What do you do with previous tenant's/owner's mail... when it's been 18 months+
DH and I have been in our house for over 18 months now, and we are still getting a fair bit of mail for the people who used to live here. We always used to write "No longer at this address" on the envelope and mail it off again. But we've been doing this now for a long time and it's starting to feel like it's never going to stop!
Is there any other options other than keeping on doing that - cause I forget most of the time and some of it has been sitting in a pile for quite a few months!
Perhaps go to the Post Office and see what they can do? There may be a thing at the mail sorting end where things addressed to you will only get through?
Otherwise, return to sender, no longer at this address.
Is it repeat companies doing the sending?
We've lived here for 11 years and STILL getting mail for the people we bought the place from....I was nice for the first 3 years and then said stuff it...time to bin it
if they haven't missed it enough to change their address then they don't need it... maybe even ring whatever company and tell them yourself that such and such isn't you if just throwing it away doesn't sit will with you.
It's a mixture of things. A few are official looking, one is a fine I think! Then there are a few with a hand written address. And there's four different people we're getting mail for. I thought it would settle down after 6 months, or even 12, but we still get at least one thing a week for someone else.
I've been in my house 3 years and I constantly get mail for the woman who used to live here. She hasn't even changed her address on her insurance. I used to write return to sender but now I just bin it. I figure if she hasn't changed her address by now she won't.
I suppose I am a bit naughty, I open some of the mail.
Because my unit number is the same as the street number, I get mail not only from the previous tenants of my unit, but previous tenants of other units.
Some of it is junk, and sometimes the unit number is inside the letter. If it's junk I bin it, if something else I put no longer at this address in Unit X AND RETURN TO SENDER.
I have had the same dilemma at some jobs I've done, a lot of the mail would come out to a company that doesn't exist, but with the address approximately of where I was working, and most of it was advertising.
We've been here 6 years and still get other people's mail. For a while I put 'Return to Sender' - after about two years or so I got tired of that & now I just bin it.
We usually RTS the official looking stuff but it takes a few months to actually get around to it.
When I worked doing casual admin stuff at uni I was once given a big pile of RTS envelopesand told to update the customer addresses as unknown... one envelope had a great big rant on it "We've been returning this mail to you for the past 18months! F**king update your records or we'll lodge a complaint". Okay...
DH been in house for 9 years and we still get mail for 2 lots of previous tenents, (i have lived here 8 years) and started return to sender and not at address anymore but got over it now just goes in recycle bin, some stuff is bank related but I figure not my responsibility after 8 years!!
We're on the other end. We've changed our address with all our service providers and yet still some go to our old address. Found out today that Aus Post has had an incorrect redirection going for over twelve months to some poor guy, who has kindly kept the mail for us. We think we've finally got it sorted now.
I'd be inclined to toss any advertising but keep RTS the important stuff. Sometimes it's not the previous person's fault.
I usually RTS the important looking stuff (we get the odd piece of mail for about 4 different people!), but I don't think it makes a difference because we just get the same company sending stuff again. i must admit was a bit naughty this morning, got a christmas card in the mail addressed to someone else but no return addy on it so I opened it (just in case there was money in it ) then threw it in the recycling.
After 2 years we are binning it.
Aus post can't & wont do anything, they just tell you to write return to sender & no longer at this address on it.
We also tried calling the companies that sent the mail. Westpac only stopped sending it because we said if a credit card turned up we would use it & claim it might have been ours because we have another account with them & not have read the name on it(not that we would have). Vodaphone still send their mail because of "privacy issues", even though it's a mobile phone (a number that they have on their records) they wont ring them & tell them to change their address.
The local police said send it back for 12 months, any longer than that just throw it out. If any electoral stuff turns up, you can ring the electoral comission & have them unenrolled
I would RTS for 12 months then they got the 3 strikes and your out rule. I sent them back 3 times after that I binned it. The previous owners here never redirected their mail and we still get business mail for them but after 3 1/2 years its not my responsibility
We had same thing but with our PO Box which we PAY FOR!! 3yrs we've had it now & we still get official looking mail for previous occupants. I hit the post office up about this initially and they informed me that legally they have to deliver it as its addressed apparently GRRR We got sick of RTS too and now it usually gets binned.
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What do you do with previous tenant's/owner's mail... when it's been 18 months+
) then threw it in the recycling.
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