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Legal matters

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Is it illegal to open someone else's post in the UK?

32 replies

displayuntiltwelfthnight · 09/12/2009 22:34

I ask because for the 3rd time a neighbour has opened post addressed to us and although he claims that he opens post whoever it's addressed to because in his view if it has his house number on it's his to open, I don't think he's right (and am mightily angry about it) and he also hasn't given us our post in the envelope it was sent in so we have no way of confirming whether indeed it was addressed with the wrong house number, all we get is the card that was inside the envelope, minus the envelope it was sent in! What we do know, however, is that it had our name on it and this neighbour doesn't share the same name as us and the senders also put a return address so there's no excuse IMO for not just either posting it through our door unopened or popping it back in the post marked "addressee unknown, please return to sender"! Either of those would be preferable to him opening our private mail.
If you know the law in this area, please let me know. Thanks.

OP posts:
geoffrey62 · 02/11/2017 20:47

Is it illegal to open my sons mail who is 17?

mikeyssister · 06/11/2017 16:59

Probably not Geoffrey but it's bloody annoying for him

Trethew · 07/11/2017 14:22

geoffrey prob best to start a new thread. This one is 8 years old

retirednow · 07/11/2017 14:32

We have the same problem but we couldn't prove it, the senders swear they sent it to the right address. I posted myself a blank piece of paper to see if it would be delivered correctly (which it was). Have a word with your postman and post office, they should not be delivering mail to the wrong address (our regular postman was on holiday so maybe delivered to wrong address).

adviceneeds · 19/03/2018 09:32

I always believed it was illegal to tamper with someone else's mail, a few years ago I lived in a block of flats, my flat was in the 80's, I was getting the post for virtually every other flat, not just a one-off mistake, it went on for over a month, I put them back in the post box but somehow they all come back to me, I ended up calling the companies for some of these letters, DWP, Banks, Building Societies, Courts, DVLA, Utility Companies. I phoned them because I wanted them to know if any of this paperwork was time-sensitive the named person hadn't yet received it.
I complained to Royal Mail repeatedly, nothing was seemingly done, I started to save the letters, and, on my way to work I would take them all in, I worked near the sorting office. I made several trips there with bags full of official looking letters wrongly posted through my door. Then, one day it just stopped, until I caught a postman opening my front door to get post he had wrongly delivered. I told him he had no right to just let himself in.

The place we live now, been here 10 years, previous tenant had been here since it was a new build, 10 years ago she moved into a nursing home, 8 years ago she died, despite returning envelopes these companies still sent them out, just last week we had a letter, I phoned the company, informed them the lady was deceased, I got their permission to open the letter.

It's all too easy for any of us to make a simple mistake, another to deliberately tamper with someone else's mail. An odd mistake, the neighbour should just post it through your door or the correct door, if this continues happening, make an official complaint to Royal Mail.

Clarise71 · 07/01/2020 11:01

I've been moved out of marital home 4 yrs by ex. Moved elsewhere. We are divorced. He's been opening my mail addressed to me. Is it illegal for him to do that? If so whom do I contact

Sophinwonderland · 07/01/2020 14:05

@Clarise71 this is an old thread so may be better to start a new one, my suggestion would be to contact anyone/company that may write to you to change the address on file to your new address and go to the post office and get a diversion on your post. There is a small fee to the post office but I don’t believe there is much more you can do other than a solicitor letter which he could just ignore; if the post is never delivered to your old address he can’t open it x

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