Opening a wrongly addressed letter

50Twuncle

We keep on getting letters through our door - addressed to our next doors neighbours son - who apparently lives somewhere away from his parents

The letters have OUR house number on them
They all appear to come from a post code in Redruth, Corwall - TR15 1SH

This postcode is (amongst other companies) for a big debt collecting agency
Which concerns me - why is our address on their books ?
I can't believe that he would try the obvious answer with a next door neighbour - although I did have to block him from stealing our fibre internet connection last week (he suddenly appeared in our logs as "***'s phone" !)
I have checked using Experian and nothing has come up....


I could understand a small handwritten letter - but this is printed
So far, my wife has just reposted the letters through their letter box
But is it ILLEGAL to open a letter - with our address on it - just a "different recipient" - to see what is going on ?
What would YOU do ?

JReacher1

Just open it. You could say you did not notice it was addressed to someone else.

How did he steal your fibre broadband? Do you not have a password?

Mojisola

50Twuncle wrote: »

But is it ILLEGAL to open a letter - with our address on it - just a "different recipient" - to see what is going on ?

No, it isn't.

I would open the letter and contact the company, giving them the correct address.

50Twuncle

JReacher1 wrote: »

Just open it. You could say you did not notice it was addressed to someone else.

How did he steal your fibre broadband? Do you not have a password?

Yes of course I have a password - he must have used cracking software to bypass this
Now I use Wireless Access Rules to limit ANY connections !
He just appeared on my connections log - the idiot was not even capable of using a made up device name - it appeared as "***'s phone"

Money_maker

Return to sender. Not at your address.

50Twuncle

Money_maker wrote: »

Return to sender. Not at your address.

I was going to do that - but wondered whether he was trying to set up an account using our address - so wanted confirmation- before reporting to the police

50Twuncle

Mojisola wrote: »

No, it isn't.

I would open the letter and contact the company, giving them the correct address.

If we get another - this is what I will do
Thanks all

JReacher1

50Twuncle wrote: »

I was going to do that - but wondered whether he was trying to set up an account using our address - so wanted confirmation- before reporting to the police

Before going to the police have you thought about popping next door and asking them to stop?

It would seem a more sensible next step

pineapple

I think it very unlikely that anyone would be prosecuted for opening a letter in error. It must happen all the time. I rented previously and was getting lots of letters for a previous tenant. I mailed them all back religiously marking the enveloped 'not at this address'. But some kept coming and one day I genuinely did open one in error. It was from a debt collection agency. So I phoned them and explained. No more letters. It seems they weren't convinced when I simply returned them but speaking to them did the job.
Of course it goes without saying that you would never open someone else's mail on purpose

50Twuncle

JReacher1 wrote: »

Before going to the police have you thought about popping next door and asking them to stop?

It would seem a more sensible next step

The family are "wrong-uns" - Yes, it would be more sensible but I don't do sensible - he stole my connection that I pay for and no doubt would still be doing the same, had I not noticed !!

JReacher1

50Twuncle wrote: »

The family are "wrong-uns" - Yes, it would be more sensible but I don't do sensible - he stole my connection that I pay for and no doubt would still be doing the same, had I not noticed !!

Fair enough but will it not be obvious when the police turn up that you have reported them? I would assume that will make relations between you both very unpleasant.

Stealing broadband is not really crime of the century. I have unlimited internet and have let my neighbours tether onto it when they have had their own internet problems. It does not cost me anything.