Mail addressed to former owners

It should not take banks quite awhile to update properly as that creates a risk when sending out credit cards or financially sensitive information. If a former occupant defaults on loans or payments then the address (which is now YOUR address) will be blacklisted and your credit rating affected.

For years we had this problem in various forms.
Letters addressed to folk with similar number but different address in the same immediate area, and from a public utility to "me" but with wrong initial.
Putting all into the post again marked "Not Known R T S

One persistent offender were Bailiffs after someone from across the road, who had left the area.
Gave me great pleasure to send them a letter, with envelope marked in red "FINAL WARNING", telling them to desist on pain of legal action for harassment
THAT worked!

ps You could pile them all up, together with letters from the bank etc then let them know they can collect all their post themselves.

After all, they must know how to find your house

You could get a lot of Christmas cards this year, sunseeker!
?

Back in September I got a Christmas card which I had sent last year "not at this address". The card had been clearly marked on the outside with my address

I contacted the addressee by e mail and she apologised for not having let me know the new address at the time.

I just mention this because apparently it took 9 months to return the card!

Sunseeker

'Unknown at this address, please return to sender'.
If return addresses are on the envelope just circle it and put a large cross over your address part, or black out the street and postcode.
Pop them in the post box and forget about them.

Blossoming

I would write’Gone away’ on it and pop it in the post box. Very strange they haven’t informed their bank that they’ve moved.

It can take banks and hospitals etc quite awhile to update properly, so mail may still go to the old address.
We've had this problem several times in our family.

sunseeker, they do sound cheeky though. Do as your last sentence

I write the previous occupants new address on the envelope and re post. I have no idea if they get it or not.

We have lived here for 2 years now and still get mail for previous owners. Letters I send back, cruise brochures go in the recycling now. I have no forwarding address anyway

sunseeker Why can you not bring yourself to mark letters 'Gone away* or any of the other alternatives? This is a perfectly normal procedure which has been used for 100 years or more.

By doing what you are doing, you are doing a public disservice by encouraging selfish and indolent people in their selfishness and indolence, thus making other people suffer from it as well.perhaps if you and others stood out against such behaviour, they might realise that thy cannot rely on other people bailing their indolence out and would do things properly in the first place.

sunseeker

Many thanks for the supportive replies! Another letter has arrived this morning - bank's name is printed on the envelope.

I certainly don't intend leaving the house today and I won't be passing a post box until sometime Monday, which means the letter won't be collected until Tuesday - hope it isn't anything important!

I can't bring myself to mark "gone away" on the envelope so will continue to re-address post for the time being, although any similar texts from them and I may change my mind!

You really are being too accommodating of people who are abusing your kindness and consideration!

Can you not text them and ask them, politely but firmly, to inform their bank(s) of their new address and, at the same time, tell them that any further mail addressed to them will be 'returned to sender'?

I think that is, legally, all you are obliged to do.

What if you decide you don't want to go out on Monday? But you will, won't you, because you're going to feel compelled to send the letter to them!

You are being too solicitous and obliging and they are taking advantage of your good nature!

There are 5 apartments in our house, well SILs house, the top one is 4 bedroom rented to students. They have to register when they arrive, then they seem to find other places to stay, not all.
Then the post piles up it is all put on a shelf for collection and once a month I put 'Not at this address' on it and pop it in the post.
As the law here states you must be registered with your local commune with your current address I would love to know what happens when the letters are returned. I am not being nasty and they are young people but they would have trouble re-registering if they do not keep things up to date.

I think I'd send it back to the bank, perhaps in a second envelope with a very firmly worded note inside telling the bank that they have moved, this is their new address and you will not be forwarding any more post to them, will they please deal with it.
It's gone on too long now.

No more Mrs Nice!

Many thanks for the supportive replies! Another letter has arrived this morning - bank's name is printed on the envelope.

I certainly don't intend leaving the house today and I won't be passing a post box until sometime Monday, which means the letter won't be collected until Tuesday - hope it isn't anything important!

I can't bring myself to mark "gone away" on the envelope so will continue to re-address post for the time being, although any similar texts from them and I may change my mind!

Unbelievably high handed of them. I would text back and say you don't have the time and don't want the responsibility for ensuring incorrectly addressed post is forwarded to them in the speedy manner they require.
They will therefore have to make alternative arrangements as future post addressed to them will be returned to sender.

Give some people an inch and they really do take a mile.

Elizabeth27

When I moved I paid for the redirection service but really don’t know why I bothered, more than half of my mail went to the previous address.

When I moved away for a while from my address, I paid for the post to be redirected - the post office weren't aware that I would be coming back to my address every so often! And each time I came back there was post there so I knew that the paid for service wasn't working as well as it should have been.

We moved over 2 years ago and still get mail for the previous owners. We paid Royal Mail for 6 months to redirect the post from our old house to here. Your previous owners obviously haven't bothered to do this. We put all post for them in the post box with No Longer at this Address. I certainly wouldn't take any abuse from them.

After a couple of months, I just wrote 'Not at this address' and put them back in the post box. After all, they can't be that important and/or it's up to the previous owners to organise - not me.

M0nica

I wouldn't waste my precious time replying to such an ill mannered and outrageous demand. I would just do return to sender' and leave it at that.

... exactly!

Who's got time for all this?

I'd send one final text telling them to 'sort it' and then block their number.

I'm not sure what the legal situation is though - the information is conflicting - otherwise I'd be tempted to just bin the mail.

And if the letter is bar-coded, it's unlikely that a human will read the return-to-sender hand written note, so you have to scratch through the bar code.

It gets tedious dealing with other people's problems - we have enough of our own!

I received a letter for someone who lived at our house many years ago and purely by chance, I knew where she lives now and put it through her letterbox.

She came and thanked me as there was a premium bond cheque in it (it was several years ago).

We moved here nearly three years ago - the house was vacant possession, the previous owner having rented it out on short term leases prior to sale. We spent the first six months constantly phoning various credit card and loan companies, debt collection agencies and private parking fine companies, to tell them that their ‘clients’ had moved on. The mail was arriving for half a dozen different names, one of whom had run up several parking fines, all of which had non payment penalties added, and ran into hundreds of pounds. It took months for the letters to stop coming, as a couple of the previous occupants were still using the address to run up new debt and we were advised not to simply return to sender where the debt had been passed to a collection agency, as we risked a visit from bailiffs. I was left with the impression that, for some, short term rentals are a license to run up debt and hope you won’t be found.

I wouldn't waste my precious time replying to such an ill mannered and outrageous demand. I would just do return to sender' and leave it at that.

I would just do the 'not living here' and returning it to the post box. I'd also text back that I'm sorry, but I can't get to the post box each day so can't promise posting within a day or two.

You should definitely write - No longer at this address - on the envelope & pop it back in the letter box.
Best wishes.