How long do you forward previous owner's mail?

[BabCNesbitt]

Moved in in October; no forwarding address for previous owner so we were sending on bank and NI letters to his estate agent. But we're still getting important post like that 6 months later. Should we keep forwarding them to the estate agent each month or just start marking them 'return to sender'?

How long do you think that it is reasonable to do that for then Toot, because I feel that after 12 months I have no legal or moral obligation.

I would have said 6 months was more than enough - before we moved.

We moved last summer. We informed everyone, we set up a mail redirect to last a whole year. We are STILL getting some mail forwarded by the new owners - to whom we are very grateful, obviously, but seriously, we've contacted some of the senders several times by several different methods now and they still won't update their mailing lists. It's as annoying for us as it must be for the new owners. Possibly more annoying because we paid £90 or something for the redirection...

I paid for a two year redirection Jeffrey, well I renewed it after 12 months.

12 months was my mental cut off point for RTS for the people who lived here before us and I did it. No forwarding address but I would still have stopped a year on.

two years on we still get mail for the previous owner. not just personal mail, but also his business mail (including invoices for vendors!!!) and his business partner's mail. best part is his business is a custom home building firm! so we get invoices for the inspections he's had done on properties and not paid for, etc etc.

Best was when a year on, they showed up at our house unannounced (after having rung the neighbours doorbell the night before because we weren't home, asking the neighbours where we were?!) because they ordered supplies for a trade show they were going to and sent it here. we were in the back garden putting up a new swingset for my son, so obviously didn't hear the doorbell, and the wife decided to come up the driveway to try and let herself into the backyard to find us. my dad was visiting with his two huge dogs (150lb each) - to this day, i will never forget the look on her face as she ran back down the driveway in her ridiculous platform stiletto shoes with two enormous (but friendly) dogs chasing her!

i always think to myself, what sort of business are they running where they can't even update their own address?

we do have their address, but i started returning to sender after about 6 months. and throw out junk mail.

A year on I'm still getting important mail including bank statements & speeding fines (so he obv hasn't informed DVLA of his new address). I just fucking continuously return to sender

I am pretty sure Mail addressed to someone else isn't your property, should go back to sender rather than in your bin.

I started with that view. I now give zero fucks about it. The previous owners have given us no end of problems and expense. If they cannot be bothered after 4 years to sort out basic things like credit cards and pension statements, why the hell should it be my problem to sort?

We still get some stuff 20, 2-0, years after we moved in... I'm still returning to sender.

When I moved I set up a redirection service with Royal Mail but some post still got sent to the old address. I found that out when I called round to check and was given some of my post by the new owner.

Then about two years later I kept on getting calls from debt collecters. I later found out that the new owner or their tenant had stolen my identity using my old address and obtained a loan, credit card, catalogue goods etc. A look at a credit reference agency checks also showed a lot of other rejected application for things.

It took me a very long time and lots of tears on my part sorting it out.

I always warn everbody not to rely on redirection services and most importantly don't just notify the council of your new address for the electoral register but to also tell them of the address that you don't live at anymore. I naively thought that the new occupant would fill in the electoral register form for their new address. They didn't though because it helped them with their fraud.

When I was asking what checks the organisations had made before giving the fraudster the loan etc. They said they had checked the electoral register and asked for proof of address.

When I tried to report it to the Police they didn't want to know at first because the fraud wasn't against me it was against the bank etc. and it was up to them to report the matter. They don't though because the money involved is small change to them. It was only when I kicked up a fuss did the Police look into the matter. However, they couldn't do anything as they couldn't establish if it was the new owner or their tenant.

For a good few years after I had to monitor Equifax reports to check that no other fraudulent applications were being made.

The whole experience was hell.

Return to sender does do something to stop it, but after a while even the most saintly will give up.

Grown ups should deal with their own post. The odd thing will slip through a redirect, but if loads is arising you clearly have a lazy arse or a crook. Why bother ?

I think for me, I just do RTS as it's no hassle just sticking it in the post with other stuff I'm sending.

