Other people's mail

We keep getting the former resident's tax form from an employer. I wrote "return to sender, not at address" and stuck it back in the mail. (there is a slot of out going mail in our apt complex) Two days later, it was back in my mailbox again. I underlined not at address and put it back in the mail. The next day, it was back in my mailbox. Wrote  REFUSED on it...and it showed up again. I highlighted everything I had written with a bright pink highlighter and put it back in the outgoing mail. Guess what was back in our mail again today!??! Our postman is officially an idiot. 

I think I'm just gonna give up and put it through the shredder.

Yesterday, 1-1/2 years after they moved out, I received what looks like the NHS card of the previous tenent.  Which means they are using our address (we bought the place) as their residence in order to see a local GP.  It PISSED me off.  So I wrote on the front of the envelope that they do not live at the address any longer and I'm trying to figure out if there is anything else I can do as I don't want them using our address for their own purposes.

So, now that the election is coming up, I'm expecting to get the poll cards (or whatever you call those cards that tell you where you should vote) of the previous tenants.

When we got the letter saying that they were registered for voting in the general election at our address, I called the Council who said that they couldn't change anything until the old tenants changed their address, but when the official list comes out (I think they said the first copy goes out in August), I can cross their names off then.

The said that if I get anything voting-related addressed to the old tenants, I can just bin it. Can I send their poll cards back to the Council marked address unknown, or will I get in trouble for denying them the right to vote?

Remember that these are the people who came to our house looking for their car tax disc because they couldn't be arsed to notify the DVLA.

I can just imagine them coming around the day before the election looking for their poll cards.

Onetiger, I got mail from the NHS addressed to the old tenants as well, so they are also using our local GP.

As a related issue, if not already mentioned, people may be interested to know about the Telephone Preference Service (TPS), a free service. It is the official central opt out register on which you can record your preference not to receive unsolicited sales or marketing calls.

http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/tps/

And the Mail Preference Service, the post equivalent. You can register previous occupiers:

http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/mpsr/

We keep getting mail for the previous owners that we bought the house from.  At first, under agreement with us, we said we would give it to the neighbours.  Now its over 6 months later and we still get their post.  I'm getting sick of giving it to the neighbours because I feel its rude.  Plus, I feel like I'm putting our neighbours out, even though we didn't ask them to do this.  I'm going to register with the website previously posted, but I'm strongly considering trying to send back other mail since I don't want to be the messenger anymore.

I knew about the telephone preference service but I didn't know that you could use the postal service to report that someone no longer lives at an address.

Thanks for that. It will be very useful.

ETA: I'm glad to see since I started this thread that I'm not the only person annoyed by this.

Can I send their poll cards back to the Council marked address unknown, or will I get in trouble for denying them the right to vote?

Send them back marked "not at this address". In any case they are just telling the voter(s) where their polling station is located. They do not confer any more right to vote than a person already has.

I thought you might be supposed to bring the card with you to the polling station.

I voted in the last European Parliament election but I don't remember what I did?

I thought you might be supposed to bring the card with you to the polling station.

A polling card is for information only. A person entitled to vote can vote without one. The card saves time at the polling station because it shows the polling officer the voter's name, address and register entry number, but you can tell the polling officer your name & address verbally.