Q&A for How to Stop Mail for Previous Residents

Assuming you don't want that mail coming to you, return it to your post office marked "unknown at this address" or "UNK."

You are not responsible for holding mail. Tell the old tenant to file a change of address. Continue to write "return to sender" on the mail and place it back in the mailbox.

Talk to your local post office about this. They can put a hold on it, if no forwarding address was filed, and stop delivering that person's mail to your address.

If you have opened the letter, put it and the check in another envelope and mail it back to the sender with a note explaining the error. If you have not opened the letter, you can forward it for free to the addressee if you or the Postal Service know his/her correct address. If you don't know the correct address, just return the letter to the Postal Service marked "addressee unknown" or "undeliverable as addressed."

Tell your ex-husband to change his address. Otherwise tell the post office that he no longer lives in your house and his mail should be held.

If your filing a change of address has created a problem for someone, you can cancel the change. Talk to a clerk at your local post office.

Someone can contact the post office and file a change of address to redirect someone else's mail. However, USPS ha systems in place to catch this. If you think this has happened to you, contact your postal service directly.

There is no online form for notifying USPS that the person no longer lives at your residence. Additionally, you cannot submit that form on behalf of another person unless you have the legal authority to do so.

No. You have no responsibility for holding someone else's mail. Either write "return to sender" on it and put it in outgoing mail, or contact the post office and explain.

If the estate of the deceased person has filed a change-of-address form with the Postal Service, cross out the address (and bar code) on the mail, write "change on file" on it, and return it to your mailbox or to the post office. If you do not know whether a change-of-address has been filed, simply mark "deceased" or "DEC" on the envelope, and return it to your mailbox or post office.

Not through the U.S. Postal Service. You may see mail for them occasionally, or maybe the manager or neighbors could tell you.

The United States Postal Service does not hold mail unless the customer authorizes it, and then for only up to 30 days. If you have moved but failed to file a forward, your postal service will send the mail back to the sender.

Follow the guidelines in the article. The backstory behind the situation does not make a difference. It would be best to go to the post office and explain the situation, as described in Step 4.

There are companies that sell mailing lists to advertisers. The cheaper lists have poor quality addresses. Alternatively, some corporate data entry clerk may have made and error. Mark as “Not at this address” and dump it back into the mail.

Hold onto it, let her know so she can update her address with the sender or so she can sign up to have her mail forwarded, depending on the situation. But she must do this for herself, so it's important you inform her.

If you know who sent the letters, contact them and provide them with your new address. Otherwise, make sure your post office has your forwarding address, and let it know what happened.

Collect the mail for a while; you are under no obligation to deal with it immediately. Once you have a large handful of the previous residents' mail, bundle it up and take it to your post office. Ask for the supervisor or postmaster. Hand the mail to him/her and explain (again) the problem. This is your last recourse. If you still don't get results, just throw the mail away. You are under no obligation to see that previous residents' mail gets to them, especially if you have already made a good-faith effort to do so.

Let your letter carrier know that the person claiming to live at your address does not in fact live there, and if you're sure about the tax fraud, call the IRS and report it.

Yes, you can, if you have some of their mail, take it with you and they may be able to contact the companies sending the mail and get them to desist.

Tell your mailman that those people do not live in your house. The postal service can hold the mail.

Sign up for the National Do Not Mail List. Other preventions are informing your family, friends, colleagues that you do not wish to receive mail at your place of residence. When you sign up for a store membership program or something similar, do not fill in your home address when prompted. If possible, leave the address line blank.

Yes, it's legal. However, if you want to do this just to show the postal service that the previous resident is no longer at your address, don't bother. They don't need to see an eviction notice. All they need is a change-of-address order signed by an authorized agent. That's you, if the former resident didn't bother to file such an order him/herself. If you don't know their new address, mark "Return To Sender" or "Forward Address Unknown" on all future first-class mail - or just throw it away. You are under no obligation to see that mail gets to the former resident. That's his/her responsibility.

Take the mail to the post office and let them know in person the mail shouldn't come to your address. That should stop it completely.

Many offers use business reply envelopes. If one is included, return the offer to the originator in their envelope and tell them this person is no longer at this address.

Tell the person that moved to put in a change of address request. Mark any spurious mail that may arrive as “moved” and put it back into the mail so the post office knows of the problem.

Since most junk mail is addressed “or for current resident” you’ll have to contact the sender or try one of the direct marketing organizations to get it to stop.

Write “not at this address” on the items and put them back into the mail. It might take a few pieces for the mailers to get the message. However, this won’t stop mail for “...or current resident” junk mail. In those cases, you’ll have to contact the sender to get your address off their list.

Letter carriers have no way to know every person living in every home. Leave a note for your carrier explaining exactly who is to receive mail at the address. If mail has a name plus "resident," "current resident," "occupant," or another type of generic name, the mail is actually directed to a house and its occupants, not a specific person, even if there is a name on it.

Leave a note for your letter carrier, write, "Return to sender -- does not live here," on the envelope and leave it in the mailbox to be taken away.

Usually the letter carrier is not ignoring your notes. Usually it is because your mail is being delivered by multiple letter carriers who do not know every person who lives at all 300 to 1600 houses on a route that they only carry once in a while. Try writing the names of all persons who receive mail at your house and put a note on your mailbox. This will not always work because a letter carrier is supposed to attempt the delivery. It can also help to get to know your letter carrier and always be friendly.