A previous owner refuses to stop using our address for EVERYTHING!

arghhhh

Emmia said:

74jax said:

Emmia said:

arghhhh said:

HampshireH said:

arghhhh said:

theoretica said:

arghhhh said:

UPDATE: my husband just phoned and he said that the manager is going to talk to everyone and ask that they only post to the address and double check that, that is what they do. If in continues, the manager said our only other option is to apply for a cease and desist and take legal action against her.

I hope this refers to her abuse and actions and not the mail delivers handing over mail wrongly.

I wonder what will happen if she starts abusing the postmen and women for not handing letters and parcels over.

My husband has just seen her receive a letter hand delivered from a Royal Mail van, on a Sunday. I would imagine that it relates to our issue and I think it's probably because the postman and postwoman who normally deliver to us would have thought the same thing.

Does she literally live opposite? How would she know the mail van would arrive on a Sunday?

My husband said she looked surprised. He was outside and pointed her out to the postman. The land next door belongs to friends of hers and she's here all the time.

Have you thought about seeking legal advice regarding whether you can get an injunction to stop her coming round?

Honestly, I think writing to your MP on this is pointless - they have zero power to do anything that will help you on a practical basis.  The MP will write to Royal Mail who will respond with the fact they deliver to an address, regardless of who it is addressed to... and that's precisely your problem.

But that is not precisely the problem? 

RM ARE NOT delivering to the address. They are handing over the mail to the other person, so she is continuing to use the address.

@emmia we have got to page 10 of examples of RM refusing to deliver to the address, the post person separates the post and hands it to the other person. So they have no reason to change their address on anything. 

Yes, but the mail needs to stop - the problem is that the person is still having mail delivered to the address, some of which is handed over by the postie (writing to the MP won't change this) to the former owner. 

The OP is basically being harassed by the former owner, and yet does not seem to have investigated options for legal remedies such as an injunction requiring the former owner to change the address on their mail, and to stop coming to the property.  

If the mail is no longer coming the posties can't keep handing it over, can they?

These things can cost a lot of money. It is our absolute, last option and we'd have to look at the cost before doing it.

Pollycat

arghhhh said:

Emmia said:

74jax said:

Emmia said:

arghhhh said:

HampshireH said:

arghhhh said:

theoretica said:

arghhhh said:

UPDATE: my husband just phoned and he said that the manager is going to talk to everyone and ask that they only post to the address and double check that, that is what they do. If in continues, the manager said our only other option is to apply for a cease and desist and take legal action against her.

I hope this refers to her abuse and actions and not the mail delivers handing over mail wrongly.

I wonder what will happen if she starts abusing the postmen and women for not handing letters and parcels over.

My husband has just seen her receive a letter hand delivered from a Royal Mail van, on a Sunday. I would imagine that it relates to our issue and I think it's probably because the postman and postwoman who normally deliver to us would have thought the same thing.

Does she literally live opposite? How would she know the mail van would arrive on a Sunday?

My husband said she looked surprised. He was outside and pointed her out to the postman. The land next door belongs to friends of hers and she's here all the time.

Have you thought about seeking legal advice regarding whether you can get an injunction to stop her coming round?

Honestly, I think writing to your MP on this is pointless - they have zero power to do anything that will help you on a practical basis.  The MP will write to Royal Mail who will respond with the fact they deliver to an address, regardless of who it is addressed to... and that's precisely your problem.

But that is not precisely the problem? 

RM ARE NOT delivering to the address. They are handing over the mail to the other person, so she is continuing to use the address.

@emmia we have got to page 10 of examples of RM refusing to deliver to the address, the post person separates the post and hands it to the other person. So they have no reason to change their address on anything. 

Yes, but the mail needs to stop - the problem is that the person is still having mail delivered to the address, some of which is handed over by the postie (writing to the MP won't change this) to the former owner. 

The OP is basically being harassed by the former owner, and yet does not seem to have investigated options for legal remedies such as an injunction requiring the former owner to change the address on their mail, and to stop coming to the property.  

If the mail is no longer coming the posties can't keep handing it over, can they?

These things can cost a lot of money. It is our absolute, last option and we'd have to look at the cost before doing it.

You need to make sure Royal Mail fulfills its obligation  

to deliver to the address on an item, and not the name. So there can be situations when we deliver items to your address which aren't in your name, but not the other way round.

I would have put this in writing to RM years ago and then escalated it through RM complaints and involved my MP if they continued to fail in their obligation.

arghhhh

I was hoping to email them yesterday, but I can't find an email address. It's in writing and getting posted today.

Emmia

arghhhh said:

This is a really weird problem that I can't quite believe is even a problem, but it is. 

