At what point do you stop forwarding mail in a new house?

[Dos_Box]

Moved into a new house last September and am still receiving mail for the previous owners.

Since I moved in I have been popping mail back into the post box with 'Return to sender. Not at this address' on them yet I am still receiving mail from companies like Santander for the old occupants even though I have put many of these back in the post previously.

So, the big question is how long is it before you give up and stop putting this stuff back in the system?

I have to admit, the people like travel companies have been the best for stopping sending junk once it has been returned to them.

[Katy]

Moved into a new house last September and am still receiving mail for the previous owners.

Since I moved in I have been popping mail back into the post box with 'Return to sender. Not at this address' on them yet I am still receiving mail from companies like Santander for the old occupants even though I have put many of these back in the post previously.

So, the big question is how long is it before you give up and stop putting this stuff back in the system?

I have to admit, the people like travel companies have been the best for stopping sending junk once it has been returned to them.

I got the keys to my house in May... still get the occasional thing and I'm still scribbling RTS over the front and sticking it in the post box. Most exciting one I got was something I returned followed by a letter "to the occupier" from the same people, asking if I knew where they had moved to (or could provide the estate agent's details). Something about shares owned by the previous occupier! Would have thought he'd have told them he was moving if it was something like that!

 

Not sure when I'll stop really, it's just as easy to chuck it in the post box on the way to the shop as it is to fill up my recycling bin.

[sted]

im the only person to ever live in my house (new build) and i still get mail for other people including for months some blokes banking stuff (opened it because i live alone so diddnt even read the envelope)in the end i contacted santander about it and it stopped for a bit then started again contacted tehm again and its stopped and they gave me £60 lol

 

ive given up on the odd bits i get now unless its obviously this is for next door and just got in the wrong pile i just bin it if people cant write their own address correctly its not really my fault/problem to fix

[bossman]

I still receive mail once per month of an RAF transcript magazine for the previous owner and have been for the past 30 years........even though I have e-mailed the magazine and asked for it to be stopped hehe!

 

No limit I suppose......now i just dump it in the bin.....or light the fire with it...:

[Dos_Box]

im the only person to ever live in my house (new build) and i still get mail for other people including for months some blokes banking stuff (opened it because i live alone so diddnt even read the envelope)in the end i contacted santander about it and it stopped for a bit then started again contacted tehm again and its stopped and they gave me £60 lol

 

ive given up on the odd bits i get now unless its obviously this is for next door and just got in the wrong pile i just bin it if people cant write their own address correctly its not really my fault/problem to fix

 

I suppose one risk with new houses is the risk of fraud from people using those addresses who know that there are no previous owners that can be used to check on with credit databases.

I do get the occasional letter addressed to someone who had never lived here and is not a neighbor!

[mole]

Been in our house since July 2015 - still get mail from the previous occupiers.

 

Opened - by accident of course - some turned out to be from Rossendales debt collectors - unpaid parking tickets - as they had not (still have not) changed their cars reg address.

Still get the occasional one now for parking tickets, home insurance not cancelled or paid,

[Achandler]

I always just return to sender them and have done for about 5 years now, it's no real effort for me.

 

If you think its bank statements, then looked for the return address and google it, if it is a bank and you have alreayd RTS them before. Ring the bank tell them you want to speak complaints team, say I have returned these as not known at this address before, you continue to send them, mention that they are required legally to keep their records up to date when they are informed they are wrong etc.

 

You'll get an apology in the post and probably a check to keep you happy. Usually banks pay out £50 or so if they have been informed before. I once got £50 from Barclays because they kept sending me marketing letters, I told them twice to stop and they didn't the 2nd time they even sent a letter confirming they would and apologising. They sent me a 3rd letter and I complained again and they gave me £50 and they stopped.

[CAM]

I've not had many after nearly two years living in my place. Initially I had loads of "To the occupier" letters threatening court action for the previous tenants unpaid gas bill even though I'd already sorted that out with the supplier but a phonecall stopped them.

[Narwhal]

A few years back I got a premium bond win for the occupant before last. They hadn't lived there for at least 25 years but with a bit of detective work I managed to send it on to them

[arwen]

I give it 6 months then just bin anything that is not addressed to someone who lives here, or on my street.

4 years later I'm still get bank statements and pay checks for the old occupants...

