Forwarding Of Post

[nigelf1234]

Hi
My daughter has bought a house, which is not new so there were previous owners. She has owned the house now for over 12months.
Yet almost every day she still gets post for them or earlier owners. No forwarding address was left. We keep putting them back in the post & write on "not at this address, return to sender".
Is she still under any obligation to do this? Can we just shred them now, keep sending them back, or do we open them to get a proper reference to send them back to, so we can advise they no longer live there.
Any ideas / previous experience would be much appreciated.

[Kathyan]

We have owned our house for 16 years and are still getting mail for the previous owners! I just throw them in the bin. If they can't be bothered to change their address after all this time, tough!

[dannyk13]

Destroying other peoples mail is an offence,Just write on "not known at this address" and repost.

[woofgang]

I know its against the law but I kept getting letters for a long previous tenant that were from a building society. In the end I opened one and phoned them to explain the situation. I did it because I was concerned that the person was working some kind of scam using our address (indeed recently there has been a house sold by a fraudster without the owners consent). The building society were very apologetic and noted on the person’s account that they had no current address for them and the letters stopped. Apparently its the law that they have to keep trying to communicate with clients for so long before they can declare the account “dead”
http://blog.landregistry.gov.uk/protect-yourself-from-property-fraud-during-scams-awareness-month/

[Peter Pedant]

// Destroying other peoples mail is an offence,Just write on "not known at this address" and repost.//
erm danny do you have a reference for this
I agree destroying it in transit is
but this mail has been delivered ....

So you are saying - your daughter has been in residence for a year and she thinks that the old owners who have left no forwarding address will suddenly pitch up ata the door step and say - where is all that post ?

well I can tell you they won't

No she is not under an obligation to RTS mail to other people

My tenants children are always ripping open mail which their doting parents pass onto me with the words " this has been opened "
and you know well I read it ....
essential if the tenants have a bad credit history

and then of course since it has been opened byu someone else
you can write to them if you wish

This issue exercises 'everybody' for some reason.

[Orderlimit]

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/post/post/problems-with-post/problems-with-post-delivery/you-re-receiving-someone-else-s-mail/

"You can legally open someone else's mail in some circumstances under the Postal Services Act 2000. It's only illegal if you open mail ‘without reasonable excuse’ or if you ‘intend to act to another’s detriment'."

[Peter Pedant]

thanks order limit

I will cease using the excuse of errant children running in and out of houses.

Of the zillions of pieces of mail I have processed over the last thirty years I have found four or five CCJs. This can cause endless heart ache for successor tenants who are little old ladies given to knitting and twitching their muslin curtains and not much else

[Postdog]

They haven't a current redirection. As an ex postie, do YOUR postie a favour and just bin them if you want. It's not an offence after delivery to the correct address. Personally I'd open them first in case there was anything that may need attention, for example debt collectors, but it's not your responsibility.

[Canary42]

I send the first two from a Company/organisation back. If I then receive a further one I write to the co/org concerned and mention Data Protection - that usually works.