Mail from old tenants

dodger1

BASFORDLAD wrote: »

Debt collectors have no right to this information. They have no powers

But if giving the debt collectors the information gets them off OP's back then it's good advice.

Yolina

When I bought my place many years ago, the previous occupier (flat was rented out by the previous owner) was owing money to many people given the number of letters coming for him. As he hadn't left a forwarding address, what I did was: anything with a return address would get sent back with "addressee unknown", anything without a return address I would open and contact whatever company explaining that the person they were after wasn't living there and could they please update their records.
Same with junk mail addressed to that person and after a few months I stopped getting all that rubbish through the letterbox!

I have to say that I do prefer the system we have back home (France) where post goes back to the sender automatically if the name on a letter and the name on the letterbox don't match.

propertyman

I bought our London flat as an investment

:eek:Debt collectors did call for the former owner, and in the end, we ended up keeping in the hallway a framed picture of his gravestone in the local cemetery..

martinsurrey

Kynthia wrote: »

Once post has been delivered to the address on it then I believe the law ends there. You are free to bin whatever you want. I personally would bin everything that looked like junk and write 'not known at this address' everything else putting it in the nearest post box. If after months you are still receiving a lot, I'd consider opening some of it and ringing the companies to tell them the address is no longer valid. You are not interferring with the delviery of mail or causing detriment to the addressee however opening others post is still a divisive issue.

wrong, it is illegal to open mail not addressed to you without permission.

See the citizens advice bureau link below.

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/wales/consumer_w/consumer_post_e/consumer_problems_with_post_e/consumer_problems_with_post_delivery_e/youre_receiving_someone_elses_mail.htm

RTS is the best option after a while.

zappahey

It looks to me that citizens advice is adding their own interpretation of what constitutes incorrectly delivered, so I'll add mine. If mail comes through my door, with my address on it, I take the view that it's correctly delivered and I'm opening it.

martinsurrey

From the legislation
(3) 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.
Nothing about to the property, mail is a personal thing. If it’s not got your name on it, its illegal and wrong to open it.

Slinky

martinsurrey wrote: »

From the legislation
(3) 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.
Nothing about to the property, mail is a personal thing. If it’s not got your name on it, its illegal and wrong to open it.

If there is no address on the back, RTS will not work, the post office no longer open and return mail to an address inside. I opened mail addressed to the mother of a previous tenant as there was no return address on it and I was fed up with it keep coming to my house. I found a contact telephone number and informed whoever it was who was sending the mail it was pointless sending it to my address as she didn't, and had never, lived there. They updated their records and the mail stopped.

I deemed my actions a reasonable excuse for opening the mail.

paul1964_2

martinsurrey wrote: »

From the legislation

(3) 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.
Nothing about to the property, mail is a personal thing. If it’s not got your name on it, its illegal and wrong to open it.

My bolding - did you miss this bit?

MrWillyWonka

Well, you won't believe what has happened today... Got home, found a note from Yodel about a package. Funny, I don't remember ordering anything. On it:

"Sofa in back"

Seems that the previous tenants ordered a new sofabed from a catalogue but neglected to change the address on their account.

So, I have a brand new sofabed in my back yard... Not bringing it in, too heavy and nowhere to put it.

propertyman wrote: »

:money:You can register previous occupants on the Mail preference service
http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/mpsr/mps_choosetype.html


Get a sheet of labels for your home printer- cheaper than a red stamp.

Brilliant idea, I will do that!

mossy

lol that is too funny!! Who wouldn't double check that the address was correct...bunch of muppets!! However, I would be careful because they may have ordered it on purpose to your address, say it's an accident pick it up from you and then the catalogue company will be coming to you door because it was delivered to your house!

We live in rented and particularly gets lots of mail for the last recipients who seem to owe several people money including Brighthouse!! They even tried to open an new account with a local branch of Bright house using our address!! I know this because a rep left a calling card at our house, needless to say I phoned the company to advise them that it 'appeared' they were being misled as the people were using their old address to open a new account, also asked them to stop other branches sending letters to our house!!

I RTS everything but still get stuff for them almost two years later...grr! I have taken to putting the letters in a blank envelope and put the RTS address on that WITHOUT a stamp in the hope that that would actually get returned and the extra cost would stop them sending us other peoples mail, I do think it has helped a little but I only resorted to that a year in to normal RTS!

Also the last tenants (who think they left the house in a reasonable condition and clean, although it took me a week to clean and be able to use the kitchen and the bathrooms!!) moved around the corner and ironically still had redirected mail from their previous property coming to our house after they'd moved out! :eek: They asked us to keep things back for them which I did once and they even asked me to drop stuff round to theirs. Needless to say, I keep that once pile of post the first time then after that told them I'd already RTS'd it! They seemed a bit surprised and put out :mad: but they didn't come again! I don't mind being helpful to others but they were taking the mickey. Glad I nipped it in the bud otherwise they would have been collecting mail for false accounts they'd set up at our address.