My SO and I bought a house a year ago. The previous owners were a church, which used the house as both a parsonage and as the regional church offices. The house had been vacant for 2 years before we moved in.
So we’re getting mail for the old occupants, both the family that lived here, and the church offices. No biggie. “Return to sender, no longer at this address.”
This weekend, we got a new twist. A preprinted address, with the church name and our address as both the sender and the recipient. This had obviously been through the post office several times. It had 3 of the yellow forwarding stickers on it. There was handwriting all over it, and finally someone had circled the return address and stuck it in our mailbox.
I have no contact info for the previous owners. All forwarding services from the post office have apparently expired, and there is no place to return it to, since my address is listed as the return address.
So what’s my obligation concerning this piece of mail? (Yes, I know, I’ll be checking with the postmaster, when I get a chance. But that may be 2 weeks.)
