Still getting previous owner's mail - very annoying!

Charliezoo

Hi all, I wasn't sure where to post this so I hope someone on this board can help.

We bought our house over a year ago from a guy who was miserable, angry and made our lives hell through the whole buying process. He left the house in a filthy, dirty mess and with no forwarding address for mail and I've got no idea where he now lives - we've had hundreds of letters for him over the past 10 months.

Most of these are important letters - DVLA, bank, bills, post from his kids' school, even his divorce papers! He obviously didn't bother changing his address with anyone and I even just found out he was still on the electoral roll at our address.

At first I kept everything and passed it on to a neighbour who sometimes saw a mutual friend of theirs but it became clear over a few months that he was just taking his mail but not bothering to update his address.

Apart from the fact that it is very annoying to be getting his mail I am also concerned that this man is still associated with our address. I have 'returned to sender' most of his mail but it doesn't seem to have made any difference. All I can think to do now is open all the letters I get and start phoning round the companies but I don't see why I should waste my time or phone bill.

His car tax reminder just came through my letterbox and I know he could be fined for not updating the DVLA, do I really have to start phoning round or is there an easy way to stop all this mail?

mjdh1957

No need to phone around or do anything else.

Just carry on marking everything either 'gone away' or 'not at this address' and return it to sender. It's not your problem if he gets fined or otherwise gets into trouble for not updating his address.

Mallotum_X

Mark as return to sender and send it back.

The only real hassel wil be if he has debts and you get debt collectors turning up. We had this at our current house, so we gave them the solicitor and estage agent details. We never had the same person turn up twice.

I did open court papers that were issued and returned these with a covering note of the agent and solicitor details. Its all stopped now, but was a bit of an irritation at the time.

Lovelyjoolz

If you are in when the Postie comes, give it back to him and tell him that that person is not at this address. The Post Office have to return it to the sender, but they send it back in a red PO bag with a letter telling the sender that the person has gone away. Perhaps those bags might be more noticable to the sender?

The other option is to send all the mail to the solicitor who handled the conveyancing on his sale of the house. Surely they must know where he's gone so they could bill him for their services?

**Juice**

Yep, just keep marking everything as return to sender and sending back - it took a few months but this eventually stopped us getting half as much stuff. Unfortunately the bloke who lived there before us then turned up asking for his post If we'd left stuff hanging around for that long it would have been a right old clutter!

DVardysShadow

Post a letter to this person from yourselves to your address. Ask him politely to change his address and advise that any mail recieved after a further 30 days will be binned. Give this to the mutual friend. Collect a further 30 days mail, pass this on, then mercilessly bin the rest.

kingstreet

Charliezoo wrote: »

I even just found out he was still on the electoral roll at our address

He would be until you complete the annual return, which you should have received recently.

KateLiana27

Nothing for it except KEEP sending it back marked "not known at this address".

I asked a few companies about this when dealing with a similar situation - they said that they keep a record every time mail is returned like this, but need a certain number of returns before they will actually remove the address (as it would be quite easy for someone else to do maliciously once or twice, but probably not more than that).

And a note for anyone else reading this. NEVER pass on mail coming to your address to the old resident,their friend, whoever, and NEVER bin it. It must go straight back to the sender marked "not known at this address" - nothing else. It's the only way to keep yourself out of trouble.

Charliezoo

Thanks for all your advice. I've been sending the DVLA post back for a while but just noticed today that on the back of the envelope it says 'If undelivered please do NOT return to sender'. I am quite tempted to send the tax reminder back to the DVLA with a cover note informing them that the car owner moved away in Nov 2010. With any luck they'll catch up with him and he'll get a ticking off - maybe that'll then remind him to change his other addresses then

twirlypinky

I think i would forward them all to the solicitor he used to sell the house. They won't put up with it I'm sure!

Charliezoo

Glad its not just me that thinks its a bit unreasonable!