A person who owned our house over 7 years ago is using our address. This person moved, but not far and is using our address. The first couple of years, we passed mail and packages on, feeling they would do what we were doing with our old address. We paid for a few years to redirect mail from our old address and we cancelled the junk mail as and when we received it. This was not the case with this person though. This person, who we have now come to realise may not be mentally well, has stated that this is her address and we can share it with her, but we should consider changing our address. The thing is, if we change our address, the address this person is using will cease to exist, but they don't seem to understand. This person is in their late 50s at least, but what makes matters worse is that this person is aggressive too. After this person physically assaulted me a couple of years ago, I googled to see how I could legally get this person to stop and it turns out - nothing! I was directed to Action Fraud which I found very stressful (I'm autistic and don't like using phones). They told me to return every letter and parcel to the sender, log (with them) and refuse where possible. I did this that day (we get mail practically every day!) and we'd had three parcels from the same company returned within about 4 days which resulted in the police being called by Action Fraud and they spoke to this person. I was unaware that this had happened and the second my husband pulled up on our drive from work this person stormed over to him and began ranting and raving that the parcels were important and that they needed them. My husband tried to explain that they should use their address, but they then started yelling insults and telling us that this is their address. My children were in the house screaming and my husband came inside as this person was getting very aggressive. I was shaking with stress that this person keeps doing this to us and that we can't even be in our garden anymore. I'm a prisoner in my own home. My garden was my sanctuary before this. After not sleeping all night and thinking through what had just happened, I decided to call the police because this person is wrong and making our lives hell and maybe the police can explain it better, that this person should not be using our address. They explained it and told me that they had stated that they would no longer use our address and that we should continue to return to sender. That was almost a year ago and everything is the same. For the last couple of months, I began taking photos of the letters and parcels (front and back) to log the volume and dates before I return them. If the letter or parcel has a return address I have also started writing/calling the senders to notify them that this person is using our address without consent. I've only done this about four times so far as most haven't had return details on them. The latest two from last week have been a parcel, which turned out to be a brushing scam and we can't address it as it's our address but not our name. The second had the return address for the DBS! I have had a (CRB as it was once called) in the past and recognise what this was. This person has had a criminal record check using our address and to do this must have at least two other proof of ID documents in her name at our address, which could be a passport, credit card, driving licence, insurance etc... This is illegal in many areas of the law, but after my husband took the unopened letters to the police they have said that there is nothing that they can do and we should continue to return everything. This is an ongoing dispute, so if we decide to sell, it will impact the saleability of our house. At the very least, I expected them to investigate it as they work as a nurse and could be hiding something; surely it's a safeguarding issue, but they said no. I have contacted DBS today and they said they can just put a note on this person's file to be investigated but they will not be able to take any legal action! I don't understand what the point of a DBS check is, if it's so easy to lie on one and have no consequences. We're in limbo. It's a full time job, logging and returning mail. We are in a isolated area and a post box isn't exactly local, plus I can't drive. Any advice, at all would be welcome regarding how I can get this to stop. I need this person to stop having an excuse to come in our garden.

I've read all 10 pages, and based on the first post the mail is being received by the OP, rather than being delivered incorrectly by the posties - is that not true? 

The OP is clearly suffering from harassment, and has installed fencing, gates and CCTV - but has not looked at the option of an injunction, even using the free 30min consultation that many solicitors will offer. 

I'm ducking out now.

bouicca21

Filing for an injunction is free. Getting the police to issue a harassment warning is free. A formal complaint to RM costs at most a stamp. Installing CCTV and new fencing is expensive.  There’s something very odd about this thread.

arghhhh

bouicca21 said:

Filing for an injunction is free. Getting the police to issue a harassment warning is free. A formal complaint to RM costs at most a stamp. Installing CCTV and new fencing is expensive.  There’s something very odd about this thread.

I was told by the police that if I don't have proof of her doing what she has done, they can't do anything. They advised me to get CCTV cameras. I came here for help, which I've read and looked into. I didn't come here to be judged. I was updating for others who may have this issue. I came here as a last resort after Google returned nothing. I don't usually post on forums. Thanks to everyone that helped. I'm just repeating myself. I won't be posting again.

Chris_English

If it were me then in addition to the steps everyone’s advising (complaint, audit trail etc.) I’d stop posting the items back that do still arrive, and just bin them.

Teapot55

Hello @Argghhh. There’s been some suggestions on here that may work for you and some that possibly won’t. You will know best.

Whatever you decide, whatever course of action you follow, I wish you all the best for getting rid of this rotten situation that’s happening through no fault of yours. 

Kind regards, TP55

Teapot55

A few years back we were advised by the police that without video evidence of a local person dumping rubbish on our property they couldn’t proceed. We installed a camera. The rubbish dumping stopped. The verbal abuse continued if we walked past the person’s house. We ignored them. On advice from a family member we checked our smoke alarms were all working and were on the point of buying another for installing near the front door. 

Then one day the person’s house was empty. They’d upped and left. Don’t know why. Just relieved. 

elsien

arghhhh said:

I was hoping to email them yesterday, but I can't find an email address. It's in writing and getting posted today.

They have a complaints webform. When I used that they emailed back in response with a reference number and their acknowledgement included my complaint so there was a record, if that's any use to you? All further contact was via email.