Many people don’t realize it, but handling someone else’s mail can easily become complicated. You no doubt want to get the mail where it needs to go without infringing upon the law or other legal responsibilities.
Our article gives you advice on what to do with mail from previous tenants at your new address and whether or not you have a legal responsibility to forward mail from previous tenants.
What Can I Do With Mail From Previous Tenants?
You cannot do too much with mail from previous tenants, as opening and tampering with mail can be seen as a crime. However, you are legally allowed to write on the letters and envelopes you receive to inform the post office that the mail needs to be returned.
If you have the previous tenant’s new address, you can cross out your address and write the new address below it, placing the mail back into the mailbox. If you do not have this forwarding address, you can write “return to sender,” “no longer at address,” or something similar. If you have concerns about dealing with mail from a previous tenant, you can speak to a post office employee in your area about your options.
Is It Illegal to Handle Someone Else’s Mail?
It is not necessarily illegal to handle someone else’s mail, as long as all you are doing to the mail is collecting it, writing ‘return to sender’ or something similar on the envelope, and sending the mail back. You cannot open someone else’s mail or damage it in any way, as this is a crime.
If you are found to be repeatedly tampering with and interfering with someone else’s mail on purpose, you could be dealing with serious legal repercussions.
Is There a Legal Responsibility to Forward Mail?
There is no legal responsibility, federal law, or state-level law that obligates you to forward someone else’s mail. This is because it can be almost impossible at times to find a previous tenant’s new address, and previous tenants from years ago may still occasionally have mail sent to your current address.
Instead, you can collect a previous tenant’s mail and return it to the post office, writing something like “return to sender” or “no longer at address” on the letters and packages. This lets the sender and the post office know that the previous tenant no longer lives at that address, and the rate of mail you receive for the previous tenant should gradually decrease.
Can I Complete an Address Change for Someone Else?
It is not possible to complete an address change for someone else, even though it might be tempting to fill out a formal address change or forwarding request on the U.S. Postal Service’s website. However, this is illegal, and you can get in serious trouble by doing this.
The safest option for handling a previous tenant’s mail is to simply return the letters and packages and inform the person when possible that their address needs to be changed.
How Can I Find a Previous Tenant?
It is sometimes possible to find the previous tenant of your house or apartment, and you may need the previous tenant’s information to send them their mail or contact them about getting their address changed.
To find a previous tenant, you can use a reverse address search site; type in your address or the previous tenant’s full name, depending on the tool you use, and run the search.
From the search results, you can find the previous tenant’s current address, and you can then use this address information to contact them about their mail. You could also find their email address or phone number to contact them about getting their mail forwarded.
Can I Throw Out Undeliverable Mail?
You are not legally obligated to save a previous tenant’s mail or even forward this mail, which means that you can potentially simply throw mail that belongs to a previous tenant away. This is especially true if you have tried to get mail returned to its sender or if packages are not being picked up by the sender. In these cases, you may simply want to dispose of the items to save yourself the stress of dealing with them.
Organizing Your Mail
Dealing with a previous tenant’s mail at your new address can be difficult, especially if it seems like the letters and packages never stop coming. If you have the previous tenant’s new address, you can forward their mail along with a notice for them to change their address.
That being said, if you can’t access this information, simply write ‘return to sender’ on all of the previous tenant’s mail until it stops arriving at your address.
