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

[elsiegee40]

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

 

Write “No GDPR consent to send this. Referred to ICO” on the envelope and Return to Sender?

[Andrew_C]

Probably until I move. Previous owners mum lives next door - I just stick them in there.

 

I might be less tolerant, but I know previous isn't "stable" all the time. Nothing horrific, but I'm happy to avoid stressing her.

[john]

Occupant deceased works better than not at this address in my experimentation for post I get to my place thats for many past occupants.

 

Not sure if the Bupa mailing team will then nuke the Bupa plan they have but you'd think they would remember to update it on something important!

[Gibbo]

Many items are sent from a mailing house who have no provision nor care for handing "RTS" marked mail, so quite often the good deed you think you're doing is just a waste of time.

 

It just goes straight in the recycling bin, the company who paid for the mailing house to send the letters doesn't get informed. My OH used to work for one.

[AMLinington]

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.

 

Oh this is an age-old question. I think we did it for the first couple of years - it wasn't all that frequent.

 

It wasn't until bailiffs started knocking at the door and threatening me that I starting paying attention to the stuff we were getting for the old occupants - SO MANY DEBT COLLECTION AGENCIES! SO. MANY.

 

A couple of years ago we went through a spate of issues with debt collection agencies - they all seemed to happen at once. I contacted the banks that had started to process and filled in ENDLESS forms - still no joy. In the end I made a complaint to the Financial Services Ombudsman and they dried up pretty soon after that.

 

Now anything that comes in for the old owners gets shredded.

 

That being said, we recently received a chunky letter from a bank containing a booklet, so we opened it to extract the booklet so we could shred it. In doing so, we noticed the subject of the letter and discovered that one of the old occupants of our house has attempted to take out a loan secured on OUR HOUSE. I say 'attempted', but in truth they succeeded - they took out a 'homeowners loan' secured on our property!!! Understandably LeHusband and I freaked out and contacted the bank's fraud team. As far as I'm aware, they've dealt with it, but I'm terrified that in another couple of years we're going to be fighting the banks when they try to repossess our house.

 

So to answer your question, If it's not too frequent, the first couple of years seems reasonable - that covers all the stuff that maybe comes in every 6-12 months. After that, shred it. But just check you're not getting property seizure notices or court summons - those are a PITA to deal with when the authorities come knocking on your door threatening you with prison and threatening to seize your car or forcibly evict you.

[Dos_Box]

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

 

TBH, I found that the junk was the first to stop once I had begun to return it.

Letters from the likes of Santander and other official looking sources took some time to stop, even though some still do arrive every now and again.