What would you do? New owner and letters coming.

Section62

london21 said:

No the vendor wasn't.
The property was an auction property, there were tenants here before.

might have to change the locks, dont think the neighbour has access in just left a note at the door for the post man previously which i took down upon completion.

Make changing the locks the next thing you do. Like today, or tomorrow if today isn't possible.

You have no way of knowing who has keys, and if it is ex-rental the number of potential keyholders makes it even more of a risk.

Mistral001

The note on the door was addressed to the postman and not the new occupier.  The postman obviously has ignored the note.  

You cannot be expected to hand over mail delivered to your address just because someone askes you to.  So no matter how nice the neighbour might seem, I would not give the mail to them.

If debt collectors call, would showing ID help to convince them that you are not the previous owner?  That and correspondence addressed to you in connection with the house purchase.

74jax

london21 said:

Section62 said

Was the vendor living in the property up to the completion date? If not, what was happening to their post up to then? Is it possible the neighbour has(/had) a key and was letting themselves in to collect the mail?

No the vendor wasn't.
The property was an auction property, there were tenants here before.

might have to change the locks, dont think the neighbour has access in just left a note at the door for the post man previously which i took down upon completion.

I would always change the locks on a purchase. 

Sunsaru

london21 said:

Section62 said

Was the vendor living in the property up to the completion date? If not, what was happening to their post up to then? Is it possible the neighbour has(/had) a key and was letting themselves in to collect the mail?

No the vendor wasn't.
The property was an auction property, there were tenants here before.

might have to change the locks, dont think the neighbour has access in just left a note at the door for the post man previously which i took down upon completion.

Might? No, MUST! God knows how many spare keys are laying around in ex tenants pockets.

pinkteapot

eddddy said:

FWIW, if you return letters to debt collectors marked "gone away" etc, they won't believe you. Because lots of people who owe money try to trick debt collectors like that.

They probably will.... I've received letters from debt companies to former owners/tenants at various houses over the years. Every single time I phone the company and say they person's moved. They've always believed me and the letters have stopped. To be honest it's always seemed a bit too easy!?!

MaryNB

pinkteapot said:

eddddy said:

FWIW, if you return letters to debt collectors marked "gone away" etc, they won't believe you. Because lots of people who owe money try to trick debt collectors like that.

They probably will.... I've received letters from debt companies to former owners/tenants at various houses over the years. Every single time I phone the company and say they person's moved. They've always believed me and the letters have stopped. To be honest it's always seemed a bit too easy!?!

I tried that. I didn't ring the debt collectors, I rang the companies the debts were owed to. They were really polite but one told me they legally had to send the letters to her last known address if they wanted to continue pursuing the debt (I presumed they meant something along the lines of if it went to court they had to show they had given written notification). Took another few months of returning the letters to sender before they stopped.

[Deleted User]

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london21

Section62 said:

Jr. london21 said:

No the vendor wasn't.
The property was an auction property, there were tenants here before.

might have to change the locks, dont think the neighbour has access in just left a note at the door for the post man previously which i took down upon completion.

Make changing the locks the next thing you do. Like today, or tomorrow if today isn't possible.

You have no way of knowing who has keys, and if it is ex-rental the number of potential keyholders makes it even more of a risk.

Thanks will do ASAP. You are right as the auctioneers had a key safe with easy code to guess. 

hackneylou

I personally would have been giving the letters to the neighbour but with the message that I'm only going to do that for the first month, after that they will be returned to sended or binned, so the sellers need to sort out a redirection service.   

HampshireH

I feel that changing the locks should be more of a priority than some letters. When not doing so could cause major disruption compared to a minor inconvenience