How long to keep forwarding previous owner's mail?

[cathy63]

I know the immediately previous owners of our place, and they did have a forwarding order, but even so the PO missed a lot of things and it took a couple of years before we stopped getting their mail. We still occasionally get their junk mail, which I just recycle.

We also get mail for three other names, one of which just started coming fairly recently. I pile it up and write "return to sender" on it whenever I'm going to the P.O. for some other reason. I don't make any special effort, but if I'm going anyway it's not a big deal.

For the stuff that's misdelivered, if it's within a block I hand deliver it. Anything else gets added to the pile that's going to the P.O. on my next trip.

 

[jimandthom]

I get mailing for my dad, AARP, CC etc, who died in 2011. I moved to this address 400 miles away in 2016. This mail comes with his name and my present address------ go figure how that happens.

 

[jimandthom]

I know the immediately previous owners of our place, and they did have a forwarding order, but even so the PO missed a lot of things and it took a couple of years before we stopped getting their mail. We still occasionally get their junk mail, which I just recycle.

We also get mail for three other names, one of which just started coming fairly recently. I pile it up and write "return to sender" on it whenever I'm going to the P.O. for some other reason. I don't make any special effort, but if I'm going anyway it's not a big deal.

For the stuff that's misdelivered, if it's within a block I hand deliver it. Anything else gets added to the pile that's going to the P.O. on my next trip.

Forward orders are only good for 6 months unless renewed. After that time it goes back to the presorted system and again how it is presorted in the processing centers, is how the carrier is supposed to deliver.

 

[Zig56]

I was getting dividend checks for a couple years and would forward them after 3 years just threw them out then they stopped

 

[Amethyst]

It seems like what we're doing is what most would do:

Pitch/recycle the junk mail (some of the catalogs are pretty neat)

Bundle everything else and "not at this address," now and then when we feel like it.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Some of it is porn and even racist. I went to the post office and asked what I could do to stop it and was told "nothing." The mail carrier knows I don't want to see it and he intercepts it, even though he's not supposed to. I throw whatever gets through in the recycle bin.

Your post office is being lazy. There is a way to get this to stop...

https://about.usps.com/publications/pub307/welcome.htm

 

[cathy63]

Forward orders are only good for 6 months unless renewed. After that time it goes back to the presorted system and again how it is presorted in the processing centers, is how the carrier is supposed to deliver.

Yes, and I think you can only renew once. But even so, the forwarding system missed a lot of their mail during times when I know the order was in effect.

 

[jimandthom]

Yes, and I think you can only renew once. But even so, the forwarding system missed a lot of their mail during times when I know the order was in effect.

Not sure how things work now, as it has been 8years since spouse retired. He retired shortly around the time that presort/machine sorted etc was well underway but not fully entrenched.

It used to be that the carriers/clerks who hand sorted the mail at your local PO(before the presort system was more fully implemented) were the ones who applied the forward stickers etc. Between the clerk and carrier on that route, that one piece of mail was literally handled by 2 people in the same PO. The clerk who reviewed the address and put in the sorting basket for the correct route and the carrier who hand sorted it to the proper slot.

They were also allowed to sort their mail, packages, magazines etc how it was easier for them to understand and work with. Now--- no option.

Couple that with the trend away from "career" people and going to contract/provisional as money saving. The career people generally had the same route for their whole working years, although route changes did make some adjustments.
They would more readily know what mail should be forwarded. Even the substitute carrier generally only worked the one route. So now you have 3-4 different people working the route every week, its much easier to screw up the forwarding

The desire for "cost" efficiencies comes with a price--whether big government or big business.

 

[RE2Boys]

If the misdirected mail is first class, I'll either attempt to deliver if a neighbor or lives within a few blocks. I'd appreciate if the rolls were reversed. If further, I'll just mark as delivered to wrong address and put back in mailbox. A neighbor just brought an envelope to my door this morn.

EVERYTHING ELSE: pitch or recycle. Must not be important to either party if not sent first class or higher.

 

[Teacher Terry]

I had a lady bring over my dog medications from 4 blocks over and I really appreciated it. For the first 5 years I wrote doesn’t live here on mail. Now I throw it away. If I get a neighbor’s mail I deliver it.

 

[grasshopper]

Geez, Fresh out of advanced education I lived in an "Animal House" type of home. Well people came and went so if 8 folks lived there we may get mail for 25. I stopped at the PO one day and asked about our mail delivery and was told if any mail came to the zip that wasn't identifiable that they would just deliver it to us. We actually verified this when one of the crew sent a postcard from France with the house name, town, and USA and we got it.

