Previous Tenants Mail

Sooo I wasn't sure where to post this but i'm sort of freaking out. My boyfriend and I have lived in our flat for almost 4 months. We kept receiving bank statements and various mail for the previous tenants. We put it in a drawer and just let it sort of pile up. Finally a couple weeks ago I got fed up and because I figured they would have contacted us if they wanted it that it was okay to throw it away. Now i'm sure you know where this is going---we just got a note through the mail slot saying can we please call them to have them pick it up :/ I don't know what to do!! Is this illegal?? As I was throwing it away I always thought if they were important statements the people could always get copies from the bank, right? Ahh i'm so mad at myself I always throw stuff away that I shouldn't I just have a huge aversion to clutter. Please help!!

Mark it 'return to sender, no longer at this address', and post it back.

It's not your job to track down the previous tennant's whereabouts.

I agree

Royal Mail will also - very, very reluctantly - forward mail to a new address if you write it on the envelope. This sort of mail is of the least priority to them but it'll usually find its way through.

This is tough. I would have thrown it away after that long as well. I have no clue about the legalities, but certainly after a period of time they would be considered abandoned? Perhaps you could say they got mixed in with some of your moving boxes and accidentally tossed them in the rubbish. Best of luck to you though!

it wasnt to you - you dont know if it is junk or not.
So you tossed it - wrong people

not your problem - I will tell them hey we would guess you would have paid for forwarding or contacting them and you no longer have the mail

I would simply tell them you held onto it for months, and when you never heard from them, you threw it out. Tell them to please have their mail forwarded to their new address, as it is not your responsibility to store their mail.

Ha ha, 4 months? I would have trashed it too.

Certainly not illegal to throw it away. It was their responsibility to get their mail sorted out and beyond the first month where I can imagine things might slip through a crack you have zero obligation to hold anything for them.

Thanks everyone! This is my first time ever not living with my parents so I really didn't think much about it until the previous tenants contacted me. It is weird though i feel like if i moved i would know that my mail wasnt going to magically make it to my new place! Anyways, very happy i'm not in super trouble!!

DH and I have this problem at our flat a LOT.  We get mail from the previous tenants (and a few times, the tenants before them).  We write "NO LONGER AT THIS ADDRESS" on the outside of the envelopes and slip them through any mailbox.  We figure, this way the only people who could have access to them from that point on would be Royal Mail when they unlock the boxes, and from there, they could dispose of them or forward them or whatever. 

I would simply tell them you held onto it for months, and when you never heard from them, you threw it out. Tell them to please have their mail forwarded to their new address, as it is not your responsibility to store their mail.

It is actually illegal to destroy other people's mail, no matter how it came to be in your possession, but who is going to prove it? Just don't volunteer the information.

Nobody is obliged to store previous occupiers mail. They can hand it back to the postal delivery person or put it back in the mail marked "Gone Away".

We write "NO LONGER AT THIS ADDRESS" on the outside of the envelopes and slip them through any mailbox. 

This is the right thing to do. If there is a return address on the outside of an envelope or package thus marked, Royal Mail will deliver it back to that address with a sticker indicating the reason (They will check the box next to "Gone away"). If there is no address on the outside they will send it to the Returned Letter Office in Belfast where it will be opened and if there is a senders address inside, they will send it there. If no return address can be found, they'll destroy it.

Don't fret over it. I know how you feel. It's a pain. We've been in our flat for 6 months now and still get mail for several former tenants. It's such a pain to mark it and then find a convenient way to mail it.