Why would someone not redirect their post?

thegreenone

I think I need to show my eldest son this thread.    

For about a month after moving here, we used to get telephone calls from various desk sergeants at a South London Police station asking if the former owner would do some more shifts that week.  I left her a message once and then suggested they catch up with the former owner and ask for her new address and phone number. 

olgadapolga

The previous tenants of a property we rented for a while didn't have a redirection in place, probably because they didn't have the cash to set it up. 

The LA, when they gave us the keys, stated that we should expect debt collection letters/visits as previous tenants owed a lot of money to a lot of people. 

They weren't wrong. It got to a point whereby I kept the tenancy agreement to hand whenever I answered the door. I just used to RTS all mail. 

One day, almost a year after we'd moved in, the previous tenants knocked on the door asking for their post as they were expecting one from HMRC. Yeah, sorry but that got RTS'd as well. They weren't very happy with me but then I wasn't very happy with them as I'd had to deal with what they left behind, including bills from British Gas. I didn't see why I should pay their energy bills for them. Right up until we left, we were still getting birthday and Christmas cards for them.  

Scotbot

user1977 said:

LittleMissDetermined said:

The worry for me is that if they're not updating their address, what happens if they have debts and end up with bailiffs or worse?  

Why would that be a worry for you? If bailiffs ever come calling (and I suspect they're not going to bother without some preliminary checks that the address is up to date) you just tell them the previous owners have moved. They'll be used to it.

Happened to me. Previous owner lady who was in her 80s left no forwarding address which I thought strange. I didn't move in until renovation done 6 months later. Been there a couple of months when the bailiffs turned up. I gave them evidence I was the occupier, a utility bill, and never heard from them again

Tokmon

london21 said:

I also experienced this, the neighbour had said if they get letters I should give it to her. I informed her that they would have to do a redirection.

They have done a redirection but still get letters occasionally and just write return to sender, the addressed person no longer lives here.

The redirection has a limit of 4 people I think so some other people’s name still comes through. I find that the numbers have reduced since I have started returning to sender.

It’s been 4 months since I moved in and the neighbour asked the other day that previous occupants are expecting an important letter, if its important wonder why they cant just change their address.

You can redirect for up to 8 people online and more if you go into the post office to do it.

rexmedorum said:

why don't people redirect?
other than previously mentioned:
- you can't redirect abroad (last time we moved anyway)
- it'll only be fore a sert number of names, some people / companes insist in using part of the name which might g through

-You can redirect abroad (but I'm not sure when that started)
-There is a box on the form where they will redirect (all variants of the first names given) and that also covers initials so all letters should go through unless nicknames are used or incorrect spellings.

Tokmon

I recently moved and saved 3 weeks of post and gave this to the estate agent to forward on and everything since then i have just done return to sender.

I setup a redirection as soon as i knew the completion date and made a list of everything i needed to change my address on (which was quite a lot!) and only got one letter redirected from the couple days after moving and nothing since. So 3 weeks is plenty of time to sort it and any letters after that i think it's fair to assume they don't care about.

TBagpuss

Nifty_Purse said:

Just adding this:

Postal Services Act 2000:

"Interfering with the mail: general.

(1)A person commits an offence if, without reasonable excuse, he—

(a)intentionally delays or opens a postal packet in the course of its transmission by post,

and

(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."

Postal Services Act 2000:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/26/section/84

Yeah - relevant sections highlighted. If you live there, you have a reasonable excuse to open it to try to work out how important  it is / send it on / send it back (not to mention, if you live alone or depending on your arrangements with your spouse or partner, you may well open it automatically as there's a reasonable assumption that it's for you.  I live by myself, I don't always look at the address before opening my post, unless it's something like a large parcel when I don't remember having ordered anything! 

. Also  if it is correctly addressed and has been delivered to the address on the envelope then it is no longer 'in the course of transmission by post' and it's also arguable that it has not been incorrectly delivered  a letter addressed to your neighbour but put through your door, however, has been incorrectly delivered)

TBagpuss

Tokmon said:

london21 said:

I also experienced this, the neighbour had said if they get letters I should give it to her. I informed her that they would have to do a redirection.

They have done a redirection but still get letters occasionally and just write return to sender, the addressed person no longer lives here.

