Checking our flat that became vacant today we were greeted with a huge pile of mail for previous tenants.  Usual junk and bills not paid but some mail looked pretty serious - large envelopes with private and confidential on.  No return address on the envelope.  I told my OH to bin the lot - it is not our responsibility if previous tenants don't inform banks etc that they have moved and we should not open other people's mail.  However curiosity got the better of him and now we are left with a real dilemma.  Our tenant who left over a year ago is going to be on trial by his professional body in a couple of weeks over something that he was disciplined on before he left.  However they have sent all the stuff to this address and he probabally knows nothing about it.  He could be struck off and he won't have the chance to speak.  What makes my OH so very very angry is that this board are being so inept themselves - this stuff should not have been sent without being signed for, this sort of information - lots of personal information about other people should not be just sent in this way to an address which anyone with half a brain would have realised he couldn't possibly being living at - they mention his new place of work.  We of course have no forwarding address.  We should phone up and speak to this official body tomorrow - but it seems wrong that they can get away with this sort of thing when they are sitting in judgement for a mistake this fellow made when they are making dreadful mistakes themselves.  The mind boggles at how powerless we are at protecting our personal information.  Should we just bin this and say nothing because we should never have opened it in the first place - what would you do? 

I'd ring and tell them that you have no forwarding address for him. The Royal Mail do provide a forwarding service and if people don't use it then that is their problem

Daisy

Usually I'd write 'no longer at this address' on the envelope and 'return to sender' if there is a senders address. It's OK to open mail to find the correct address to return it to, as you have no other way of notifying them.  In this case I'd phone as well as returning the mail to them simply because of timings.

You're right it's usually our own responsibility to make sure that all post is forwarded to our new address but even when you think you've notified everyone they'll still be companies that do not update their records OR companies you didn't know would be writing.

Don't worry too much, you've not done anything wrong and no matter how unjust you think this company is, there is really nothing more you can do

Edited to add: perhaps the only other thing you could do is ring the new employer to see if they are willing to ask him to call you.  They won't pass out contact information but may be willing to give him a message.  Don't tell them what it is regarding though...

Most people only put forwarding addresses for about 3 months - it has been over a year ago since this tenant left. 

> Most people only put forwarding addresses for about 3 months - it has been over a year ago since this tenant left.

Do they, goodness ! We are moving soon and will have forwarding for at least a year I expect that your man just didn't want to be found

Daisy

Thanks for that - we were worried about the legality of it. We had trouble changing our address when we moved to our present house.  Our bank didn't accept my notifying them - it required us both to inform them of a change of address - they ignored me and continued to send our bank stuff to our previous address - luckily our son was living there so no harm was done.  The person I spoke to at the bank should have told me that one phone call wasn't going to enough.    One can't be too careful this days.  Beware anyone who is planning to move.  My mother is still trying to get through to one company who insist on sending info to all 3 addresses she has lived at in the last few years - they just won't take any notice.

> I expect that your man just didn't want to be found
>

That thought crossed our mind in the beginning but on looking at the stuff it is clear that this is a further step - he may think that it is all done and dusted.   We are not making any judgements on this - maybe he is guilty - but he should have the right to defend himself. 

> will have forwarding for at least a year

I didn't realise that could be done - will check that out for when we move again.

I opened a letter my ex received over a year after he moved out as it said 'open immediately' and I could tell it was from a credit agency thing.  I rang them and they said they would find him and not send any more post to my address as I couldn't remember the forwarding address.  If I were you I would ring the company and tell them that the addressee doesn't live there anymore then you won't receive any more post and also the situation is taken out of your hands.

I'm glad I opened that letter as it said it was getting to the point where a bad credit rating would be tied to the address and then I would have had to go through all the hassle of getting it reversed.

The other serious thing here is that this institution has sent personal data - names address and statements made by a number of people to unknown people without any thought.  We hear about data being lost carelessly and putting people at risk of identity fraud.  Why when this information is sensitive didn't they have it to be signed for at least - how utterly careless of them. 

how utterly careless of them. 

I totally agree with you, but knowing how the world runs at present I dare say it is down to cost cutting, much cheaper for a quick frank or stamp than to send something recorded. We would probably all be having heart attacks if we knew how much sensitive information is just posted out or on discs lying around.

We are moving soon and will have forwarding for at least a year I expect that your man just didn't want to be found

When we moved 2 years ago we only went for the 3 months as it wasn't exactly cheap, so I don't think there is any need to read anything sinister into anyone NOT having forwarding for longer.

Mail redirection costs £39.05 for a year, but I've never known anyone have it done for more than 3 or 6 months, so like you I wouldn't read anything sinister into it.

Just to add to JG that the cost is PER SURNAME, so in our case, as I had fairly recently changed mine and still got post addressed to my old name, we needed to pay for two -as will a lot of other people, thus doubling the cost.

Good point; many families have several surnames between them nowadays.

We have done ours for two years now

It has been actually over a year since our tenant left - we have had two lots since this couple left.  On the Royal Mail site it recommends using a years redirection to protect against idendity fraud.  This mail only arrived a couple of weeks ago. 

> Mail redirection costs £39.05 for a year, but I've never known anyone have it done for more than 3 or 6 months, so like you I wouldn't read anything sinister into it.

I can think of all sorts of reasons for having at least a year redirection Christmas - for example - one may have forgotten to notify all friends and the redirection catches any missed. Similarly other annual things that may have been forgotten

Now you know someone who does it for 12 months (and my son, sister and other family members) Maybe we are just unusual

Daisy

My Mum originally had hers redirected for 3 months but at the end of that she renewed for another 6 months (will end in January). After 41 years at her previous address it's amazing how many people/companies there are to tell so this makes it so much easier.