Threatening letters to previous owner

thegreenone

Did you just write RTS or put DECEASED RTS?

When my Mum died begging letters from a well known charity continued to arrive despite me RTS and writing to them.  On the sixth one I wrote SHES DEAD.  STOP SENDING LETTERS.  Brutal I know but I'd had enough.  They stopped.

So, if you know Mr F is definitely dead, perhaps something similar.

ThorOdinson

Tabieth said:

Don’t open them or throw them away. And certainly don’t involve the police! Just return them to sender with “no longer at this address” written on the envelope. It’s a faff but there’s really nothing to worry about. I had something very similar when I bought my house. A coupe of months of return-to-sender did the trick and They’ve now stopped. 

Complete waste of time and energy.

Tabieth

ThorOdinson said:

Tabieth said:

Don’t open them or throw them away. And certainly don’t involve the police! Just return them to sender with “no longer at this address” written on the envelope. It’s a faff but there’s really nothing to worry about. I had something very similar when I bought my house. A coupe of months of return-to-sender did the trick and They’ve now stopped. 

Complete waste of time and energy.

No. Not in my experience. I’ve done it after many different house moves and it’s worked, the unwanted mail has always stopped. It’s certainly more effective than just throwing them into the recycling. 

Mutton_Geoff

GDB2222 said:

Mutton_Geoff said:

If they aren't addressed to you personally, they can't be considered harrassment.

This is how TV Licensing work with their endless stream of threatening letters sent to my address FAO "The Occupier". More than 50 since I moved here in summer 2021.

Just bin them, you tried the RTS, it didn't work.

Just run that past me again, please. The letters are addressed to the occupier. You are the occupier. I’d say that they are addressed to you. The thing is that people are so used to these silly letters that they probably wouldn’t be able to prove that they were actually harassed by them! 

Not so. I involved my local MP and this is what he said.

I expect You Tube or AI will provide plenty of examples of people who have escalated harrassment claims against TVL and failed.

chrisw

I'd open them as a) forewarned is forearmed and b) I'm nosey.

Silvertabby

Our new boiler warranty papers were addressed to 'The Occupier' as the warranty applies to the boiler, not the home owner.

So, yes, we do open everything addressed to 'The Occupier' - even if it then goes in the recycling bin.

GDB2222

Mutton_Geoff said:

GDB2222 said:

Mutton_Geoff said:

If they aren't addressed to you personally, they can't be considered harrassment.

This is how TV Licensing work with their endless stream of threatening letters sent to my address FAO "The Occupier". More than 50 since I moved here in summer 2021.

Just bin them, you tried the RTS, it didn't work.

Just run that past me again, please. The letters are addressed to the occupier. You are the occupier. I’d say that they are addressed to you. The thing is that people are so used to these silly letters that they probably wouldn’t be able to prove that they were actually harassed by them! 

Not so. I involved my local MP and this is what he said.

I expect You Tube or AI will provide plenty of examples of people who have escalated harrassment claims against TVL and failed.

I can’t find any cases where someone has sued TVL for harassment, at all, funnily enough. 

EssexHebridean

ian1246 said:

Put an alert on your property on the land registry, just incase they try to list a charge or anything silly like that.

Reiterating this - just in case. Although such a charge on your property wouldn't stand up to challenge, better by far to head it off at the pass in the unlikely event it occurs. (Chances are that they will finally do their due diligence if it reaches that point, though). 

theartfullodger

Why are you opening letters addressed to someone else?  Would you be happy if someone else opens your letters? (I'm not...). 

Best wishes to all 

Section62

Mutton_Geoff said:

If they aren't addressed to you personally, they can't be considered harrassment.

This is how TV Licensing work with their endless stream of threatening letters sent to my address FAO "The Occupier". More than 50 since I moved here in summer 2021.

Just bin them, you tried the RTS, it didn't work.

Mutton_Geoff said:

GDB2222 said:

Mutton_Geoff said:

If they aren't addressed to you personally, they can't be considered harrassment.

This is how TV Licensing work with their endless stream of threatening letters sent to my address FAO "The Occupier". More than 50 since I moved here in summer 2021.

Just bin them, you tried the RTS, it didn't work.

Just run that past me again, please. The letters are addressed to the occupier. You are the occupier. I’d say that they are addressed to you. The thing is that people are so used to these silly letters that they probably wouldn’t be able to prove that they were actually harassed by them! 

Not so. I involved my local MP and this is what he said.

I expect You Tube or AI will provide plenty of examples of people who have escalated harrassment claims against TVL and failed.

It isn't this, TVL send the same letters to named people.  Don't rely on anything an MP says about TVL being accurate.

TVL have an internal policy of switching to "The Legal Occupier" for their letters after a fixed period of time (6 months?) since they had contact with the named person (or possibly had evidence of the name of the occupier).

If you just cancel your licence they start writing to you using your name.  After the time period has elapsed with no contact from you, the letter start using "The Legal Occupier" instead.  There have been some reports of letters reverting back to the named individual at some later date, but this makes no difference to the (lack of) validity and/or legality of their threatening letters.

If the letters started coming with "The Legal Occupier" then it probably means the previous occupant informed TVL they were moving and transferred their licence to their new address.  In this situation TVL are possibly smart enough to realise there is no point writing to the former occupant by name.