Also, I don't have any grievances or issues with the previous occupants- we are renting and maybe it would be different it we had bought from someone & things weren't right in the property or whatever.

But I still think I'd chuck it all in the post RTS

We've been 'returning to sender' for 18 months now. In the last 3-4 months we have only got several random letters.

The woman left the flat upstairs and her post piled up. Incoming tenants and now a new owner never collected any of her post and it piled up by the front door. I collected the important things up every so often and sent it back to sender but it just kept coming. I decided that it was just impossible to keep doing it. Bank statements, tax details, memberships, insurance etc. I now bin everything but keep the magazines - thanks very much.

I'd be careful if you're receiving correspondence concerning debt collection. You'll have bailiffs turning up and you'll have to prove you're not the person they're looking for.

Well every house we've rented plus where we bought we got piles of post for previous people. I forwarded for 6 months or so if given an address, beyond that I have found that the quickest sentence to write on letters is "moved out". If I shove everything back in the post box like that, within a month I get virtually nothing.

but for forwarding you need to know where you are moving to, when renting you might not know until very shortly before moving.
and it's costly, esp if you have more than one surname in the family.
and it's not very reliable..,

I have a rental flat and one of my regular six month jobs is going through the excess mail in the hallway. All council/bank/HMRC get return to sender no longer resident. All charity/tesco/club memberships get return to sender not known here cease sending please. There are three flats in the block and the mail is horrendous but since I started doing this it's reduced. I still see business mail from a building contractor who lived there four years ago how he is still running a business is beyond me.

I wondered the same MissAdora, but in 2.5 years no one has ever turned up.

Just watch mail redirects by Royal Mail. When my ex moved out a few years ago he redirected mail - so think Mr. X. So that was fine.

But my postie (quite close to retirement) forwarded all mail that was addressed to Mr and Mrs X. My ex and I dont speak so I didnt know until a cover postie delivered mail addressed in that way. I complained then and the story came out. My postie (now retired) was lovely but he had not updated his ways of doing things.

I did have issues with bailiffs in a previous address. When I bought it, it had been rented out for about 10 years and one tenant had clearly done a flit leaving debts. It wasn't helped by having an address very, very similar to one about 500metres away (High St, X and High St, Little X). I always wondered if she had taken advantage of that and not given the correct address as I also received post for the other house too and i suspect they received mine as occasionally letters would get delivered at odd times.

It was quite straightforward to prove I owned the house now and give the bailiffs ID to prove I wasn't the former tenant. I had done nothing wrong and they were perfectly polite and friendly.

I just chucked it in the bin from day 1

We had loads of mail for a previous owner, who I was pretty sure had gone abroad, no fwding address. I was very soon aware that he hadn't paid various bills, phone line had been cut off and when phoning the elec. co. I found he hadn't paid that, either. Or the gas.

Eventually I started opening mail that didn't have a return address on the envelope - whether it was strictly legal I gave not a toss - and sure enough, there were a stack of debt collectors after him. And I certainly didn't want bailiffs coming to the door.
It took at least a dozen letters, with copies of my council tax bill, to get them all off the case, but they were pretty reasonable once I explained the situation.

He must have owed at least £20k - credit cards, utilities, , you name it.

This was in London - he had AFAIK gone back to his country of origin and I can't help wondering how much debt is written off in similar cases.
And yet I bet he could return tomorrow and nothing would happen.

We bought our house off a couple who were divorcing. She redirected her mail, he didn't. We had 3 months worth of literally ALL his mail, bank statements, bills, catalogues. I sent it to the solicitor who sold the house, adding them to ask their client to redirect his post. They sent it back to us claiming they didn't have a forwarding address to him.

I would throw it but I think that's illegal! I am waiting til I get a few hours and I will be 'returning to sender' but there's over 100 letters now.

I think in your case I'd feel justified chucking it! You could pull out the most important looking bits most of the mail any of us get will be Boden catalogue junk anyway or duplicates.