that was rented out for years. Now empty and up for sale. Been going to the flat, empty the mail box. All letters for old tenants( who haven’t changed the address) most letters from London congestion charge. 2 different names getting these letters. Rang congestion charge place, they told me to ring DVLA they told me to write a letter to confirm, they don’t live at address. Did that. Went to flat yesterday over 60 letters( haven’t been for 2months) so did the return to sender/ not at this address and put back in post box. So annoying. Will ring DVLA again. As some letters could see number plate. Not sure if that will help. So tiring. Never be a landlord again.

I've got this same problem but I do believe it's an offense to open someone else's mail so I haven't done this. I've been returning to sender for past 2 years but still getting mail it's so annoying!

It's only an offence if you haven't got reasonable excuse, OP has reasonable excuse to open them. You would also have reasonable excuse to open them

It's not an offence if it's done with the intention of preventing fraud, only if it's done with the intention of depriving the owner of something, like a bank card or cash.

I had a problem with my exH not changing his address and I opened everything and contacted the companies involved, insurance, credit card company etc. by phone. Most asked for a phone number for him and contacted him to ask his new address, one even called me back to let me know they'd spoken to him and updated their records. It was annoying still doing his admin but it stopped the post issue. I still get the occasional thing from one company which I bin.

When my FIL died I notified all his utility companies, some of whom sent rebates after sending death certificate. House was sold and new owners contacted us about 2 months after they’d moved in, saying there was quite a lot of post. We collected post and most was from the same utility companies saying sorry we’ve lost you as a customer, but to get in touch with them to talk about becoming a customer again. I just sent them all back with Deceased as advised, written on them. I told new owners to bin any other letters.

We still get mail for the previous owner of our house, who has been dead for almost a decade! We also got some council demands for a previous tenant, which I was able to stop by opening one and emailing the address on there.

I have been renting a flat while I wait for my new house purchase to complete and the previous tenant did not do a redirection.

I posted everything back with ''no longer lives at this address, update your database as any further correspondence will be disposed of'' for the first couple of months but now everything that still comes in goes straight to the bin.

I don't see why it would be up to me to contact these companies, I have better things to do with my time.

Most letters stopped coming after I returned the first correspondence.

Council tax and all bills are now in my name so the main providers know full well the previous owners no longer lives here and there would be no reason for them to send chasing letters/reminders if the previous tenants had left unpaid bills.

Oh I didn't know this thanks for the information

Thanks I hadn't realised this. Sick of posting back to be honest!

14 years after moving here I still get post for the previous owner. I just bin it now.

Think that is illegal

Oh well - like I care

Then you would be thinking wrongly.

"A person commits an offence if, intending to act to a person's detriment and without reasonable excuse, he opens a postal packet which he knows or reasonably suspects has been incorrectly delivered to him."

Opening post to contact the sender, especially after attempts to RTS, is a reasonable excuse and not to anyone’s detriment so not an offence.
Opening a passport for example with the intention of using it for fraud, would be an offence.

After that length of time I'd open any that are not obviously junk.

The number of cases I've seen where Bailiffs, usually but not invariably over parking infringements, turn up at an old address is unbelievable.

Sorry thought wrong but I didn't have till 23:10 to check it out 😄

im not sure what the time I posted has to do with the Postal Services Act.

Just that I didn't have all day to check 😄
But going back to original if you bin the post that although hard to prove is still illegal

I don't think you'll find any cases that have been prosecuted though even if anyone could be bothered to prove it.

This is an interesting thought though from above:

remind them that they have a responsibility under GDPR to have accurate records and to correct any inaccuracies. Would they like to report themselves to ICO or should you?

I might try this with NatWest who refuse to deal with me and refuse to update the banking details of a woman who's not lived in this house for almost ten years. Every month I get her bank statement and for the first few years I returned it. Now I bin it.

Odd.

RBS, who are in the same banking group, were happy to stop sending statements of someone who moved years ago. Maybe because at the time they had two other customers in the house.

Apologies, I've just been back through and it's Lloyds. Here is their last reply:

I'm sorry to hear that you're receiving someone else's mail. It is the customer's responsibility to change their address, and if they don't, there are some documents that we're required to send by mail I'm afraid. You'd be best to keep sending these back to us if you can.

Another response basically said 'you're not our customer, we cant deal with you'. I told them last time that everything from here on in was going straight in the bin. I do not have the time or the inclination to return post to them monthly if they cannot sort this over five bloody years.

And around in circles we go. I might just report them to the ICO at this point.

When you return items back to us this will be recorded. We can limit the type of correspondence we send, but we must comply with regulatory obligations and record that we've sent the following to the last address provided by that customer. Certain regulatory documents. For example, terms and conditions, interest rate changes, default and legal letters may still be issued.

We do appreciate you have informed us our customer doesn't live at the address. However, we can't amend a customer's personal details without their authority. None of the above will have a negative impact on your credit file. If you wish to escalate this matter further to our Customer Service team, please visit: spr.ly/6182PsWiY This will provide all the options available to raise it with them. They will review your concerns and get back in touch with you directly about it

We're in the same boat. What can you do after if they won't change their details? We've been getting bank statements of a previous owner for over 20 years. It's tiring to keep sending back.

Just to update this a bit. I did complain to ICO who basically said there was nothing they could do, so unfortunately that advice from upthread won’t work.

Just stick them straight in the recycling surely? I consider anything for previous owners to be junk mail - I have been living in my current house for a decade.

Haven't the bank send you any cards or cheque books in that time?

If a letter is ever slightly thick you should open it to see what is in it as the risk of fraud e.g. someone using them is enough to stop them sending stuff to your address.