There’s a good chance you’ll receive mail from the previous owner of your home. In fact, this type of mail is common after moving into a new house. Unfortunately, it can be annoying and distracting if it keeps coming. How do you stop the mail from the previous owner? There are several ways to avoid getting these letters or packages without being directly rude to them. If you’re thinking about buying a new home, but there are still residents living there, then check out our article on tips for buying a resale home. At some point, most people selling their house will offer the potential buyers some sort of “Privileged Information” kit that contains things like disclosures about lead paint or whether anybody has ever died in the residence.
How To Stop Mail From Previous Owner
Go to the Post Office and request they stop delivery
One of the easiest ways to stop mail from the previous owner is to visit your local post office and request that the mail be stopped. You can do this with individual items, or you could go to the post office and request they refuse all mail from the address. The postal service is required to honor your request, but you should keep in mind that you’re likely to receive a notice that you have 30 days to pick up the mail yourself. You do not want to ignore this notice, or you could face fines. If you decide to go this route, you’ll also want to consider whether you want to notify the previous owner. If you decide to pick up the mail, you can certainly do so politely. If you decide to have it refused, you might want to include a note explaining why. You might worry that doing so would be rude, but it won’t be. The post office will simply place all the mail in the previous owner’s mailbox without them knowing it was ever there.
Have your mail held at the post office
Another option is to have your mail held at the post office for 30 days. This means that all mail that would normally go to your home will be placed in a locked box at the post office. Once the 30 days are up, you can simply go pick up your mail from their facility at your convenience. You should be aware that this might not stop the previous owner from sending you mail. In fact, it might even make it worse since the previous owner might assume that you have simply failed to pick up your mail. That said, having your mail held at the post office is a much less confrontational option than refusing it. You might simply want to wait a month or so and then go pick up your mail at the post office. If any mail from the previous owner arrives during that time, simply leave a polite note explaining that you already have all your mail at the post office.
Change your address and have it refused by mail
If you want to stop the previous owner from sending you mail, but you don’t want to take the post office option, you can simply change your address. This will cause any mail for the previous owner to be returned to the sender. Note that this is a drastic option since it will result in a bounced delivery notice. That said, it might be the best option in certain situations. The best time to go this route is when you just moved into a new house and have yet to inform utility companies, the post office, and the like about your new address. When you change your address, you’ll have several options for your new address, including having mail be forwarded to a PO Box, a different address, or simply being refused by mail. If you want to change your address and have mail forwarded to a different address, you’ll want to inform applicable companies such as the post office as soon as possible.
Avoid any direct contact with the previous owner
If you want to stop mail from the previous owner, but you don’t want to be rude about it, then the best option is to avoid any direct contact. Simply avoid the mailbox in general. If you don’t pick up mail from the previous owner, they won’t know you don’t want it, and they won’t be able to send you anything. While this might seem rude, it actually isn’t. You’re simply declining to engage in service, and the previous owner is unlikely to even realize it. That said, you should be aware that avoiding the mailbox could be inconvenient if the previous owner sends you anything important. You might want to consider this option if you get an eviction notice from the previous owner.
Be polite, but firm when communicating
Before you decide on a course of action, you should contact the previous owner. It’s always best to be polite and firm when communicating, and this is no exception. You don’t want to simply tell the previous owner to stop sending mail because it is rude. You want to let them know that you’ve moved into their old house and don’t want any mail from them. When you contact the previous owner, you don’t want to come across as rude or confrontational. Instead, you want to come across as a normal person who is simply trying to avoid getting mail they don’t want. The best way to do this is to simply explain your situation and ask them to stop sending you mail. You might have to do this in more than one conversation, but it will be worth it in the end.
Why Mail Is Important?
1. Easy Communication
Mail is used for communication, it is easy to send messages, letters, and parcels to friends and relatives.
2. Keep in touch with the world
Through mail, you are kept in touch with the world around you. You can keep abreast of local, national, and international news through newspapers and magazines.
3. Receipt of Money
You can receive money through post office money orders or cheques. These are safe ways to send or receive money from a distance.
4. Shopping
You can shop through mail-order catalogs or by writing to firms for their catalogs and ordering goods directly from them by post. This is a convenient way of shopping for things which are not available locally or which cannot be bought on the spot because you have no time to go out shopping etc., such as books, stationery, clothing, etc.
5 . Gifts
You can send gifts to your near and dear ones by post without incurring any expenditure on packaging material or delivery charges.
6 . Gift Vouchers
Through gift vouchers, one can purchase any gift worth up to Rs 100/- in any Post Office Branch of India without paying any delivery charges
Final Thoughts
If you find yourself with a mailbox full of mail from the previous owner, you don’t have to be rude and simply throw it away. You can simply toss any letters that don’t bill and then contact the previous owner to inform them that you don’t want any mail. If you want to truly end the mail, you can also go to the post office and request that all mail be refused or that it be held for 30 days. There’s no guarantee that the previous owner will stop sending you mail, but it’s worth a try. Lastly, you can change your address and have the post office refuse all mail from the previous owner. This is a drastic option that will cause a bounced delivery notice. It might be the best option in certain situations, though.
FAQs:
How to open a bank account?
If you are opening a normal bank account, you will need to take government-issued identification (such as your passport) and fill out some forms. Some banks may require that you have an address in the country, but others will allow you to open an account without an address if you have a passport or other form of identification.
How to open a locker in Post Office?
First, find out the fee for opening a locker and pay it when you go to open it. Then, take your ID with you and go to the post office where you want to open your locker. Ask for the person in charge of lockers and tell them that you want to rent one of their lockers. They should give you a key and tell you how many items can fit into the locker before they start charging extra fees for each item put into the locker after that point. You might also need some kind of receipt or contract showing that the post office is renting out this particular locker to you so that they can charge extra fees if needed later on down the road.