Good Evening BBS. I’m after some advice regarding a recent house move. I have moved to Manvers recently from Hoyland, yes I know that means my username is out of date! There were some complications due to solicitors being useless, the upshot being our sale took place a few days before our purchase, so we hastily arranged some storage at crashed at my mums for a few days. When our purchase finally completed I did the Royal Mail redirect thing. Being a bit wet around the ears about these things I didn’t realise there was a few days lag (obvious on reflection). There was also the few days where I was technically homeless and in that timeframe a couple of important items Of post have been delivered to my old address. Now the ‘investor’ who bought my house is a bit of a kn0bh3@d. You know the type, wanabee land baron, Bank of Mummy and Daddy, sense of entitlement etc. But hey, he offered £5k over the valuation on my 2 bed terrace and business is business. He had a bit of a gripe regarding some larger items around the back of the property which I had arranged with BMBC to come and take away. When I asked about the post I wished to collect via the estate agent he replied saying I could come and get it when this stuff was gone. Bit of a narky response but whatever. I chased BMBC up as they said collection within 10 working days and it had gone over that timeframe and fair play within a couple of days it was gone. However they didn’t take everything so the new owner had another whine to the estate agent. What he didn’t mention was the stuff the council didn’t take was obscured due to him ripping out the bathroom and chucking that around the back and that being in the way. As I just wanted to get things sorted I spent Saturday morning doing a couple of tip runs to take the remaining stuff, which was no mean feat in a 208! I’ve taken photos to show I had fulfilled my part of the bargain and messaged the estate agent to say it was sorted and I need to collect my post as soon as possible. He read the WhatsApp message straightaway but no reply as of yet, although I do appreciate it’s the weekend. I have a feeling in my gut that it won’t be as simple as being able to collect this stuff in the next couple of days. I’ve rambled long enough but safe to say the buyer and the estate agent have behaved very differently since the sale completed, not answering phone calls or replying to messages etc. we’ve tried to do the right thing by everyone throughout the whole process yet it’s us that’s had all the ***** and expense since! To my point, holding my personal correspondence as some kind of blackmailing tool can’t be legal can it? What course of action is available? One item in particular is important in terms of getting my financial affairs in order. Like I say I’ll try and make contact tomorrow but I’m not confident. The buyer isn’t local so I don’t expect him to make a special trip but I know he has had a few days at the property doing whatever he’s doing with the place so shouldn’t be difficult to arrange but like I say he’s a kn0bh3@d. Thanks in advance. You Reds.
Yes it's illegal to delay it knowingly. By holding it ransom until you cleaned the garden he has broken the law https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/26/section/84/enacted
In all fairness, once the property has exchanged the estate agent has fulfilled their contract with you and they shouldn't get involved, they have no legal basis to. The solicitor you used (although they were crap) is probably your best bet. As I understand it, redirected mail is legally yours once it's out of the mail system, wherever it winds up and withholding it is a criminal offence. What agent and sols did you use, by the way?
I'd try and catch him while he was at the property? Or failing that can you ask the original sender to resend whatever it was? Got to be cheaper than a solicitor!
It might be tempting to start with the sols/new owner but I think I’d start with the mail senders. Can’t you get whatever it is online or ask for it to be resent? However, if “personal correspondence” is code for a Lovehoney delivery then you’ll need to negotiate immediately.
Supertyke and Red Vesp are 100% correct. That said , I believe all he is obligated to do is put the mail back in a post box with the envelope marked 'not known at this address return to sender'. If you kick off with him and he gets arsey he might just do that. He could even dispose of it and say he had returned to sender since you cannot really prove otherwise. Then unless the Post Office system links that to your redirect notice the mail could end up back where it started or get lost in the system. Probably best and easiest is , as Red Helen said, if you know the senders of the important email, contact them advising them of the situation and get them to resend it. I have to say, we occasionally got circulars and junk email sent to someone who to our knowledge had never lived at or near our address, Whilst we put normal mail Xmas cards etc back into the system, even though we knew (especially Xmas cards) it would probably never get back to the sender, we tended to bin some of the junk stuff especially as we had lived in the house for years.
If your redirection hasn't started yet call at the sorting office and ask them to hold all mail till your redirection starts, take some ID.
In my experience, the sort of investor the op described think they can do it all themselves as they never want a penny of profit to go anywhere other than into their own pockets, even if they aren't local. But until the OP replies we're all just speculating. I would say however, that even if the selling agent is also the rental management agent there isn't anything much more they can do than relay information and requests to the landlord. What the landlord chooses to do then is up to them. Requesting the post be re-sent is the easiest way out of this but if I was in a particularly arsey mood I'd threaten them with sols and/or just rock up at the property and demand my post back (if I knew that they were going to be there).
Hi all. Thanks for all your kind responses, apologies for not replying individually as of yet I’m a bit pushed for time. I have told the estate agent more than once I am happy for the buyer to contact me directly but received a bull5h1t reply saying he has been doing that but I’ve been ignoring him. Not true! Anyway estate agent is ignoring my calls and message as I expected. I called at the house but no-one was around unfortunately. I’m going to speak to the solicitors who dealt with the sale who seem reasonable and might help (it’s the solicitors who looked after our purchase that ballsed up initially). See where we are by the end of the day and make a call on what to do next then I guess. Thanks again lads and lasses, legends one and all x
Hi all. I thought I had stuck an update on here but clearly not! Anyway everything ended fine. Once the solicitor heard what was happening they got right on it and the same day I got a message from the buyer, nice as pie, inviting me down the following afternoon to collect the post. Everything I needed was there so thankfully that was the end of the matter. Anyway I just wanted to thank everyone again for their thoughts and experience. Long live the BBS!
