Bad debt of previous home owner

BitterAndTwisted

The fact of the matter is that the copyright laws are quite clear and if one had a mind to one could find them on the internet and provide a link to them. This particular debate is not about people's interpretation of laws or their justification for breaking them: it's about your inability to prove your erroneous position and your attempt at sidetracking has therefore failed.

Please quote the law which says that opening correctly-delivered mail is illegal. Thanks

lvader

I already quoted the law, the fact you can't understand the words isn't my problem, nor would it help you in a court of law.

BitterAndTwisted

You've quoted quite a bit of stuff on here but you still haven't been able to find anything which categorically states that it is illegal to open someone else's mail. You did quote the bit about opening it having to be to someone's detriment in order for it to be illegal but that is not the same thing. I believe it is you who has misunderstood so therefore you fail

lvader

Presumably the CAB also has it wrong.

The law on this issue is clear, as it has recently been confirmed in the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.

Quite simply, it is an offence to open, destroy, hide or delay any post that is addressed to someone else. Post cannot be opened if it is to the addressee's detriment and without reasonable excuse. Reasonable excuse is not defined by the Act. This means your explanation for withholding post may not stand up in court.

An example of a potential conflict is if a landlord opens a previous tenant's post in order to trace them. Post cannot be opened if someone knows or reasonably suspects the post has been incorrectly delivered. In addition, any post or post bag that is found in a public place must be returned to a post office without being opened.

It is also an offence to divert someone's post in order to intentionally delay them from receiving it. An example of this could be where a person re-posts documents or cheques to delay the addressee from acting upon them.

In addition to this, if you receive someone else's post by mistake, you should contact Royal Mail's customer services department. The mistake can be reported to the appropriate delivery office. The post itself can be delivered by hand to the correct address, re-posted in a post box or handed to a postal worker.

Question answered by CAB

custardy

Post cannot be opened if it is to the addressee's detriment and without reasonable excuse

so you have proved the point its not illegal to open letters

BitterAndTwisted

I think Ivader cannot understand the conjunction of IF with AND in that sentence. It's quite sad, really

lvader

It's not up to you to decide if it is to the detriment of the addressee or if you have a resonable excuse. It is always to the detriment of the addressee if you read his private mail and he doesn't want you to. A resonable excuse is opening the mail by mistake. Opening mail on purpose and calling a 3rd party to pass on private details clearly breaks the law.

custardy

telling a company that X doesnt live there is not a detriment
its a fact and ensures the company has the most up to date information for their customer
i would happily argue thats a benefit

BitterAndTwisted

Opening someone else's mail does not automatically cause a detriment. The opening of the mail, once used to cause a detriment is what makes it illegal. This is obviously too fine a distinction for you so I suggest you stop trying to think about it.

A strong argument could be made that once someone moves from a property and if they thought their mail was important to them they should have either left a forwarding address or arranged re-direction. It's obvious that in the OP's case this was patently not done, so in order to prevent visits from people the OP would rather not have to deal with, opening the mail and contacting the senders would appear to be eminently sensible, causing no harm and therefore no detriment to anyone.

DVardysShadow

lvader wrote: »

It's not up to you to decide if it is to the detriment of the addressee or if you have a resonable excuse. It is always to the detriment of the addressee if you read his private mail and he doesn't want you to. A resonable excuse is opening the mail by mistake. Opening mail on purpose and calling a 3rd party to pass on private details clearly breaks the law.

Presumably, you are one of these people who think that photography is illegal if it is carried out with a film camera, but OK if it is done with a mobile phone or a digital camera.