How to Stop Getting Mail for Previous Residents of Your Home

Handling the relocation stress isn’t something you should consider as an easy chapter in your life. The excellent services a reliable cross country company has provided to you will make it much easier for you to adjust to the new environment and neighborhood and have a stress-free relocation. But every obstacle you come into after the relocation could seem like something you just can’t deal with. And that is reasonable.

When the cross country movers group you chose shut the door of their truck, and all the bulky stuff is in its place, you are probably thinking that the easiest part is awaiting you – unpacking your boxes, and then you can start enjoying your new home and surroundings. If you are the unlucky one that keeps receiving magazines and promotional materials addressed to someone else, you’re probably asking yourself, how do I stop getting old tenant’s mail. Don’t despair. We will share some useful tips on what to do in that case and how to avoid moving stress.

What Do I Do If I Receive Someone Else’s Mail

The essential thing is to understand what to do when you get mail for a previous resident. After the move, you probably have other things on your mind, and you could automatically mishandle the letters that are not yours and consider them irrelevant. It’s a handy thing to know what are do’s and don’ts because it could cost you a lot, prison time included.

Is It Illegal to Throw Away Someone Else’s Mail if It’s Wrongly Addressed?

Let’s answer this very important question right away: yes. It is illegal to throw away someone else’s letters. It is considered a Federal crime to toss the letters of somebody else and prevent them from receiving those materials. In fact, the law forbids you to destroy, open, or hide anything that is not addressed to your name. No matter their reasons to move, if a person who lived in your new place was in a last-minute move or just forgot to put this task on the moving out checklist, this doesn’t mean you could or should throw them away. The one thing you should do is not open someone else’s letters. It is also a federal crime, and you shouldn’t do it under any circumstances.

However, we all realize that the relocation is an exhausting process, and you could get carried away and accidentally open an envelope that isn’t addressed to you. In that case, just put it back in the envelope.

Don’t Toss Anything That Isn’t Yours

This is also an ethical thing because you need to put yourself in somebody else’s shoes and wonder if you would like to receive all the missing letters? You just don’t know if past residents had to relocate in a hurry or they just were moving out for the first time, and changing their info wasn’t on their to-do list. Many things need to be done, and forgetting this one is quite usual. So, the best thing to do before the relocation is to create a relocation to another state checklist, including a cleaning checklist and the relocation expenses checklist. With all these lists created on time, you won’t be thinking about tossing any record or mail that isn’t addressed to you because you’ll be updated with all the tasks you should do before and after the move.

Avoid Filling Out a Change of Address

One of the most important things is not to do anything imprudent, like filling out a change of address form. It might sound the fastest thing to do, to redirect the letter you received that isn’t for you. Remember, you are not authorized to do it, so it’s better to register a complaint or call the previous resident directly and solve the problem. If that’s not possible, contact the USPS or wrist their website.

Watch the video below to get the whole picture and avoid becoming a felon.

How to Stop Getting Mail From Previous Residents – The First Step is to File a Complaint

When the whole process of preparing for the move ends and after you successfully changed your address, you still have to deal with someone else’s records that keep arriving at your new home. You end up asking yourself what to do with mail for previous resident and whom to turn to with all these unnecessary things. You can’t know why previous residents didn’t change his info before he left the house. Maybe their priorities were making friends in a new state or also meeting your future neighbors.

But if you have a situation where you can’t figure out what to do or to whom to write for all the wrong mail you’ve been receiving since you relocated, one of the first things you should do is to file a complaint. The envelopes that are not addressed to your name should be sent to their owners, and the first thing is certainly going to the USPS website and fill out the complaint form and submit it. It takes, on average, about 30 days to resolve the issue. It might take a bit longer, but you’ll at least be sure that, in the future, you’ll get letters and magazines only addressed to you and avoid the inconveniences of such kind.

One of the Ways to Stop Receiving Mail From Previous Residents is to Contact USPS

Everyone who is moving cross-country wants to relocate efficiently and to get done with this tedious process as soon as possible by avoiding the most common moving mistakes. However, if you end up wondering what to do if you get mail for a previous resident, don’t worry. It is another thing you need to deal with, but like for every problem, there is a solution.

The best thing to do in this case is to inform the USPS. You’ll never realize why the last resident didn’t cancel all the promotional materials, and the right thing to do is to return them to their owner. So, not opening and throwing them away is a good thing, and the first to turn to is certainly the US Postal Service.

What to Do With Mail for the Previous Resident at USPS? Cross Each Barcode

We all know how relocation can be stressful, especially when you’re living in a multigenerational household during Coronavirus. So, these days, moving safely requires precaution and taking some steps that will make the whole relocation easier. From deciding what to keep to figuring out how much the movers cost, you might think that the only thing you want to do after the move is rest and start unpacking your belongings. And then the unwanted envelopes ruin your fun.

One of the most effortless ways to deal with unwanted items in your mailbox that aren’t even addressed to your name is to cross the barcode on the envelopes. This will help until your complaint gets active because the USPS uses these barcodes to sort each envelope. That way, the system won’t recognize the letter, and it will be registered as undeliverable.

What to Do With Mail From the Previous Tenant from USPS – One of the Best Methods

When you’re asking yourself how can I stop mail from coming to my house, one of the best methods is approaching a carrier. This is why you should and explore your future place. Knowing where your nearest post office is will ease the whole process when it comes to preventing more unwanted letters from coming to your address. You can refer to the post office employees about your problem and handle it professionally.

How Do I Stop Someone Else’s Mail From Coming to My House – Additional Tips

Many of us have different preferences when moving. Someone is relocating for love, and somebody is seeking professional opportunities and relocates for a job. No matter the reason, it can slip our mind to change and update the information of the new location, and then we won’t be getting our post.

To prevent this from happening in the future, you could contact the former residents directly and notice them about the situation you’re having and politely ask them to update their information. This could be, in fact, the most efficient method to resolve the problem you’re having. However, sometimes it is not, and you’ll have to use additional methods for other types of things you get, and here they are:

• Junk stuff – get in touch with the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) and tell them that you are receiving the junk mail, and they will resolve the issue. Registering on their website is easy, and it will take you just a couple of minutes to resolve this inconvenience.
• Mark your mailbox – a huge sign might help. Write with huge letters on a sticky note that you live here now and that former resident is moved out. This probably won’t work right from the beginning, but it might work eventually.
• Write ”Not at this location” – put this notice on everything unwanted record you get, and the sender will know that the recipient doesn’t live on that address anymore.

What to Do If the Previous Resident Is Deceased

In this case, the process of returning the unwanted envelopes is slightly different. You can inform the DMA and block all the subscriptions. It is the same procedure for junk mail. However, the most efficient way to prevent receiving unwanted magazines and subscriptions is to call each company and cancel the registration of the former owner. This is a more time-consuming method but more efficient. The one important thing you should have in mind, in any case, is that opening letters that aren’t yours is against the law.

Updating Your Information Before Cross Country Moving Will Do Good to Everyone

When you are moving to your future home, the first thing you should do is hire a trustworthy company that offers all the moving services, including also the auto transport, if you have a vehicle you wish to bring with you. You should check, as well, if a professional cross-country moving company can provide you with storage services, too, besides packing service. If you have free storage in the first few weeks after relocating, you won’t have to think about your items you haven’t figured out where to put yet. With all that settled, don’t forget to put updating of information on your relocation list beforehand and spare the next resident the trouble. That way, you can enjoy yourself peacefully in your future home, and everything you’ll receive will be only in your name.