State Specific Question About: CALIFORNIA (CA)

I take it out of the mail box, put an X over the addreess and write "no such person at this address" and drop it in the mail at the post office.

I still have mail coming to a duplex from people who lived there over twenty five years ago. I recognize thmn as long ago tenants because I heard their names mentioned by my parents before I started working in the buildings.

There are mailing lists still being sold that are very old. Every so often I get something with my maiden name on it or a miss spelling of my first name that came on junk mail at least thirty years ago.

If someone is picking up the mail though, it may be a tenant looking for data that they can use from this old mail to scam someone or commit fraud.

Sounds like some sort of fraud. Remove the mail box

Cameras would be helpful. IF you continue to trash all the mail or shred it this will not stop the mail from continued delivery once a new tenant moves into the unit.

However, IF you have the time you would have to be there when the mail arrives to pick it up and write on each piece of mail. Circle the Return address, unfortunately a lot of junk mail does not have return addresses. The actual address, black out the bar code and write REFUSED across the name and address, then drop it in the post office. IF you want to take the time to do this; it can be very time consuming. Otherwise if you do contact the post office it may not stop the other names that are coming to the address. DO a google search and there are several ways to stop unwanted mail. Again this is time consuming each name will need a letter to stop the unwanted mail. The worst is credit card solicitations to try and stop it.

JUNK MAIL can be a real hassle to stop it AND especially IF the former tenant loved to get a lot of mail. My own personal mail I do the RETURN/REFUSED and have been placed on several do not mail listings however there is always unwanted mail that will come in.

Unfortunately there are a lot of FRAUD mailings especially foreign lotteries. For some reason seniors loved to answer lottery related mailings thinking they will receive a big check IF only they sending a few dollars. When anyone starts to answer these types of mailings they will get a ton of unwanted junk mail and phone calls. Its all mail scams and fraud.

Best of Success!!!

junk mail - toss it

first class - OBLITERATE your address on the envelope with a Sharpie(because the post office will deliver it again), and write "return to sender - addressee unknown at this address".

don't know what happens to it but it doesn't come back.

Love the red stamp idea! I gotta get one of those!

I've lived in my present home for over 15 years. I still sometimes get mail for people who were here before that. One piece we dealt with was a life insurance policy in the name of the people we bought the home from. I was not happy with them anyway, since the roof failed after under 2 years, and they refused to provide me with the name and contact info of the installer even though the roof was supposed to be under a year old when we bought the home. That was a long time ago,

Anyway, this insurance company sent stuff to my address annually, and every year I returned it as not at this address. Last year, we got more than the usual mail from that company, and it was addressed to other members of that family. I did the usual, return to sender, not at this address. A couple of weeks later, I get another letter addressed to that family that is oversized. I could see through the envelope that the last one I returned was enclosed with my bold red sharpie markings still there. So I opened it. There was a letter addressed with it saying they had investigated and determined that they had the correct address.

Really?

I put the whole thing in a new envelope, wrote a cover letter, and mailed it to the attention of the person who signed the letter in the large envelope. I let them know this had been going on for more than a decade, and that I took possession of the property in 2000, and they needed to do their due diligence because they had failed. I also stated that I had kept a scanned copy of the letter and envelope for my records, to protect myself. If they continued to send me mail of that nature, which had financial implications, I would post the envelope with my "return to sender" as well as the new letter saying that it was mailed correctly, and the outer envelope, and would send it around social media. I stated that it would probably be a bit of a blow to their career at MetLife once it was found.

I haven't heard back. It isn't May yet.

Vee of OH writing across the mailing unknown or return to sender will bounce back to you from the post office. IF the bar code is no blacked out with a black sharpe it will come back to you.

Black out the bar code on the address, make certain that if the mail shifts in the envelope that the bar code is blacked out totally. Write across the name and address REFUSED. And circle the return address, IF the return is on the back of the envelope then write it on the front left corner.

Again this is time consuming but IF the mail bounces back again just place it back in the post office drop boxes and the mail personnel should get the message it needs to be returned. Especially with REFUSED written on it.

Unfortunately several junk mail pieces do not have return addresses. Thats when you may have to do a mailing to the 2 to 3 junk mail providers addresses to stop junk mail from previous tenants and addressees.

It all depends on how much time you want to spend stopping unwanted mail to your units. Of course tenants may not care and new tenants may not care either.

Vee of OH writing across the mailing unknown or return to sender will bounce back to you from the post office. IF the bar code is no blacked out with a black sharpe it will come back to you.

Black out the bar code on the address, make certain that if the mail shifts in the envelope that the bar code is blacked out totally. Write across the name and address REFUSED. And circle the return address, IF the return is on the back of the envelope then write it on the front left corner.

Again this is time consuming but IF the mail bounces back again just place it back in the post office drop boxes and the mail personnel should get the message it needs to be returned. Especially with REFUSED written on it.

Unfortunately several junk mail pieces do not have return addresses. Thats when you may have to do a mailing to the 2 to 3 junk mail providers addresses to stop junk mail from previous tenants and addressees.

It all depends on how much time you want to spend stopping unwanted mail to your units. Of course tenants may not care and new tenants may not care either.

Great ideas everyone! I think I like taping or the rubber-banding mail-box closed idea. I notified the Postal carrier and the post office mgr. (My Husband is a carrier) They told me that they will return to sender ALL mail to that address. So once its rented (hopefully soon) I will have to notify them so that they can again resume delivering mail. Great ideas; again; and thank you for your suggestions!