Can I open someone else's post?

GEEGEE8

I doubt anyone will be pursuing you for opening a letter..

Just post it back and say they don't live there.

BitterAndTwisted

It is not illegal to open mail delivered to the correct address and if you don't use such mail to the "detriment" of the named addressee.

Opening such mail and returning it to sender cannot ever be to the detriment of anyone and could save everyone a lot of time and trouble in the long run.

If_My_Pennies_Were_Pounds

I'm glad someone else has asked this, we have lived in our house for 2 years and we still get mail for the previous elderly occupant who we know for a fact is sadly no longer with us.

The majority of it is junk mail (the good old, you've won £10,000 etc etc) but occasionally there looks to be mail that could be important, how can we stop the mail coming? Especially the junk mail...

KiKi

kjmtidea wrote: »

I thought you could only do that if there was a return address?

No - Royal Mail will open it and return to sender.

OP, you can't justify opening it to protect yourselves from bailiffs, as you had no way of knowing it was anything to do with debt until you opened it...!!

Either way, if you do open it no-one's going to come after you, and even if they are in debt, it's nothing to do with you. Just put it back in the post. If you're that worried, call the solicitor concerned and say it arrived torn.

KiKi

Flyboy152

Ilovecubbage wrote: »

Most definately open them as before you know it you`ll have the baillifs knocking on your door and they don`t care what name you have!

Really? That's news, when did that change then?

Flyboy152

kjmtidea wrote: »

Thank you everyone i'll stop stressing about it now lol.

It is against the law to open mail that is not addressed to you. Do not open the envelope, write, "not known at this address," on the envelope and put it back in the post box. Remember, these letters come from solicitors; not the best people to annoy when it comes to the law.

Flyboy152

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

It is not illegal to open mail delivered to the correct address and if you don't use such mail to the "detriment" of the named addressee.

Opening such mail and returning it to sender cannot ever be to the detriment of anyone and could save everyone a lot of time and trouble in the long run.

I'm afraid the Postal Services Act 2000 Section 84 disagrees.

ETA: Missed the detriment part, however, it would be difficult to claim that the intent was anything other than curiosity.

esmf73

If there is not a sending address written on the envelope or package somewhere I believe that you are fine to open the letter to gain the return address / or phone number so that you can deal with it.

smash7

I used to get this when I lived in rented accomodation. Eventually, I opened one of the letters and it was debt collection agency. I phoned them, told them it had got mixed in with my post and I opened it accidentally, and that the person did not live at this address. I did have a bailiff show up once (before I started opening the mail) but all I had to do was show them ID (to prove I wasn't the woman they were chasing) and that was it.

bryanb

Flyboy152 wrote: »

It is against the law to open mail that is not addressed to you.

No it is not, this has been discussed here many times and the correct answer is that you can open mail if it correctly delivered to the address on it, not to the person named.