Investor · Baltimore, MD · Member since 2012 · 1k+ posts · 655 votes
So I'm having an issue where a previous resident of one of my rentals (they rented before I was the owner) is still using my properties address as their primary residence. There has been license address change cards sent to the house, gym membership paperwork and even his car title. It wouldn't be a big deal if it were just mail but my tenant tells me that this person has had police stop by with summons and people constantly coming by trying to serve court papers. Is there anything I can do about this??
The mail can be stopped by going to the post office that dispatches the mail carrier and telling them the situation. The other stuff with court papers just happens. You can feed the new address to those pursuing this former occupant if you know the new address. It is annoying to say the least.
The mail can be stopped by going to the post office that dispatches the mail carrier and telling them the situation. The other stuff with court papers just happens. You can feed the new address to those pursuing this former occupant if you know the new address. It is annoying to say the least.
I'm assuming that you did not do this but always on your move out check list have the tenant put the address they are moving to. This way you can provide it to the people who come asking with summons.
I'm also relatively sure that you can have the post office have the mail returned to the sender if you leave it back in the box with a sticky note. Until you tell the postman that person no longer lives there they have no way to know.
As far as legal action I'm not sure it would be worth it.
Hope this helps in the future.
I'm assuming that you did not do this but always on your move out check list have the tenant put the address they are moving to. This way you can provide it to the people who come asking with summons.
I'm also relatively sure that you can have the post office have the mail returned to the sender if you leave it back in the box with a sticky note. Until you tell the postman that person no longer lives there they have no way to know.
As far as legal action I'm not sure it would be worth it.
Hope this helps in the future.
EDIT
Steve got in right before me.
I've been living at my own home for almost 4 years and I still get mail for the previous owner. I keep writing "return to sender, not at this address" on it and sending it back, but it keeps coming.
I've been living at my own home for almost 4 years and I still get mail for the previous owner. I keep writing "return to sender, not at this address" on it and sending it back, but it keeps coming.
This is a postal employee issue. Surprise, surprise. If you put a sign/label on your mailbox that specifies the residents who receive mail there, the postal delivery person is not supposed to deposit any other mail there. They are supposed to update the sorting at the post office to automatically return to sender anything addressed to anyone other than what is on the box, and they're not supposed to even bring that mail out on the route.
It helps if your delivery person has had the same route for a long time. But with so many of the employees being 90-day "temps" (who actually are employed for years, but are fired on the 89th day and rehired on the 91st), the lack of customer service is understandable..
Thanks for the replies. The tenant asked the mailman if there is there anything she could do but he just said "no". That particular mailman always been kind of unpleasant to deal with. I'll tell her to go directly to the post office and speak to someone there.
Most of this can be addressed by using a black marker and marking out the address. You then write on the envelope "No longer at this address". The black marker keeps the machine from reading the address makes them handle the mail by hand which seems to get the system updated sooner then the "right" way of doing it.
I bet if you ran all of his mail through the paper shredder, and claimed that you "never saw it", he would change the address and the problem would fix itself.
I had something similar happen at my residence, I bought it from an estate, the niece of the owner lived there for the last few months, wanted to buy the house but couldn't get financing.
I had warrants served for her here, etc etc,,,no problem,,then I started getting weird calls from my car insurance company,,they keep asking me about who else might drive in the family, etc etc,,this happened every few months. I finally ask for a supervisor, and told him I had a golden retriever, other than that no person lived at the house,,,he ask me if I knew "xxx xxx",,the niece, I said I knew who she was, but had never meet her.
She still used my house as a residence, and her daughter had turned 16,,the insurance company thought I was simply not insuring her,,,we got it resolved, but he said if I hadn't been with them for many years, it could have caused me problems (they could have found a reason to not re-new my policy because they thought I was lying.,,,,so now anytime a bank or insurer ask me a weird question, I want to know why they are asking
Tape a sign to the front door that Billybob Jackson doesn't lives or rents here anymore, he hasn't lived here in a long time, and you have no idea where he lives now or how to contact him.
S&@T happens. Tell your tenant to stop being a drama queen.
I bet if you ran all of his mail through the paper shredder, and claimed that you "never saw it", he would change the address and the problem would fix itself.
The problem is this person isn't really interested in any mail that gets sent there and appears to be using the address to duck legal issues. I want to handle the mail issue cause it's annoying but ultimately I'm concerned about what weird things he can do having the address on his licence and having recieved mail there for a few years.
Most of this can be addressed by using a black marker and marking out the address. You then write on the envelope "No longer at this address". The black marker keeps the machine from reading the address makes them handle the mail by hand which seems to get the system updated sooner then the "right" way of doing it.
If you choose to use a marker to black out the old mailing address, be sure to also black out the bar code lines at the bottom of the envelope, otherwise that mail might find its way back where yo don't want it!
I bet if you ran all of his mail through the paper shredder, and claimed that you "never saw it", he would change the address and the problem would fix itself.
Not really the case. These former occupants are typically deadbeats who are avoiding contact with various parties that want something from the deadbeat. So they don't care to see that mail, and they don't want those certain parties to know their whereabouts.
Until you've gone through it, you don't realize just how much it is a pain. Once when I was in this one REO house I had just bought, a law enforcement type showed up to serve papers on the former occupant who was a renter. I said I did not know that person. Law enforcement guy asks me to show my ID to confirm I was not the person being sought. so when my tenants mentioned similar situations happening, they had my sympathy - but not much they or I could do. And the mail never stopped permanently since the temps as @Account Closed mentioned would not be aware.
For legal issues I have had the police show up several times for one resident. They had received calls asking them to do a welfare check on the resident. She had old friends who had not been notified of her move. I think those type of things you can't stop. I don't know if the car registration is sent back maybe they cant get insurance and that solves the issue.
I bet if you ran all of his mail through the paper shredder, and claimed that you "never saw it", he would change the address and the problem would fix itself.
Not really the case. These former occupants are typically deadbeats who are avoiding contact with various parties that want something from the deadbeat. So they don't care to see that mail, and they don't want those certain parties to know their whereabouts.
Until you've gone through it, you don't realize just how much it is a pain. Once when I was in this one REO house I had just bought, a law enforcement type showed up to serve papers on the former occupant who was a renter. I said I did not know that person. Law enforcement guy asks me to show my ID to confirm I was not the person being sought. so when my tenants mentioned similar situations happening, they had my sympathy - but not much they or I could do. And the mail never stopped permanently since the temps as @Account Closed mentioned would not be aware.
I had this happen to me. Bought a REO with cash, cops come with several cars while I'm at work. Leave a card. I call the detective. They are looking for Javier or whatever his name was. I tell them I'm not him. They didn't believe me or that I didn't know him. I explained I'm an IT Engineer and just bought the house from the bank with cash. They left me alone after I forcefully told the detective that I already told her no and that she can look up my info via property tax records otherwise leave me alone, I'm not him and he doesn't live here.
@Chris K. Soon after tenants moved into a place a year ago, the tenant contacted me saying she got a letter from so-in-so, so-in-so was asking if whoever lived in the house could forward her drivers license to her when it arrived in 3 weeks to her current address in Texas. My tenant wanted to know if I knew the person...I didn't. We had only bought the house the year before. I told her I didn't think it was a good idea of her to do that, since I didn't know if that person using that address could somehow impact my tenants and recommended they get advice from the police if need be.
Obviously that person who sent the letter didn't want to update her address to the real one in the DMV system, must have had people after her for something.