The redirection has a limit of 4 people I think so some other people’s name still comes through. I find that the numbers have reduced since I have started returning to sender.

It’s been 4 months since I moved in and the neighbour asked the other day that previous occupants are expecting an important letter, if its important wonder why they cant just change their address.

You can redirect for up to 8 people online and more if you go into the post office to do it.

rexmedorum said:

why don't people redirect?
other than previously mentioned:
- you can't redirect abroad (last time we moved anyway)
- it'll only be fore a sert number of names, some people / companes insist in using part of the name which might g through

-You can redirect abroad (but I'm not sure when that started)
-There is a box on the form where they will redirect (all variants of the first names given) and that also covers initials so all letters should go through unless nicknames are used or incorrect spellings.

I *think* that the redirection is done by the individual postal worker who delivers the mail, so you will get as few slip through if they don't notice the name, or possibly of someone different does the round . I moved back in with my parents temporarily when I did a long distance move and was waiting to sell my house -when I oved out I did get my post redirected but obviously they sent on any that slipped through.  Normally there were only very occasional  ones but then one week I got 5 or 6 - I commented on it to my mum and she said she thought their normal postman was on holiday or sick, as someone different had been ding the round that week.

user1977

TBagpuss said:

Nifty_Purse said:

Just adding this:

Postal Services Act 2000:

"Interfering with the mail: general.

(1)A person commits an offence if, without reasonable excuse, he—

(a)intentionally delays or opens a postal packet in the course of its transmission by post,

and

(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."

Postal Services Act 2000:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/26/section/84

it's also arguable that it has not been incorrectly delivered  

Not merely "arguable" - the Act defines what it means by "correct delivery", and it's by reference to the address, not the name.

Silvertabby

user1977 said:

TBagpuss said:

Nifty_Purse said:

Just adding this:

Postal Services Act 2000:

"Interfering with the mail: general.

(1)A person commits an offence if, without reasonable excuse, he—

(a)intentionally delays or opens a postal packet in the course of its transmission by post,

and

(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."

Postal Services Act 2000:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/26/section/84

it's also arguable that it has not been incorrectly delivered  

Not merely "arguable" - the Act defines what it means by "correct delivery", and it's by reference to the address, not the name.

We bought our house as a new build, so don't have a problem with previous owners mail.

However, we did receive a letter addressed to Mr X, C/O our address.  Concerned that someone was using our address for nefarious reasons we opened it ... to find a cheque for over £1K.  Rang the company who had sent it, to be told that the house number supplied wasn't clear, and that they had gone for a 'best guess' in the hope that, if it wasn't right, we would pass it on.

Found the chap in the telephone directory, and handed over the letter/cheque with an explanation as to why we had opened it.

Good job we are honest folks!

gingercordial

TBagpuss said:

I *think* that the redirection is done by the individual postal worker who delivers the mail, so you will get as few slip through if they don't notice the name, or possibly of someone different does the round . I moved back in with my parents temporarily when I did a long distance move and was waiting to sell my house -when I oved out I did get my post redirected but obviously they sent on any that slipped through.  Normally there were only very occasional  ones but then one week I got 5 or 6 - I commented on it to my mum and she said she thought their normal postman was on holiday or sick, as someone different had been ding the round that week.

Yes it is done by the posties, and they aren't perfect (who is?) but some take more care than others.  I had a terrible time with redirection when divorcing my ex-husband as I'd moved out and only redirected my name, but they kept redirecting his post to my new address too, sometimes several items per week despite my repeated formal complaints.  He took this as some kind of deliberate act on my part to either wind him up or gain some sort of advantage in the legal proceedings, so that made things very awkward.      

Fast forward to now: we bought a house a year ago and the family still haven't bothered to do any redirection.  Right from the start we've had all sorts through for all of them every week - banks, insurance companies, NHS, HMRC, DVLA as well as various Amazon and eBay parcels.  We reject packages if we get the opportunity, and put some things back in the post as return to sender if they look really important or we are feeling nice (most recently this week some obvious concert/theatre tickets arrived from Ticketmaster addressed to one of their kids) but there was no goodwill in the house buying process and there is SO much of it, I have to admit most of it goes straight into the recycling bin.  You'd have thought they'd have noticed a complete lack of post for the last year!