Still getting previous owner's mail - very annoying!

serious_saver

Just for info. He doesn't remove himself from the electoral register at your address, you remove him.

When a registration form comes in next (usually autumn) you will have the option of deleting him. Alternatively if they register at their new address they should also be removed from your address. Of course the latter depends on the efficiency of the council and whether or not he does register at his new address. Either way you can do it yourself and it's very easy. If you do need any advice your local council's electoral services office should be able to help but they may just tell what I've already said.

We've also been living in our current flat for nearly a year now and are having the same problem with post from the previous tenant. A lot of it looks very important too!

Cheeky_Monkey

KateLiana27 wrote: »

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.

Why not? What could/will happen?

crazyguy

Its just as easy to throw them in the bin as its clear he is not intrested in whatever is being sent there.

Jessie11

When I lived in a council house a few years ago we got so much mail for other people.
Just scribble out the address, write person not known here, not at this address etc and shove it in the post box.
I asked the council about it cos we were getting debt collection letters and they said just return it.

kizkiz

Jessie11 wrote: »

Just scribble out the address, write person not known here, not at this address etc and shove it in the post box.
.

Exactly what i did.
Everything gradually stopped arriving.
The only company too incompetent to work it out are Santander, who still send the previous owner post 3 years after she left :rotfl:

DVardysShadow

KateLiana27 wrote: »

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.

Depends. If former resident says "You can give it to X, who will pass it to me", then that is sufficient.

As for binning it, I think the only responsibility is to destroy it and prevent ID theft. But beyond that, there is no responsibility to intended recipient or sender.

Mail which continues in volume after 3 months or so is often a sign of a disordered life. I would have no compunction about opening and reading it, to see who may be along to give me grief.

Cheeky_Monkey

Well, AFAIK, it's not an offence to bin someone else's mail but it is an offence to open it :eek:

Anyhoo, only today I put a letter addressed to the previous occupier in the bin (a public one in the street) because, after 11 months, I'm sick of returning the letters. If they can't be bothered to have their mail re-directed, why should I do it free of charge.

thegirlintheattic

Cheeky_Monkey wrote: »

Well, AFAIK, it's not an offence to bin someone else's mail but it is an offence to open it :eek:

Anyhoo, only today I put a letter addressed to the previous occupier in the bin (a public one in the street) because, after 11 months, I'm sick of returning the letters. If they can't be bothered to have their mail re-directed, why should I do it free of charge.

Actually it is only an offence to open mail without your address on it. As long as it has your address on it and is put through your door you can open it regardless of name.

Yorkie1

thegirlintheattic wrote: »

Actually it is only an offence to open mail without your address on it. As long as it has your address on it and is put through your door you can open it regardless of name.

Not completely true. You must also not intend to do anything malicious to the correct addressee's detriment after opening it.

ridethelightning

I think many people have this problem. We've been getting mail for the previous tenant at our house for over 2 years. For the first year we returned it to sender but realised most of the mail was from the same companies so started opening them (not illegal as mentioned above!). He owed thousands to various debt collectors and his bank (bank of scotland) were still sending mail despite returning at least 20 letters to them. I started stuffing all our junk mail in an envelope along with the letters and a note explaining all future letters would also be returned this way, wrote the return address on the envelope and posted it without a stamp. This stopped alot of them.

We complained to the bank that they were sending post to our address despite knowing the account holder didnt live there (had returned about 20 letters) and they told us that they couldnt do anything without his permission.

In the past 6 months we started opeining the main again and discovered he'd been applying for loans to our address. Some had obviously been successful as they were for these cashday loans, quidco etc, and the interest alone would be in the thousands if they had been taken out while he still lived at the address. We realised he must be getting the bank to print statements in branch, which contain his address and using these as proof of address when applying, so we went back to the bank and told them if they didnt put a hold on his account we were going to inform the police that it was being used for fraud, using our address. They agreed to put a hold on the account if they couldnt contact the holder and mail has finally stopped coming from them.

We now just open his mail, laugh at what an idiot he is and bin it all. If any debt collectors come we have our lease at hand to prove he doesnt live there and will refuse to let them enter.