united-kingdom tenant
Do I have any legal obligation as regards letters sent to my shared household for people who don&#39;t live in it any more?
<p>I live in a shared house with other people.</p>
<p>Many other people used to live here before me (I know only a few of them, but not many).</p>
<p>But a lot of mail with their name on is sent here (e.g. from HMRC, grocery stores, ...).</p>
<p>Do I (well, <em>we</em>, the current tenants) have any legal obligation to keep them in a safe place, or I can just put them in the recyclable bin?</p>

<p>The Postal Services Act 2000 does not allow you to delay someone else's post:</p>
<p><a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/26/section/84" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Section 84</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>84 <strong>Interfering with the mail: general.</strong><br />
(1) A person commits an offence if, without reasonable excuse, he—<br />
(a) intentionally delays or opens a postal packet in the course of its transmission by post ...</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/26/section/125" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Section 125(3)(a)</a> defines &quot;transmission by post&quot;:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a postal packet shall be taken to be in course of transmission by post from the time of its being delivered to any post office or post office letter box to the time of its being delivered to the addressee ...</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the case of a postal item put through your letterbox, it has not yet been delivered <strong>to the addressee,</strong> merely to an address.</p>
<p>You have an obligation not to delay the mail, so you can't simply put it in a safe place. You certainly can't cause its destruction (because that delays the mail permanently: it will never be delivered).</p>
<p>The best thing to do is to follow <a href="https://personal.help.royalmail.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5156/%7E/ive-received-someone-elses-mail" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Royal Mail's advice</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you’ve received mail which has your address, but not your name, this is because we deliver to addresses rather than names. If this does happen, you can put a cross through the address and write 'Not known at this address' or 'No longer lives here' and put it back in a letterbox.  Where possible, we’ll return the item to the sender hopefully allowing them to update their records</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That way, you have done everything you can not to delay its delivery, <em>and</em> you have alerted the sender that their records need updating.</p>
