Previous tenant's mail (lease, house, legal, period)

[MRiedl]

Hi everyone. I am happy to say that I am now living in Minneapolis, and would like to thank everyone who gave me advice regarding the move.

I've found a great place, renting a room in a townhouse.

Anyhow, my landlord recently mentioned a previous tenant who left under less than favorable circumstances. From the sound of things he pretty much just left. I am uncertain if he actually broke his lease or not.

Anyhow, the problem is that his mail keeps being delivered to the house and he didn't leave a forwarding address.

So, important mail keeps being delivered and we have nowhere to send it.

Thus far my landlord has gone the extra mile on my behalf, and I try to return the favor whenever possible, so I figured I would mention it here.

I am curious if anyone has a solution they would recommend, and if there are any legal obligations to be considered.

[movingtohouston]

I always mark the mail, return to sender no forwarding address and then give it to the mailman personally. My mailman marked our address somehow so that we only get our mail now.

[nickjbor]

I work at a condo, and if we get mail at the front desk for someone we have no fwding address for, we just RTS (return to sender) the mail.

[Ultrarunner]

Good advice... the only extra point I will add is to take a Sharpie Marker and cross through the Address Bar Coding... my Postman told me to do this.

Until I started doing this... most of the "Return to Sender" mail would be redelivered back to me

Apparently, the automated Postal sorting machines go by the Bar Code and not the written address.

[Radek]

Originally Posted by Ultrarunner

Good advice... the only extra point I will add is to take a Sharpie Marker and cross through the Address Bar Coding... my Postman told me to do this.

Until I started doing this... most of the "Return to Sender" mail would be redelivered back to me

Apparently, the automated Postal sorting machines go by the Bar Code and not the written address.

So true.

I work the front desk of a residence hall and here are the mail procedures.

PRST STD (Standard spam mail) will not be forwarded unless it says, "Address or return service requested". In those cases, RTS it (instructions how at the bottom)

Magazines and other subscriptions are forwarded for a period of 3 months. After that, they go into the trash. (So, RTS for 3 months, then trash)

1st class is always forwarded, all the time. (RTS this)

Non-profit is treated as standard.


Ultra brings up the barcodes, take a black sharpie and get ALL the barcodes on the mail. Make sure to check the back for the orange ones on the back that are sometimes there.

And then mark return to sender, and put a line through the original address.

So, say you get a bank statement that says this:

John Doe
1234 A St.
ABCD, AB 01234

| ||||| ||| || || || || ||||||| || || (barcode)


Take the sharpie to the barcode, and use a pen to put a line through the ADDRESS, not the name. And on a readable spot, put return to sender, and if space, 'no forwarding address'.


With the mail that has the plastic windows, and thus it shifts... make sure your blacking of the barcode will be valid if the mail is in the top of the envelope, or the bottom. (We had a few of these come back to us)


Your postman may also be able to put in a RTS type thing at the office, and thus little to no mail will be sent to you because it'll auto sort it out.

Best of luck!