Old owners post

Skiddaw1

We didn't set up a post-redirect service this time but we made sure we'd sorted out change of address with everyone we could possibly think of. Our buyers very kindly forwarded some mail to us a few weeks after the move (most of which was junk- the remainder was a couple of letters to our old address from various official bodies to notify us that they'd updated our address details ). We replied with a thank-you note plus some money to cover the postage (and asked them just to 'return to sender' if anything else turned up).

lincroft1710

Only last week I had a letter from McCarthy and Stone (advertising one of their new developments in the area) addressed to the previous owners of my home. It is almost 22 years since I bought the house!

Slinky

The tenant who rented our house before we moved into it ourselves didn't bother with a redirect, mainly because it's been fairly obvious people were chasing him for money (which given our experience with him didn't come as a surprise). He didn't give us a forwarding address either. By accident last week I opened a letter addressed to him which turned about to be a letter advising  him a cheque for compensation was coming his way. That arrived a day or so later and has been returned to sender. Wonder if he'll ever get that £500 odd quid.....

LilElvis

lincroft1710 said:

Only last week I had a letter from McCarthy and Stone (advertising one of their new developments in the area) addressed to the previous owners of my home. It is almost 22 years since I bought the house!

I thought coming up for 16 years of receiving a monthly Amex statement (no transactions, just a £15 unchanging credit) for the previous owner was going to take some beating - but you've really topped that! Can't even send the stupid statements back because they're sent from Fort Lauderdale, Florida - nearly 200 letters from USA to UK must have cost Amex a small fortune.

spadoosh

I dont get why this causes problems for people?

I moved in my house in 2011, i still get about 5 letters every month for the previous occupants. Letters get put in piles, so my pile, my wifes pile, junk mail pile which includes the previous occupants. When the piles get to big we deal with them, it usually means putting most of it in the bin. 

Previous occupant was a Councillor, every year she gets sent a christmas card from a local muslim community centre. Were early 30's so not really the generation for sending christmas cards as such we display hers to make us look more popular. Before you start the letter isnt addressed to an individual, but her name is on the inside and yeh we still do it anyway! Im a G, what can i say? 

We get a few letters for a similarly named/postcoded street every now and then, ill go and drop those off as clearly misposted. But with regards to the previous occupant my effort is limited to putting rubbish thats in my house in to a bin. So far no debt collectors have come knocking so guessing what gets sent is rubbish. 

n.hussain03

It's nice to hear however other people have been dealing with it. For the first 2 months they had left a note saying leaving mail with the guy next door. So I did for the first two months but the previous owners starting taking the mickey and he got fed up. He told them that he would not be taking the mail, they still did not do anything about it. I started collecting the mail and once a month sent them all back. Eventually they did setup a redirect. It has reduced considerably however letters from HMRC are still appearing. I will continue to send it back. The good thing is there is no too much marketing material, it all does seem to be 'real mail.

iampetesmith

The previous owner of our house had a redirect on and we still had a few bits of his post. They only moved 5 mins down the road, so I went about 2 or 3 times to take it which he appreciated. He seemed confused as to why we were still getting a couple of their letters even with the redirect on (it wasn't many, so it's not like we were getting all of their post). It seems to have stopped altogether now and we've only been in the house for 4 months, so I think that even though the redirect is on it doesn't always get redirected.

davidmcn

iampetesmith said:

He seemed confused as to why we were still getting a couple of their letters even with the redirect on

I think it's administered by your own postie, rather than anything more automated at the sorting office, so depends on them remembering you have a redirect when they're sorting their round. Which may of course become less reliable if it's not the same postie every day.

brianposter

Why is it so difficult to write the new address on the envelope and stick it in the post ?

n.hussain03

brianposter said:

Why is it so difficult to write the new address on the envelope and stick it in the post ?

The previous owner did not leave any forwarding address. Also very strangely I get mail for 5/6 different people, no idea how many people were living at the house.