dca letter addressed to ex

mandyl

hi
this is a bit of a strange one
today i came home to 4 brown envelopes adressed to my ex but at my adress.
i recognised the return adress on the back of one so opened it. it was from a dca saying they needed to speak to him on a personal matter etc etc etc.
now he isnt/wasnt the sort to have debts apart from our mortgage. we seperated 3yrs ago. do these dca send this sort of thi nk in hope of something ? or could they have meant me and put him instead? i know i shouldnt worry cos if its me its covered by my br and if its him well tough,but you know me thankyou

alastairq

hi, mandy you have several choices.

[1] you can bin all the letters?
[2] you can pop them back in the post with 'return to sender, not known at this address?'
[3] they can accidentally get opened, see if any of the account numbers match those you included in your BR...in which case, send to OR
[4] bin the letters...?
[5] bin the letters properly?

Merry Xmas

Ineedaname

As it is actually illegal to open mail not addressed to you it should be put back in the post marked clearly "not known at this address".

I believe even the Royal Mail are not allowed to open mail in a sorting office, it has to be sent to a special department that is legally empowered to open mail.

custardy

Ineedaname wrote: »

As it is actually illegal to open mail not addressed to you it should be put back in the post marked clearly "not known at this address".

I believe even the Royal Mail are not allowed to open mail in a sorting office, it has to be sent to a special department that is legally empowered to open mail.

its not illegal
it is if its to the recipients detriment
RM are liable under postal laws,so its a different matter

alastairq

[3] they can accidentally get opened, see if any of the account numbers match those you included in your BR...in which case, send to OR

as I said....however, who is going to know?

mandyl

thankyou alistair never thought about looking the account no up. i will do this if i receive anymore. i binned them in the end as i thought he doesnt flipping well live here!
i worked for royal mail for 4yrs so iam surprised they even came here. they better come arrest me then inan as when we were together i opened all the post for 15yrs!

Ineedaname

Opening post for a partner is slightly different as you can have an agreement between you to do that, permission if you like.

Having worked for RM Mandy, surely you would be aware that they have a legal duty to deliver post where it is addressed.

Custardy - until the post is opened you wouldn't know if it was to the recipient's detriment. The law is there to protect people from having their post opened, particularly in mutliple occupancy addresses, if it didn't exist then anyone could open post that arrives through the door, even if it's for a lodger!

Ineedaname

OK, finally found this on a law site, hopefully it clarifies the matter for everyone. I wasn't ever suggesting Mandy might be prosecuted for opening the post, just that if it's not addressed to the person opening it then they really should have a good reason for opening it.

The article does say the post shouldn't be binned either... I've always done "return to sender, not known at this address" for any post not addressed to me. It's sensible to do these days anyway due to mailing lists being sold on so frequently. If you don't return it the sender doesn't mark their mailing list accordingly and could sell on that combination of name and address, meaning you get even more mail for the wrong person!

System

I would take that page with a pinch of salt.

How they can state

This, in essence, means that if you deliberately intercept, throw away or open somebody else’s post you are likely to be breaking the law.

when the act says

“A person commits an offence if intending to act to a person’s detriment and without reasonable excuse, he opens a postal packet which he knows or reasonably suspects has been incorrectly delivered to him.”

is beyond me.

You are not acting in the person's detriment by opening it

Ineedaname

The operative word in the first sentence you quote is "likely". It doesn't say you categorically will be committing an offence. It's a very difficult one to prove or disprove.

The Act itself is clear in that you need a reasonable excuse to open someone else's post. So if you did open it and that person reported you and it ever got to Court then you would need to prove you had a reasonable excuse, whereas the person who's post it was would need to prove it was to their detriment that the post was opened.

So it is illegal, although difficult to prove either way.

mandyl

tbh who cares eh, lol
sorry i probably should but i dont. hes an !!!! i know you werent suggesting anything inan
he couldnt even tell me that his nan who i classed as mine and she classed as her grand daughter. had died last year! as for opening post i knew it had to be a dca as sadly i recognised the return adress. otherwise i wouldnt have opened one.