Can I open someone else's post?

Tropez

pupsicola wrote: »

If a letter comes through my letter box I open it. Assuming, not unreasonably, that it would be for me. Hadn't ever thought of checking whose name was on it before hand.

I've done this myself.

When I first moved to my new place, I opened a letter assuming it was mine (the name on the letter was actually obscured) and discovered that the letter was for somebody who had lived here previously.

I actually contacted the company sending the letter by phone to inform them of my error and they were grateful that I had taken the time to update them, rather than just ignore it. As the address of the company was not on the envelope I was asked to send the letter back with a covering letter quoting a reference number that they gave me so that they could update their records. They even offered to reimburse me for the postage but I wasn't too bothered about the price of a stamp.

hippyadam

Not another thread about the legality of opening mail...

Save me jeebus!!!

kjmtidea

hippyadam wrote: »

Not another thread about the legality of opening mail...

Save me jeebus!!!

Sorry I did search first but it kept bringing threads up about smoking and flylady :rotfl:.

If_My_Pennies_Were_Pounds

Thanks Honeypop, have done that now, hopefully it will take effect quite quickly!

Jinx

I dont believe it to be illegal to open the mail if it is addressed to your proper home address but someone elses name.

However, even if it was... I would still open it.......

Why would anyone use my address when they do not live here unless it was for illegal/fraudulent purposes. I live here, its MY house, my address and my letterbox they are using. Therefore I would open it and defy anyone to prove 'detriment'.... Gets down off soap box and breathes....:o

themull1

I dont care what the law says, any mail addressed to my address, i'll open.

Slinky

clairec79 wrote: »

If you write not at this address and stck it back in the post it goes to some office of Royal Mail (in Northern Ireland I believe) who will open them and try and find the sender to return them

My understanding is this service stopped some years ago. If an envelope doesn't have a return address on it, they won't open and return it anymore. It's probably just destroyed unopened.

Something to bear in mind when you're sending your own mail, I have a rubber stamp with our address on I stamp on the back which says 'If underlivered please return to...'

I had somebody keep writing to the mother of a tenant we had rented our house to. Got fed up with it keep turning up every 3 months with no return address on it, so opened it to find out it was meeting minutes from the management company of a block of flats where the tenant's mother must have owned something. I phoned them up and told them she'd never lived in my house and what they were sending wasn't reaching the intended recipient and they were happy to receive the information and I never got it again.

building_with_lego

clairec79 wrote: »

If you write not at this address and stck it back in the post it goes to some office of Royal Mail (in Northern Ireland I believe) who will open them and try and find the sender to return them

Thank you for this, Claire.

We had a letter yesterday for a stranger, and tried to match it up with an immediate neighbour with no success. We would have sent it to the Post Office for them to hunt down the sender BUT I had read your comment. OH opened the letter looking for a return address to find that it's for a further away neighbour (our road, but digits of the house number reversed) offering them a job and would they mind replying within ten days! I delivered it this morning to the correct address, and I like to think we've done a bit of good there. Thank you! :T

EDIT: I've read the rest of the thread now and am even more glad we opened it. Poor bloke would never have known...

kindofagilr

kjmtidea wrote: »

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

You can send any mail back, if there is no return address then royal mail will open it and get the address (I think lol)

Slinky

kindofagilr wrote: »

You can send any mail back, if there is no return address then royal mail will open it and get the address (I think lol)

See my posting above, RM don't do this anymore. No return address on the outside, chances are it will be binned.