Other people's mail

DH and I moved a month and a half ago, and I posted on UKY, asking what to do with mail for the previous tenants.

Following the advice of people here, I have been writing "No longer at this address, current address unknown" on every envelope and dutifully dropping it in the letter box.

The problem is that we  have been getting mail for these people almost every day (sometimes 3 or 4 letters in one day) since we've been here. They get mail from utility companies, from organisations they belong to, mail that is marked "Private & Confidential." They once got a letter from the Finance department of the City Council. We get more mail addressed to them than addressed to ourselves.

It is starting to become a PITA and I'm starting to feel imposed upon. I'm not these people's personal secretary. (I'm probably slightly more whingy now that I have to walk on ice to get to the letter box.)

I'm beginning to think that if they really wanted their mail sent to them, they would have paid the post office to have it redirected. I would really like to just throw it all in the bin and not be bothered. I know that sounds selfish but I'm just tired of it already.

What is my responsiblity in this situation?

You have no official responsibility (they should've paid Royal Mail for a redirection service) and it sounds like you've more than met your 'moral' responsbility.  Seeing as it's been at least 6 weeks, I'd start binning all but the most important-looking things.  After a while, I'd just bin all of it!

It should start to stop as companies get the returned letters back and change their databases, but that takes time.

I'm beginning to think that if they really wanted their mail sent to them, they would have paid the post office to have it redirected. I would really like to just throw it all in the bin and not be bothered. I know that sounds selfish but I'm just tired of it already.

That's about how I feel about it.  I don't mind forwarding the occasional letter, but if there are multiple letters each week, or if it's been 6 or 8 months and they still haven't told the sender their new address, forget it.  I put things like this into a category my sister calls "$hit That Is Not My Problem". 

This is exactly what my soon-to-be-x hub and I did at our previous address - for a few months, we wrote on the envelope and dropped it back in the post box.  Then we started to bin it.  A year after we moved in, one of the former tenants stopped by and asked if we were holding any mail for her!!!  The nerve!  lol   

I've been in my new flat for just under a month and, like sweetpeach, I get more post address to the previous tenant than for myself!  I was asked by the estate agent if I could hang on to it and then let them know or drop it by their office, which I said fine, I go past there office once a week or so, I'd just drop anything I received through their door, which I have done.  But starting in the New Year, I'm going to write 'no longer at this address' on the envelopes and put them in the post box.  I'll do that for a month, and then it's gonna get binned.  It's ridiculous the stuff I've received, and for a tenant that moved out at least three weeks before I moved in!

I can't believe someone would want a stranger (ie future tenants) going through their mail! I'd bin it at this point, too. I get (mainly) junk mail for people who used to live in my apt. I don't even bother- into the bin. Once I did get a new credit card for them (I guess their other one had expired?) I called the company and told them they don't live here.

We still get mail for the owner a decade back sometimes; I'd looove to find out how THAT'S happening!  Stuff like that seems to end up on the floorboard of the car...

My grandparent's have lived in their home for almost 30 years and they still get mail for the previous owner.     

Hi there,
Speaking as a Landlord, the amount of mail that was coming through from lots of names that I did recognise and names I didn't recognise, I was getting fed up with the sheer amount of it being delivered.

For about 4 months, each time I'd collect rent, and as I'd instructed my current tenants to keep all mail, I'd pick it all up and then go through each one and cross the name out and put in big letters 'never at this address' or 'no longer at this address' and also put in large letters 'return address on rear flap' and then go chuck the lot into the postbox. No need to put stamps on etc.

Over the following 3-4 months there was a vast reduction in the amount of crap coming through. I opened a few of the persistent ones and they were bailiff type letters - I rang those people up and said stop sending letters as they're long gone or I just dont recognise any names. One guy got all irky with me so I told him, well you continue wasting your money on letters, printing and postage costs then, i dont giva F' - those letters stopped as well!

So over a period of about 4 months, I now know the amount of junk and crap coming to my rental apartment is absolute minimum.

