RE: Tenants old Mail

LegallyLandlord

PierremontQuaker03 said:

HI all, thanks for looking. I am selling my house, which has previously been rented. The sale is going through and the house is empty. I have noticed I am getting lots of mail from Santander from a previous tenant - she must have left the house over 3 years ago. Anyway I opened one of the letters and it was a loan - only a small amount - but it had recently been taken out.  I have email the lady (with the email address I had for her at the time), I also have a forwarding address but I am not, after 3 years, going to forward the the mail, it should have been sorted out. Anyway, she has not responded to the email (I was not surprised, due to the sort of person she is - she left the house with issues, which I did not charge her for, because I was too soft). 
What are my options here? I could go to her forwarding address and speak to her, or is there an alternative - say contact Santander (I have been returning the mail back to Santander saying "No longer at this address", but that has not worked).  I know its only a minor issue, but I want it sorting out before the new home owner moves in.

Hi

As it's something that might have on-going financial implications for her, do the right thing. Email her to let her know, and also return the correspondence to the bank with No Longer at this Address as you and others have suggested. 

After you move on, it's not your problem any more, and you will have done someone a good turn. 

cymruchris

Print some labels 'Not known at this address, Royal Mail - please return to sender' and then place them on the envelope, single strike through of the address in black pen, and a highlighter on the return to sender address.

I've done something similar in relation to my parents post since they passed away, and every 'sender' has never sent another piece of mail since. (In my case I put 'Person has passed away, Royal Mail - please return to sender') 

eddddy

newsgroupmonkey_ said:

"Gone Away" is a weird thing to write. It implies someone's on holiday, or spending some time at His Majesty's Pleasure.

"No longer at this address" is the norm.

newsgroupmonkey_ said:

Royal Mail themselves say....

"If you receive mail intended for another person, such as a previous owner, it should be returned by marking the envelope ‘Return to Sender’ and placing it in any postbox."

Writing "Return to Sender" isn't very helpful - it doesn't explain why.

As others say "Addressee Gone Away" is the phrase Royal Mail use - but it's equally ok to write "No longer at this address"

Google will show you lots of examples of this on the world wide interweb net:

Schwarzwald

I got a stamp from amazon, £10.

within 2-3 months of stamping the letters and putting them back into the post boxes, addressed letters old tenants in the flat have completely dried up.

i wouldnt bother reaching out to any sende directly, not your issue if old tenants cant organize their lifes, you probably have better things to do.

£10 proved to be a good investment

GDB2222

We’re still getting stuff like Tesco vouchers for tenants who left 20 years ago. They have a name on the vouchers, so I don’t think that we can use those?

m0bov

theartfullodger said:

It is unlawful to open someone else's mail.

My experience of these matters is that the quality of glue on envelopes these days is terrible and it's amazing how many "fall open on the mat".  😇

No its not.

user1977

GDB2222 said:

We’re still getting stuff like Tesco vouchers for tenants who left 20 years ago. They have a name on the vouchers, so I don’t think that we can use those?

I think they're linked to the specific Clubcard, so no.

YoungBlueEyes

I once offered the woman behind me in the queue in Sainsburys all the (useless to me) vouchers that came with my receipt. Woman smiled and took them. Till girl said they’re linked to your nectar card so you can’t. 

pipscat

Question is, if she moved out 3 years ago why has she taken out a loan against her old address! Surely that's fraud? I'd be contacting Santander to let them know.

trix-a-belle

I had this at my previous house, the ex wife had moved back in with her new partner while the sale went through & he had set up an account with a standing order to her but after leaving didn't fund the account, cancel the standing order or shut the account down so without fail I had a letter every month saying the standing order hadn't gone through. I had no forwarding address for them & given they didn't change a lot of other things (DVLA & hospital stuff) I didn't have faith that they would do anything.
I sent the letters back to Lloyds with 'no longer at this address' marked on them for months with no action made by them so when I was in town I went into the nearest branch & asked them to remove my address from the account. They initially tried to get me to go to the branch it had been opened at (no, not my problem) but did eventually action my request and I didn't receive anything further.