Name change and County court letters

buuuug

Hi,

I changed my full name back in 2007 and occasionally receive mail in old name which i return in the post, i also do this with mail addressed to former residents (which is seriously a lot of correspondance oddly)

This morning i received a letter to old name but can make out my local county court as a stamp on the front. Obviously a bit anxious at this.

Should i still return it (although i still receive volumes of mail for people although i have lived here since 2004!) or should i open it?

Legally i had to relinquish old name, havent used it since 2007, so if i open and engage in correspondance am i committing an illegal act as its not my mail?

I am confused to what i should do.

Ta

Nat.

sarahg1969

If I were you I'd open it. It's not illegal to open post once it's been delivered, even if it's not addressed to you (which this letter actually is).

If it has a county court stamp, it may be a summons, and you don't want to risk getting a CCJ against your name because you've ignored the letters.

Forwandert

Why are you actively returning mail sent in your old name? Surely that just means you haven't contacted the relevant companies to explain you've changed your name and given your new name. Which could possibly mean you think your new name entitles you to ignore anything in your previous name which it doesn't any debts etc are still yours.

In order for you to get a court letter in your old name its fairly clear you've sent back other possible debt letters as not yours or not known.

buuuug

Hi,

No, i do not think i am entitled to anything over and above anyone else and neither am i trying to be evasive to old debts, its more a question of security and wanting to do the right thing legally.

I had informed all relevant parties at the time of the name change so any communication all these years on is unexpected. As to returned mail, its usually junk mailshot type mail, nothing obvious of note which is why i had not asked earlier and treated it just the same as the vast quantity of other peoples mail that still comes here sadly.

Thanks for the straw poll!

Johno100

Lets give the OP the benefit of the doubt. I'm sure he/she realises that they can't simply change their name and forget about any outstanding debts they had under the old name.

The OP is clearly interested in his/her historic finances or they wouldn't have started another thread a few months ago about making PPI claims for financial products sold to him/her prior to the name change. If successful I'm sure they won't return those letters unopened if they bear the wrong name.

Forwandert

buuuug wrote: »

its more a question of security and wanting to do the right thing legally.

The fact your asking the question in the first place points to the motives behind it. Why ask if you have to open a court letter addressed to yourself. (Which it is the name change isn't relevant)

You have a court letter if its for a debt chances are you have received previous letters requesting payment from whoever has issued the court summons. So you should know what the court letter is about unless you have sent back previous letters or ignored them

unholyangel

Well you are the intended recipient, just you've changed your name.

But even if you werent.....its not against the law to open someone elses mail providing that you're not doing so with the intention of using the information for fraud etc.

arcon5

Why would it be illegal or compromise security for opening mail intended for you ?? :huh:

You say it's not your mail -- yes it is! Seems to me you want there to be a legal distinction between old name and new name, probably to avoid paying. Maybe i'm just skeptical, maybe not but the whole story and reasons seem wholly illogical.

buuuug

Thanks Johno100, its nice to see good people raise their heads every once and a while over a baying crowd.

This is a support forum, stop trying to shoot someone BECAUSE they are asking whats the best/right/legal thing to do.

If i were a bad person then i wouldnt have asked the question in the first place.

Blimey

Forwandert

buuuug wrote: »

If i were a bad person then i wouldnt have asked the question in the first place.

Blimey

Which means you would have continued to return any post with your previous name to the sender which is what you state you have done until now. The only reason you posted is because its a court letter so now your slightly concerned about continuing to ignore.

Just out of interest what do you write on the post you return so they don't continue to resend?

ticktack_2

buuuug wrote: »

I changed my full name back in 2007 and occasionally receive mail in old name which i return in the post, i also do this with mail addressed to former residents (which is seriously a lot of correspondance oddly)

I changed my name a few years ago, and had to notify everyone. It's easy to accidentally leave people out who you should have notified. Even now, I occasionally get mail under my old name.

Agreeing to relinquish your previous name doesn't mean that mail addressed to you is not your mail. It just means you need to tell the sender about your name change. Same as if they had misspelt your name -- you need to correct it, and you can't do that if you just send the mail back. Instead, you should contact the sender and explain that you've changed your name. If it's marketing mail which you don't want, ask them to remove you from their marketing list. If it's NOT marketing mail, you then can deal with the matter under your new name.

It's ok to return mail addressed to former residents, but it won't accomplish what you really probably want, which is for mail addressed to former residents to stop coming. For this you need to contact the sender and tell them the person's not at that address any more, and ask them to remove the name and address from their marketing list. This works very well. You can usually find an email address for the company, so it needn't cost you anything.