I'd say it is the landlords responsibilty to do this. If it's not that much bother,then doing the above over a period of a few months can be done by tenants themeselves. however, I'd say onl ydo it for junk mail from catalogue stores etc, anything official looking, then get the landlord to do it.

hope this helps!

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough U!K

Am I allowed to open up the mail and look inside? It would be very helpful, for example, to find out if the stuff from utility companies is unpaid bills or pamphlets or sales material.

Opening mail addressed to someone else is a very big no no in the US.

According to my husband, it's also a HUGE no-no here (after I asked about it once).  He does hold them up to the light to try and figure it out.

He also forwards everything, but the people here before us left us a bunch of addressed labels to do so.  I must add that it has been FOUR years, and we have just, this month, stopped getting other people's mail.

Luckily, because DH deals with it, I  can just sit back and smile at his diligence and good-nature and not have to go bat-shoot crazy at the people who never bother to change their address on their Tesco club card.

According to my husband, it's also a HUGE no-no here (after I asked about it once).  He does hold them up to the light to try and figure it out.

I take the view that once it's through your letter box and into your house, and it is clearly not a mistaken delivery e.g. for someone at a nearby address you can open a letter to see what you should do with it. If the people are long gone and the material is trivial in nature then you may as well find that out before throwing it in the trash, if you can be bothered. 

We bought our house 15 years ago, from a seemingly very nice couple (who banged on about being Christians, had "Jesus lives here" posters etc), assured us that it was a low crime area, and that they had never been burgled.

About 2 months after we completed and moved in, a letter came for them. We had their new address, but something about the letter (The "Avon And Somerset Police" frank, actually) made me curious. So I opened it. "Dear Mr & Mrs ****, regarding your recent burglary..."

I was so incensed that I rang them up and told them that I had opened their letter "to see if it was important" and advised them of the contents, just to hear Mrs ****'s reaction. She had the grace to sound a little embarrassed. I wanted to ask her if it was Jesus' night off when she told the lie about not being burgled, but held back.

My aunt still gets mail for my uncle who passed away in 2001. She gets great delight in opening the envelopes and looking for a return-paid envelope so she can tell them he died in 2001.

My mom and I get mail for my deceased father who NEVER LIVED AT THIS ADDRESS!  We get more mail for him now than we did in NJ after he died.  I opened up a letter addressed to him, thinking it might have been someone who honestly didn't know he was dead and it was a random letter from some guy who wrote "Jesus lead me to write to you and tell you the good news...."

I really wanted to write back and tell him that Jesus told him to write to a dead man.

It's probably something most people wouldn't get caught doing, but people should be aware:

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/ACTS/acts2000/ukpga_20000026_en_8#pt5-pb1-l1g84

ETA: To nip any criticism in the bud, I am sure anyone who opened any post in this thread was totally justified.  But personally, as an immigrant, I will play it on the safe side for now.  I have a huge pile of post for previous occupants with no forwarding address, but my landlord is meant to deal with it.  If people are renting, that is one possible option.

S.84 (3): 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.

I used to work for the Post Office (when it was the Post Office!) so I am sure of my ground on this. Nobody is ever prosecuted purely for opening wrongly addressed mail. Finding out if the contents are likely to be important and/or if a return address is inside would be considered "reasonable excuse", and any prosecution would have to prove intention to act to a person's detriment.

Of course, if a person opening a wrongly addressed letter found and kept something valuable or discovered confidential information they were not authorised to receive and delayed it or used it or disclosed it to someone not intended to receive it, then in addition to any criminal or civil action for those acts, a prosecution under Section 84 would become possible.

Say you opened a letter and found a credit card inside, if you returned it to the company, you'd be a helpful person. If you went on a spending spree you'd be a crook.

At our previous address we kept receiving mail for various people that seemed to be coming from the same place. It had an address on the back of the envelope so I Googled it and found it was a debt collection agency. I wrote on the envelope that the addressee was not known to us and that any future mail would be destroyed. That stopped it.