What must a new tenant do, RE: mail delivered to the previous tenant?

Factual Questions
1

Skip to the bottom if you hate stories. I ramble at 3am.

I am aware I am not supposed to open other people’s mail, albeit, it is tempting, just to discover what is important, and what isn’t.

I toss anything addressed to [old tenant] or current occupant. I generally toss things I easily identify as bulk mailing, unless it looks like it’s from a church, or some other organization. I take almost everything else to the leasing office. I know they toss a lot, but I let that be their call.

Anything from the city, county, voter registration, or what looks like a jury summons, I write NO LONGER AT THIS ADDRESS, and drop in back in the mail.

I take packages to the front desk. I used to write NO LONGER AT THIS ADDRESS on them as well for return, but gave up when a couple got redelivered to me.

This is our 4th place in Indy in 13 years (each one a little nicer than the last-- current one is bigger than the house I once owned).

So I’ve dealt with this before.

Our first place was rented under a time crunch, and shoestring budget, due to happening suddenly, and was very cheap, and an internet walk-through.

Due to circumstances of renting, sudden moves, finances, neighborhoods, our first place was embarrassingly cheap, and we got what we paid for. We stayed a year. Not surprisingly, we got about 5 different peoples’ summonses, demands for child support, citations for failure to appear, etc.

Second place not as bad, but had bugs. Stayed a year again, and got the mail of more people that we could keep track of

Last place was nice, and would have stayed forever if our wonderful landlord hadn’t sold to a slimy company during lockdown. Not as many different people’s mail.

Fewer people here, too, but it’s the packages I don’t get-- who orders stuff that close to moving? I don’t want to know.

Basically, how much song and dance do I owe previous tenants whose mail comes to me?

2

Here is the official USPS guidance: How is Undeliverable and Misdelivered Mail Handled? (usps.com). Scroll down to the “Reporting / returning misdelivered mail” section at the bottom.

The short answer is “Write ‘not at this address’ on the face, do not deface the printed address, and drop it back in the outgoing mailbox.” Even for obvious junk mail. Doing anything else is (technically) illegal.

3

I’ve lived with my gf for 18 or so years. We still receive the occasional mail for her ex husband. Anything that looks important I write “not at this address” and drop it in a mailbox. We’ve never known a forwarding address or even what state he is in.

Obvious junk mail gets played with. I will, for instance, write a letter explaining that he is deceased and his widow tormented by grief from mail to his name.

4

That means I should not take it to the office? I did that in case they had a forwarding address.

5

You are under no obligation to do more than write “not at this address” and drop it in a mailbox.

ETA: if there was a forwarding address the post office would have forwarded it.

6

We’ve lived here 10+ years and still get mail for the previous owner - who has since died. For a number of years, we used to write on and return it, talked to our mail carrier, etc. A number of the mailings appeared legal/official - it looks as tho the guy was involved in various legal proceedings.

At this point, we just toss it.

7

Just do not write “Return to sender” on the letter. The USPS folks like to mess with people when they do that and you may recieve it back since you are the sender. I think its just a little postal humor myself.

8

I sometimes get mail for my exwife who moved out in 2005. If it looks important I give it to her the next time I see her which is fairly often. It’s been a while since it’s been something important.

I also still occasionally get mail for the previous owner who moved out in 1993. It’s been interesting to watch his life cycle in the junk mail as the years have passed… AARP, Medicare, cremation services …and mine following a couple of decades later.

9

If it’s first class or anything like that, I write “not at this address” and drop it in the mailbox. If it’s junk mail, I toss it. That is, I judge the importance purely by what type of postage was paid.

10

I’ve done exactly this and had the mail redelivered to me. Twice. So I just toss it all now. We’ve been here six years; not my problem.

11

nope, not your problem. If they can do anything with it, the mailman who delivered it to you will pick it up and deal with it.

Oh – one exception to my rule above. If the address isn’t mine (sadly, somewhat common) I usually deliver it to the neighbor myself, instead of sending it back through the mail. It’s possible that’s illegal, but I’ve never had anyone complain, and it seems a minor courtesy to get them the mail today, and not have it go back tomorrow and maybe not be re-sorted until the next day.

12

Very little.

13

I wouldn’t assume that the post office would send it to a forwarding address if they have it. They’ve been very bad with sending us our mail. That whole system seems to be a huge mess. Online, we were told that they’d send us a single piece of mail to verify we actually moved (after taking a small fee also supposedly for verification), and that it should already be there. But, at the post office, they insisted they had 10 days to switch it over. We tried to show them the email saying otherwise, but were dismissed.

There’s a bit more to it, and I even considered making a Pit thread. But the part that’s relevant here is that they sometimes don’t actually deliver to a forwarded address like they should.

14

Not bad for just mailing it in.

15

Another issue glossed over is the difference between a known forwarding address and a forwarding order.

When a person moves, typically they put in a forwarding order to USPS. Which under current regs gives 3 months of forwarding for magazines, bulk mail, and such, and 12 months for true first class mail. I’m not sure about the duration for parcels, priority mail, etc.

During that duration you should not be seeing stuff arrive for the prior resident if they actually did a forwarding order. After the forwarding order expires, you’ll start seeing their stuff again as long as somebody keeps mailing stuff to them at their old / your current address. USPS will not forward stuff forever, lest lazy people decide to rely on that costly service.

But … And here’s where the distinction comes in.

When you do a “not at this address” endorsement the USPS is supposed to flag that in their database. To the degree any mailer checks with USPS before sending stuff, they’ll learn that that name and address is no longer valid. If there ever was a forwarding order, the new address for the old name is available to the mailer.

Many bulk mailers subscribe to the USPS address correction system. But not for every single mailing; maybe they only check their targeting database against USPS’s known forwarding addresses once a year. And lots of junk mailers don’t bother at all.

Diligent use of “not at this address” can reduce the volume of obsolete crap you deal with, but only to the degree the rest of the participants, including USPS itself, do a quality job. Some do, some don’t.

One of the things I’ve done in the past is use

This is the trade association for bulk mailers. They’d rather not mail stuff uselessly. I sign myself up for their do-not-mail service at a new address as soon as I move in; ideally even before that, before the very first time any public database or commercial vendor connects my name with the new address.

If I find after a few months that I still have a problem with persistent junk mail for a prior resident, I sign them up for do-not-mail at their old / my current address. Maybe not 100% kosher, but I’m not hurting their ability to get lots and lots of lovely junk mail wherever they are now.

DMAChoice works great. It takes about 3 months until you see a change, and about 6 until you see the full effect. It doesn’t stop all junk mail, but it stops a lot of it.

16

No, I don’t mean taking it to the post office. I take it to the leasing office.

17

If it’s an actual letter delivered by USPS, no need to go to either office - just write “Not at this address please forward” and put it in any mailbox.

18

We occasionally would get mail for the previous owners of our house for 20 years or so. It may make a difference that they moved out of the country.

19

What can we do if we need more junk mail? The more the better. There’s a nifty device where it all gets pulped in water and compressed into bricks, which after drying get fed into the wood stove or fireplace. It’s just really great the US government provides heating assistance to keep our homes comfortable. And it provides jobs, too.

20

Tell your neighbors you’ll take theirs.