I had this problem too for a while and crossed out and scratched out the barcode and put not at this address for a couple of weeks and that took care of it for the most part. Occasionally something still comes along 7 years later.

I just mark across the envelope -- not at this address and leave it for the postman to pick up .previous owners should have the addresses on their important mail changed by the time the forwarding order expires, so don't sweat getting junk mail etc back to the previous owners.

We get mail for people who lived in the house 20 years ago. It's all just junk. They sell those mailing lists for years. But our buyer sent me something after the forwarding time ran out and I really appreciated him taking the time/money to put it in an envelope and mail it to me. It was a tax form for college tuition paid that year and I never thought to notify the university.

Our tax database is online and it's very easy to look someone up if you want to go ahead and forward something to them. I wouldn't worry about junk mail or magazines, but I would probably make the effort if it was something I thought they needed.

Gloria

I don't think it's any skin off your back to write on the envelope "no longer at this address" and put it in your mailbox for USPS to pick up (or if your ID is any indication, to put it in a Canada Post Box). The previous owner can't possibly know what junk mail places to notify and it's reasonable to expect that people cannot remember to notify every single person of the new address, especially those of annual mailings.

Besides, It may be illegal to dispose of mail, so you may be legally obligated to send it back to the post office. Even if it's not legally required, it's the right thing to do.

I got a TON of mail for my PO. The post office is supposed to forward for a year unless otherwise notified. So, I just kept writing, "Please Forward - Not at this address", on all of them for the first year. Now I just throw them away.

You can't always inticipate who will be sending you mail. I always write "Please Forward" and stick it back in the mail. We moved six months ago. I've gotten important mail for the previous owner twice including a paycheck. He left us his number and is still in town so I've called him twice. I would hope my buyer would do the same for me.

the post office still has his forwarding address. Mark it as people have suggested, "no longer at this address, please forward" and stick it out for the mailman.

I used to received previous owner mail and one day I decided to wait for the postman to come and explained to him that there was noone living at this address with that name; he took the mail back and I never received mail from anyone else again.
good luck~~
maria

After you call the post office to notify them, and have talked to your route carrier about this, I'd just drop any junk into the garbage. Should something look important, it would be a common courtesy to mark the envelope "Not At This Address" and put it out for the carrier.

We still get phone calls for people who had our number six years ago. At a prior home we had process servers show up twice, looking for our seller -- that was interesting! Had to show them our ID's to get them to move on.

You could try looking on Canada411.com. If you find his address, just run off a few labels with the new address and slap 'em on the mail. Add a line that says Please advise sender of new address.

It's a good idea when you move, to leave a sheet or two of labels with your new address behind. Makes forwarding the mail that shows up much easier. The post office doesn't always catch everything.

Hope this helps.

If you are interested in getting the mail to the previous owner, or just letting them know that they need to extend the mail forwarding, you could have your agent contact their agent and let them know that they need to put in another change of address request. Otherwise, just write "moved, please forward" across the envelope and drop it in the mail.

adellabedella-I always write "Please Forward" and stick it back in the mail. We moved six months ago. I've gotten important mail for the previous owner twice including a paycheck. He left us his number and is still in town so I've called him twice. I would hope my buyer would do the same for me.

I think this is a nice thing to do IF you are on good terms with the seller. Otherwise I'd write "Return to sender-Moved".

A while back, we moved several times within a 10 year period and wondered why we weren't getting all of our mail. Our postal carrier told us that a change of address is only effective for one year and can't be renewed for the same address after that. Great. Several addresses later, we were wondering where bank statements, etc were (and if they were even being returned to the sender), so we got a P.O. box. I'm sorry we didn't do this sooner.

I like knowing our mail isn't sitting in our mailbox waiting for the neighbor/friend/etc. to collect it. This has become even more important since we have had mailbox theft in our area. Another bonus to having a p.o. box is that if you tell the post office ahead of time, they will forward your mail to wherever you will be.

scratch out the barcode completely with a marker or it may just keep coming back.

We forwarded our previous owner's mail for months after our purchase. Wife would just take it to her work (she owns the company) and put a stack in a manila envelope and mail it to prior owner's business.

Then came a time when we wanted a copy of the plans for our house. They already had them, and the prior owner listed above is an architect that owns her own firm. She charged us $350 for a copy of the copies!

So, after wife got an irate call because some forwarded mail SIX MONTHS AFTER THE SALE got to prior owners in delayed fashion, causing them some financial trouble, we now cordially round file all mail inbound for them. We've gotten things from the IRS, new credit cards, Franchise Tax Board...all gleefully trashed now!

Take that, sourpuss!

aiki

After 7 years we still get mail from the PO. It is compounded by the fact that my husband has the same first name as the PO. It is further compounded by the fact that my Post Office is really small and they are somewhat careless with the sorting of the mail so I get misdelivered mail with some regularity. My address is 8 xxx and one time I got a letter addressed to 8 Beaver Dam Road. Not realizing it, I opened it. It was a check for some huge amount, $30,000 or so. Right behind that check was another check to the same people. I got in my car and dropped it off at their house. I actually joke that I have a second job delivering the misdelivered mail.

Regarding the earlier post about process servers, we had repo men show up at our house 2 weeks after we moved in. They banged on our door around 6 AM one snowy morning.