Still getting letters for previous owners

Locky

If people just bin the letters, won't they keep on coming?

I hope those that do get rid of them are recycling rather than just binning!

Lovelyjoolz

martindow wrote: »

In a situation like this I wrote 'deceased please return to sender' on each letter and popped them in a post box. The post stopped very quickly as it can create bad publicity for companies sending lots of letters to dead people.

I'm VERY tempted to do this, because "Return to Sender" isn't working. Our PO's evidently had a redirection in place for 12 months because we had nothing for them for a while. But we've been here for 21 months now and we've been receiving mail for the past 9.

Most of it is innocuous and goes straight in the bin (Tesco Clubcard vouchers, trade magazines Etc) but we have received a few letters from financial institutions, including share certificates and pension forecasts AND we even received mail from the DWP last week. It's starting to annoy me and I've had enough.

Perhaps if I write DECEASED instead of "Not at this address" they'll stop coming? :rotfl:

I'm only half joking.....

Dave_the_Ginger_Cat

propertyman wrote: »

1 Open letter extract name address and reference number

2 You write to them

I am Mr Smith who bought the house/rented the house on the xx, which they can verify on the electoral roll and credit dbs.

I was not provided with a forwarding address but understand they moved to (say) London or Cumbria.

Any future letters will be binned and I would appreciate it if you would cease writing to this address.

3 Insert letter into envelope seal and Mark Return To Sender.

:rotfl:In the case of one flat I owned I had a photo of the old owners grave to prove that he was dead and unlikely to reply to show to the collectors.:eek:

I got so annoyed with my former owners, I sat one night at my PC and traced them using google. I then wrote a letter which I print off and send back in every letter I receive, which included what I had found out and the source of all this information. It also included the name of the solicitors who acted for the sellers.

It was delightfully effective, as it saved them some money and has reduceed my post most promptly.

anotheruser

Maybe write on it "send debt collector to house to get paid", then if on the odd chance someone does, you can speak to them and they can see you are not the addressee of the letter.

BurnleyBob

I've had an avalanche of mail from debt collection agencies addressed to five different people since purchasing this property in January. They arrived at 10 per day on average, and after a month of dutifully returning them to sender with 'not known...' scribbled on the front of each I became more than a little sucked off so opened them instead.

They were from outfits representing utility and mobile phone companies, the DWP, Sky and a very long list of payday money lenders. They all employed the same psychological tactics via threats of doorstep visits and plans to seek attachment to earnings orders. The most regular, insidious and annoying, though, came from TV Licensing, and someone representing them put a card through the front door when no-one was at home much to my annoyance as I would have enjoyed telling him or her to sod off. To my knowledge, they were the only people to follow through on a visit.

Latterly, I just slung them in the bin unopened which is the stress free option that I wished I'd taken from the beginning. The pesky mail is down to four or five a day at present.

Wyndham

We've been in our house for 9 years now, and still occassionaly get mail for the preivous occupier and another named person (i.e. it's addressed to both of them). About 2 years ago I wrote on it something along these lines:

"Return to sender, not at this address. Hasn't been at this address for several years and I'm fed up of returning mail to you. Please amend your records."

I'd love to be able to tell you that it worked, but we got another one about a month ago.....

Mylo_The_Moggy

When me & hubby first starting living together nearly 14 years ago we rented, & within the first few months we kept gettin mail for previous occupants. All various names.

I just wrote on "return to sender, new owner of house with new occupants living here." (Landlady had bought house 6 months before we moved in & we were her first tenants)

This went on for a fair while, then one week I'd finally had enough of seeing the same official looking mail coming through the door & always addressed to 3 different ppl, and I had a fair idea they were from debt collection agencies. So I opened them; I was certainly right as bailiffs were due to be sent round to take items to the value of owed debt. According to other sources the house had even been blacklisted. :shocked: The house had been previously tenanted numerous times before eventually being sold.
I was on the phone quicker than flash lightening explaining no such person lived there, hadn't done for around a year or so, & house had been sold on.

After a few other calls to various companies it was finally all sorted.
Never heard from any of them again thankfully.
The only one we occasionally got every few years was for a guy who kept being chased for a credit card debt. I rang them but they still sent letters out, so I just sent them back RTS. Eventually I binned them. After 13 years they were still being chased! Whoever lives there now will probably still get them lol. :D

Really don't know how ppl run up such debts & credit then just do a bunk & are never found. It it were me, I'd be caught, hung, drawn and quartered before I could say "see ya in the next life"!!!!!

[Deleted User]

How come it's always debt collection demands or spam, never a magazine subscription or something else you might actually welcome?

Windsorcastle

evoke wrote: »

I might just open them and call the companies as it is getting tiring. Would I be committing an offence if I did so?

I would definitely do that as I would be very suspicious that this person is using your address to run up bad debt. However, one tiny word of caution - I lived in a place several years ago where I kept getting HMRC letters for a previous occupant. Kept sending them back 'not known' but they kept arriving. The only reason I ended up opening one was because I thought the poor person was probably missing out on all sorts of tax demands and would be getting in trouble. So I opened one letter and rang HMRC to explain, quoting this person's NI number. The jobsworth on the line was really snotty, telling me it was an offence to open someone else's letter or to be in possession of someone else's NI number. It was a bloomin' cheek really, as I told her!

So - no you're not entitled to open them, but I would do anyway, because you have to protect your own interests and make sure fraud isn't being committed at your address.

Windsorcastle

anotheruser wrote: »

Maybe write on it "send debt collector to house to get paid", then if on the odd chance someone does, you can speak to them and they can see you are not the addressee of the letter.

On a similar note - I went round to check on my empty property that I'm currently selling a couple of weeks ago, and found a bailiff's letter through the door, telling me they had called that very morning to seize goods to the value of £2000!! They had actually called at the wrong house (flats next door share the same number) and no-ne of that name ever lived at my place, but it was a shocker for a moment!!

I was straight onto the number on the card and told them they had called at my elderly mother's home and how the **** dare they etc etc. Got a grovelling apology so at least that made me feel a bit happier...