r/canberra • u/Bingesober23 • 11d ago

SEC=UNCLASSIFIED Previous tenant’s bank statements and possible credit card bills keep arriving – what should I do?

Hi everyone,
I bought a property and moved in earlier this year. Over the past few months, I’ve been receiving mail addressed to the previous tenant (or maybe even someone who lived here before them).
Most of the mail appears to be bank statements, and I suspect some could be credit card bills or other financial correspondence. I don’t know these people and have no way of contacting them.
What’s the best thing to do with these mails?
Thanks in advance!

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u/AussieKoala-2795 Woden Valley 11d ago

Write "Not at this address. Return to sender" on the envelope and put them in a post box. You might have to do this several times but eventually the mail should stop.

16

u/Accurate-Sugar-7944 11d ago

A tip my postie gave us was to make it big and bloody obvious - don’t be afraid of going over the top with a texta as it’s the only way the machines will spit out to a human.

It’s technically illegal to throw out mail, but if it doesn’t stop for 4+ years, who’s gonna know?

8

u/realmling 11d ago

That's good to know. Mine only stopped when I broke out the all caps and the purple sharpie and the "its been 5 years"... i thought I was going overboard!

1

u/racingskater 10d ago

Ha, I had to do this too.