 

[jimandthom]

This is a small college town, USCG, DHS etc. Large number of shortterm rentals happen here.

GrassHoppers post about Animal House is still true here. There are a couple of old houses that got converted to 4-6 apartments, aimed to the college age
a block over. The occupants change yearly. Could be up to 24 different people since we lived here(2016).

No way a mail carrier could keep it straight on forwarding or prevent mis-delivery.

 

[RE2Boys]

If the misdirected mail is first class, I'll either attempt to deliver if a neighbor or lives within a few blocks. I'd appreciate if the rolls were reversed. If further, I'll just mark as delivered to wrong address and put back in mailbox. A neighbor just brought an envelope to my door this morn.

EVERYTHING ELSE: pitch or recycle. Must not be important to either party if not sent first class.

 

[gayl]

Spouse is a retired rural carrier. They are required to deliver the mail to the address, not to the person.

Wow I'm glad I live in a small city. I went to the post office and told them who lived in the house. I was told that mail addressed to other people who be returned 'undeliverable.' That stopped it

 

[FrankiesGirl]

I personally deliver anything (mail/packages) left at my house that are addressed to someone else in my neighborhood.



If it's actual mail for someone that used to live at MY house, I would write on it "not at this address" and pop it back in the mailbox. I did so for about 6 months. The I trashed it all.



I still get occasional mail for a guy that owned my house sometime in the 80s. I looked him up; he died like 20 years ago. That stuff goes right in the trash too.

 

[jimandthom]

Wow I'm glad I live in a small city. I went to the post office and told them who lived in the house. I was told that mail addressed to other people who be returned 'undeliverable.' That stopped it

I agree and maybe didn't word things well. They are required to deliver to the address but the small offices know better who is actually living at an address.

When spouse was a carrier-- he knew who was at an address and would deliver accordingly. He would also sort mail that came in pre-sorted as he didn't fully trust the system. It was a small but growing rural area of 4 routes.

A couple of carriers would follow the rules and a couple would deliver based on what they knew to be correct. The rules are to accept the presort as they received it. The rules coming down on this was one of the reasons he retired in 2011-- couple of years earlier than we had intended.

The example you mentioned was possibly before the full and more robust implemenatation of the presort system. The full implementation is really less than 5-6 years old. My spouse retired 8 years ago and full implementation was still not in place but getting there. They are still having implementation issues with the system, based on articles we get in the Rural Carrier magazine.

 

[jimandthom]

I personally deliver anything (mail/packages) left at my house that are addressed to someone else in my neighborhood.



If it's actual mail for someone that used to live at MY house, I would write on it "not at this address" and pop it back in the mailbox. I did so for about 6 months. The I trashed it all.



I still get occasional mail for a guy that owned my house sometime in the 80s. I looked him up; he died like 20 years ago. That stuff goes right in the trash too.

Just like the mail I receive for my dead father (2011) that comes to my address with his name with my new residence 400 miles away.

 

[FlaGator]

The house we bought was owned by a divorcing couple. They rented it out at some point.

We get a lot of mail for the ex-husband. Much of it looks like stuff you'd want: finance companies, doctor's offices, insurance companies. I've been dutifully writing "Not at this address, please forward" and trudging to the mailbox, but that's getting tedious. Neighbors say they haven't seen the man since forever, so I'm thinking if it's been over a year and he hasn't bothered to inform these companies, it should be OK to just throw away the mail.

What do you all think?

(We get mail for the ex-wife, too, but it's all ads, and reminders to come back and visit the Mercedes dealership, the Corvette dealership, the Audi dealership, the liquor store...those go in the trash!)

Mail for the guy sounds like stuff the sender wants him to read, not anything he would want to even open.

There are multiple ways to get an updated address for an individual. The big financial institutions are the most efficient at updating, local docs the worst.

Marketing/customer contact databases can/should be updated by multiple sources, including the National Change of Address file (NCOA) and the Social Security death file. Some firms do a horrible job using the data that is available. Even large hospital chains are laggards - late wife was treated during her illness at a SoFla hospital owned by a large national chain. I moved to the Panhandle 4 years ago, over a year after she died. Five years after she was gone, I had to call that chain and ask them to stop sending mammogram reminders to a dead woman.

Contrary to all of the proper and legally correct advice up to know, I say you should toss it immediately and not give it a another thought.

 

[Amethyst]

Oh dear lord, AARP has found us already and we've only lived here 2 months Another set of cards in the trash!

I get mailing for my dad, AARP, CC etc, who died in 2011. I moved to this address 400 miles away in 2016. This mail comes with his name and my present address------ go figure how that happens.