Other people's mail

[StickyNote]

We've recently moved and the previous owners' three month postal redirection has just run out. We are now being deluged by junk mail (she and her mother were obviously big catalogue shoppers). For example, out of today's 10 items of post, one was for us and 9 for them. I've phoned Royal Mail but they say there's nothing they can do as they are "legally obliged to deliver post as addressed".

Is there anything I can do, bar contacting each of these wretched catalogue companies myself? My husband says just bin them, but that won't stop the next one coming, and the next... It's one thing having cr*p addressed to me coming through the door, but other people's...

TIA

I was told that writing "gone away" on the envelopes and crossing out the s=address lines would be more effective than "return to sender". Alternatively, try the mail preference service. You shoud be able to get to them through google.
Do you have a forwarding address for the previous owners? Why not write them a snotty letter saying that you want them to contact all these companies personally.

Print out a load of lables saying "return to sender - addressee deceased".

There's something you can write on the envelope which the Post Office recognises as official & then stops delivering the stuff, as long as you post it back (just stick it in a post box). Will do some investigating & get back to you.

The Royal Mail website isn't coming up with the answers, but I think Cadbury's "gone away" is right. The thing to do is grab your postman (!), he'll know what to write.

I write 'No longer at this address' on any post that comes in the name of either of the previous occupants and stick it back in the pillar box.

5 years on I still get loads of junkmail for the previous owner and all her lodgers. I cross out the address and write "not at this address" and shove it in a postbox.

For yourself - sign up for the mail preference thingy and all your unsolicited mail should disappear after a few months.

It's here : Mail Preference Service

There's one to stop cold callers too.

Thanks for these - accosting the postman is a good idea! It must be such a common problem though and such a waste of money for these companies to carry on churning out rubbish that gets chucked stright in the bin/put back in the postbox.

Our previous occupant left us a couple of SAEs to forward their mail until their messed up Royal mail re-direct thing kicked in, but that only solved the problem for 3 months. Out of good will we posted a few bundles to them after that because I thought it was a nice thing to do. They seemed very happy with this arrangement as they never changed any of their addresses, so I collected about 2 months worth of the stuff and mailed it to them with a 2nd class stamp on. They got a card from RM saying they had a parcel for them and had to pay to get their junk mail. We haven't had so much since.

We still get Xmas cards- with no return address on the outside- for the people who moved out of this house SEVEN years ago!! I sent it all on for the first four years (despite the fact that I had to trace their new address because they didn't tell us what it was) but thought that after all that time they could have told these relatives they'd moved, so just wrote "not at this address" & stuck them back in the post (DH bins everything).

We also get lots of junk mail for them still. Bibiboo's solution is interesting, & one I may try this year!

i open the mail from the lady who used to live here as she had debt and i dont want debt at this address and i phone the companies and tell them she doesnt live here and give the date we moved in and our L/L name address and telephone number. i also dont want her using this address to get her bills sent to yet getting parcels to her real address - so i phone immediatley. my dh was throwing them in the bin until i told him he *must sort other peoples bills in this address or we will be blacklisted

I have had great fun over the last year, carefully writing 'DEAD, RETURN TO SENDER" on every piece of junk mail that arrives for the previous owner and his tenant and dumping it in the nearest postbox. He is in fact dead, so it's not a lie. And it's been extremely effective. We started with 8 - 10 letters a day for him and now only get 1 or so a week.

We use the Mail Preference Service - using the ex-owner's names! Has almost completely stopped the junk mail reaching here. Get about 1 a month now if that and we were getting 5-6 a day at one point.

I love Bibiboo's suggestion.

We write "gone away, return to sender" on anything with a return address, and almost all the copious junk mail for the previous residents has stopped. However, out of goodwill, I do forward to them anything that looks particualrly important. After a year, though, I wrote on the mail I forwarded that I wouldn't be sending anymore and they needed to sort out anything they cared about, as they'd been gone for over a year. The chap did turn up with wine and choccies for me then!

We had this too. The previous owners did not bother with a redirection at all, but that was the least of the headaches they left us. When I lost patience witht this (I yr later) i found that junk mail marked returned to sender no longer at this address does gradually subside. the other stuff (eg parking tickets!!!) I opened and contacted the sender directly (the magistrates court!) as I did not want the bailiffs turning up and was not sure if they were still at their new address. Wierdly they have now moved back to the area, we know this as we got their mortgage documents! Again I contacetd the building society directly.

We had a letter last week for the previous owner's ex-h or son, not sure which, but they moved out 13 years ago. I opened the letter to find it was from his GP!!

I open all the mail we get for the previous tennants as they left loads of debt, and i'd like advance warning when the baliffs turn up (only 1 so far).

Anyway, i open them then bin them.

We had one the other day - not for anyone who used to live here but someone else who had given an address which was a bit like ours. I put "not known at this address" on it and put it back in the post box and, today, the baliff appeared - marvellous

Slightly off track but I accidently opened a letter for someone from an address that bore no resemblence to my own, it had 20 euros in it and my noseyness coulodnt contain itself and I read it. It was spiderly written, I asume from a very old lady saying all the shops round her had closed down and there was nothing left here[ireland] for her and she was just waiting for god to take her.
Nearly cryed and took it to the correct address that afternoon. It was so sad. Im glad it was me who accidently got it though as she was insistent that whoever it was for wrote back asap as it was her only form of contact with the outside world i dread to think how miserable she would have been had the person never recieved it, so not wrote back.