[nicholab]

I got so feed up of forwarding mail (6th months+) for the previous owners that I started sending everything back to the companies with this message "Please return to sender not know at this address". This seemed to fix the problem.

[nadeem]

I would say for as long as you've agreed with the previous owners. When I moved I paid for mail redirection (which you can do for up to 2 years) and then just asked the new owners if anything slipped through to forward it to me

[Achandler]

When i say I still do it, I return to sender it all.

 

I don't forward it to them. I paid the Royal Mail for a year of redirects incase we missed changing an address somewhere, the old occupants should do the same!

[PotNoodleTech]

You don't actually have to forward any mail at all - it's the previous owners responsibility to ensure they get their address details updated.

 

You are well within your rights to just bin it all.

[JordanT91]

We had absolutely loads when we moved into our house in October. The previous occupants were/are in a lot of debt. About half of the letters stopped after the first return to sender. The ones that didn't, I opened up the letters and rang the phone number inside with their name and account number. This is legal, by the way. The law says it is only an offence to open someone else's mail if you are intending to act to the person's detriment or without reasonable excuse. Anyway, this stopped another quarter of the letters.

 

We still get about a quarter, the worst offenders are Next and Littlewoods. I have rang them many times to inform them the person no longer lives here, but they said that they will always send letters to the last known address until they get a newer one. I will try to tell them (next time I can be bothered to ring them) that they have a legal responsibility to keep their records up to date, and by deliberately keeping the address on their database as one they know isn't accurate they are breaching the DPA.

[elsiegee40]

Interesting. The couple in the house next door both died last year and I have been dealing with their post since last August. It’s down to pretty much nil now.

 

I started with forwarding the obvious junk mail with “Recipient deceased. Return to Sender”

 

Anything that was obviously or possibly not junk gets forwarded to the executor.

 

I think I have sent 1 to the executor in the last month. And the only junk mail now seems to be from estate agents offering to sell the house instead of the current agent!

[Dos_Box]

The Citizens Advice have some info here - https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/post/stop-getting-someone-elses-post/

[TechMonkey]

I looked into this a while ago & I'm sure Royal Mail's stance is that they deliver to an address, not a person.

[itsallgonepetetong]

Seven years

[mikeprice]

IMO any responsible person will get Royal Mail redirection set up - if they don't then they should be prepared to loose stuff. However I would always forward stuff on if they left an address. many years ago I 'tested' a new printer by printing loads of 'not at this address please return to sender - sender please remove address from database' labels to stick on letters

 

That worked after about 6 months when all the companies had been through 1 or 2 cycles

 

However if I became aware of anything debt rrelated - especially someone not telling the DVLA about moving house and this getting penalty notices sent to your house - then I would always contact the relevant people just in case a CCJ got registered to your address - this happened to a colleague of mine a while ago and it took him ages to get rid of it

[SpuffMonkey]

We still get occasional letters for the previous owner, and we moved here in 1989! I long ago stopped forwarding them. I also get strange letters from a French local council demanding local taxes - I've written to them, returned the letters, had a school French assistant talk to them for me, and still they come - I've stopped worrying about it now...

[MatthewL]

I get the odd seasonal thing in the post for the previous occupants who are both dead, I just put them through the shredder now. Nothing of any note as the house had been empty for some time before I moved in, I don't even get much myself as most of it is electronic now.

 

My stance is if the previous occupier hasn't updated their address them it's their problem and just shred anything that comes.

[JordanT91]

However if I became aware of anything debt rrelated - especially someone not telling the DVLA about moving house and this getting penalty notices sent to your house - then I would always contact the relevant people just in case a CCJ got registered to your address - this happened to a colleague of mine a while ago and it took him ages to get rid of it

 

A CCJ is registered to an individual, not an address. The only way a CCJ for someone else at your address could affect you is if you are financially linked (joint accounts, mortgage etc.)

When applying for credit, your address is only a factor for identification purposes, it is not taken into account for eligibility checks or 'blacklisting'.

[rad]

Its the "junk mail" that is difficult to stop. If you know a way, then let me know.

[Katy]

Its the "junk mail" that is difficult to stop. If you know a way, then let me know.

Find one that has a free reply envelope or other way of sending them stuff, send them all of the other junk mail