Redirecting mail - need proof of address

fluffymuffy

I need to redirect my relative's mail now that I've sold their house. (They've gone into a nursing home and I have power of attorney).

The post office redirection form requires me to provide a certified copy of the Power of Attorney - which I have, and a cheque for the fee with my name stated as PoA - which I have, 

but, they also want a utility bill or bank statement  (less than 6 months old) which must not be printed off the Internet, and instead must be a paper copy provided by the utility company  (/bank). We even phoned the Royal Mail redirection people to check. 

I do everything online and just don't get these things in the post anymore. 

In March we'll get our council tax bill. But I need something now. Any ideas?

user1977

Ask the bank (or somebody else acceptable) to post something? Sometimes you can request ad hoc statements or the like. 

p00hsticks

Check with the relevant banks / utility companies but in my experience they recognise the occasional need for people who've gone paperless to require a paper statement for ID purposes and have an online option to request one - I know Halifax do for one.

[As an aside - I'm surprised that you need all that info - I recently set up a mail redirection online as far as I recall I didn't need to provide any proof of ID at all - certainly not have to send anytihng away on paper. Al lthey wanted was the names of whose mail I wanted redirected and the old and new addresses, We received mail to the old address addressed to 'the occupier' which presumably would have alerted anyone who'd had their mail redirected fraudulently.  ]

sheramber

It may be to do with the POA.

fluffymuffy

sheramber said:

It may be to do with the POA.

Yup.  - It's a special form to fill in. Can't be done online. I have to take it to the post office, or post it.

I've now ordered a paper copy of my bank statement.

And I've switched back to paper bank statements for the future too, so I won't be caught out like this again.

newsgroupmonkey_

Just throwing it out there, but Utllity bills often come as a PDF - if they bill you, they simple print out the same PDF.

If you were to print out the PDF on a decent quality colour printer, I'm not sure how they would tell.

Murphybear

p00hsticks said:

Check with the relevant banks / utility companies but in my experience they recognise the occasional need for people who've gone paperless to require a paper statement for ID purposes and have an online option to request one - I know Halifax do for one.

[As an aside - I'm surprised that you need all that info - I recently set up a mail redirection online as far as I recall I didn't need to provide any proof of ID at all - certainly not have to send anytihng away on paper. Al lthey wanted was the names of whose mail I wanted redirected and the old and new addresses, We received mail to the old address addressed to 'the occupier' which presumably would have alerted anyone who'd had their mail redirected fraudulently.  ]

Little tale if you don’t mind.

A good few years ago you didn’t need proof of ID or old/new address.  There was a case where a rather enthusiastic fan of a British tv/film celebrity got hold of this persons address and set up a redirection to their home address.  It got resolved but one result  was the redirection rules were tightened up a lot.  I remember this because I worked in the business at the time, 

p00hsticks

Murphybear said:

p00hsticks said:

Check with the relevant banks / utility companies but in my experience they recognise the occasional need for people who've gone paperless to require a paper statement for ID purposes and have an online option to request one - I know Halifax do for one.

[As an aside - I'm surprised that you need all that info - I recently set up a mail redirection online as far as I recall I didn't need to provide any proof of ID at all - certainly not have to send anytihng away on paper. Al lthey wanted was the names of whose mail I wanted redirected and the old and new addresses, We received mail to the old address addressed to 'the occupier' which presumably would have alerted anyone who'd had their mail redirected fraudulently.  ]

Little tale if you don’t mind.

A good few years ago you didn’t need proof of ID or old/new address.  There was a case where a rather enthusiastic fan of a British tv/film celebrity got hold of this persons address and set up a redirection to their home address.  It got resolved but one result  was the redirection rules were tightened up a lot.  I remember this because I worked in the business at the time, 

The one check that they did make, I now recall, is whether the address associated with the card payment made for the redirection was the same as the old address. In my case it wasn't (as I'd already changed my banking address to the new one) and they therefore proceeded to ask me some additional security questions. I can;t remember exactly what they were but it looks like they linked into the same credit check system I've had come up a few times before - i.e. pick a previous address you;ve lived at from a lsit of about five, give a timescale of when you last applied for credit etc....

fluffymuffy

So, I got a paper bill in the post from the water company.

And today I took it to the post office, along with my passport, the original copy of the Power of attorney document, and the redirection application form.

The person behind the counter looked at my passport, and took my money and stamped (and kept) my application form.

They didn't look at my proof of address, nor the PoA.

I was a bit disappointed it was so easy.

badger09

fluffymuffy said:

So, I got a paper bill in the post from the water company.

And today I took it to the post office, along with my passport, the original copy of the Power of attorney document, and the redirection application form.

The person behind the counter looked at my passport, and took my money and stamped (and kept) my application form.

They didn't look at my proof of address, nor the PoA.

I was a bit disappointed it was so easy.

RM's usual next step is to send letters to the person whose mail is being redirected, to both the old and the new address. That's an extra precaution/alert to avoid mistaken/malicious redirections.

Gers

badger09 said:

fluffymuffy said:

So, I got a paper bill in the post from the water company.

And today I took it to the post office, along with my passport, the original copy of the Power of attorney document, and the redirection application form.

The person behind the counter looked at my passport, and took my money and stamped (and kept) my application form.

They didn't look at my proof of address, nor the PoA.

I was a bit disappointed it was so easy.

RM's usual next step is to send letters to the person whose mail is being redirected, to both the old and the new address. That's an extra precaution/alert to avoid mistaken/malicious redirections.

The letter I got from RM for the redirection of my deceased DM's mail was sent to 'the occupier' at her address.