I've always returned it to the Post Office with a written note on the front saying "Not at this address". It's really up to the previous occupants to let their contacts know their new address.

When I first moved in, I'd write MOVED on the envelope and drop it back into a mailbox.

Ten years later, I still get the occasional item for a previous owner. Now I drop it in the garbage.

It can't be important if they haven't been in contact with the person for ten years.

When we moved, the PO forwarded our mail for one year. Period.

I occasionally get mail for the previous owner. Since the woman we bought this house from is a friend, I forward mail to her in another state, putting Christmas letters etc unopened into a larger envelope and sending them on. Recently I received a jury summons in her name, she built a house 400 miles away close to three years ago. That one - I placed a new address label over the address on the envelope and dropped it back at the PO. She can notify the county she is no longer a resident, it's not my place to do that for her.

If she wasn't someone known to me, I would still have had her address from the closing documents of the home purchase. A minor inconvenience to send things on, but I would want someone to do that for me. I think if you checked with USPS, you'd find it not legal for you to keep or discard it anyway...

The previous occupant was so bad about changing addresses, to save time, I printed up sheets of labels stating he no longer lived here to slap on the mail. But then he must have had a rebirth of his home business, because more the FIVE YEARS after we bought the house, I started getting his business packages. Now, these were a pain. Usually there would be several 8' boxes at a time, and after calling UPS or FedEx, I would have to leave them on the doorstep until they got picked up. The regular drivers I talked to stopped dropping them, but the substitutes didn't know about the problem. I thought not receiving the ordered items would get him to fix the problem but it took my pulling a phone number from one of the boxes and leaving a forceful message on the answering machine. That was six months ago, and so far we haven't gotten any more packages. At least, so far...

We moved less than a half mile away, and I really appreciate that the new owner will send me mis-addressed stuff wham she gets it. It has saved me a couple of times when there was someone important who I had forgotten to notify. I'd be happy to pay the USPS to do this instead, but they haven't figured out this whole customer service thing. I don't know where our prior owner's descendants are, so I just mark the first class mail as "moved, not at this address" and put it back in the mailbox. The junk mail goes to the recycle bin.

Junk mail I recycle. Other mail I write "not at this address" and put it back in the mailbox.

I also make it clear to the mail carrier that only people whose names are on the mailbox live here and that's the only mail we'll accept. They're pretty good about that around here. Unfortunately, if its junkmail and the address says "or current resident" they have to deliver it to you.

Correct--Third class mail is delivered to the address, not the person (even if there is a name on it). So, all of that "or current resident" stuff (or anything that is sent 3rd class) is delivered and "meant" for you. You can toss/recycle as you wish.

I'd toss it back in the mailbox with a note, then after a year or two, I chucked it. Not my problem.

Actually, it depended on the PO. The last two times, they stayed in or near the community, and the chances were good our paths would cross, so we wrote in the new address and put it back in the mailbox for a few years. But now that it's mostly marketing we throw it out (or, in the case of the alumni mag that comes for the PREVIOUS PO, I read and share it because it's so interesting lol). The credit card offers that come we shred.

Worse is the phone calls! Our phone number used to belong to a small business that was in the same town, and one of the principals and I share a first name. So it was very confusing for a while. I used to give the new number, but then the calls dwindled to sales calls ("may I speak to the person who handles your bulk paper purchasing?) so I just say the number has changed and this is a private residence, take it off your list. It's been 12 years! Once a number gets on a list, it's hard to take off!

The first few months I put it back in the mailbox for the post office to deal with. Then I returned it to the sender for a while. Then I actually wrote letters to the senders trying to get them to stop. Now eight years later I open the damn things and read them.

Our post office is not at all reliable about forwarding (or anything anymore, really), even if the forward order is still active. Those of you who find the USPS reliable are lucky! Three weeks ago, I had a piece of mail delivered to me, addressed to my former next door neighbor, at his NEW address which is 10 miles away. Really, I am not making that up. I can't understand how that happened.

I follow the golden rule here. It is "not my problem" but it doesn't cost me but a few seconds to write the new address, or "return to sender", or whatever is needed. Sometimes it is not the fault of the previous owner -- sometimes businesses are extremely bad about changing addresses in their records even after proper and repeated notification. Example -- I live in a house that was owned 2 previous owners ago by someone that I happened to know. For at least 7 years I would sporadically get mail regarding a specific account for them. I know they tried repeatedly to get that fixed, and finally did. SEVEN YEARS it took, not counting the years before I bought the house!

A package from a department store recently arrived by UPS at my new house. I've not moved there yet as I'm renovating. It came while I was on a 2-week vacation, so I don't know how long it was there. The mail carrier couldn't give me the last owner's new address (not allowed). So, I took it to the department store and told them to track her down. It was a pain and out of my way, but I didn't know what else to do.

Not the post office in this case, but a wrong delivery:
Last week Mr. Weedy stopped by our house for lunch and found a tub of soup and a note on the front porch. He was getting excited thinking someone brought him lunch, but the note was addressed to someone else. Fortunately they included a phone number, so he called them, found that it was destined for someone 2 streets over, and he re-delivered it to the correct place.

Per long ago instructions from the post office, I have historically written "not at this address" and stuck it back out for the mail carrier to deal with. I was told that it was not my call whether the mail was forwarded or returned to sender so I was not supposed to write instructions to the post office (this from a rather snippy post office employee.)

This house, the previous owner had owned it for about fifty years so all I get is his mail. He is deceased. For the first six months, I took the mail across the street for a neighbor, who was friends with the son/executor of the estate, to mail on. After that by mutual agreement, I started putting the stuff back out for the mail carrier. I eventually started writing "deceased" on the envelopes which seems to have cut down on the stuff. I do also cross out the bar coding at the bottom as that seems to prevent the post office from just igoring my hand written "deceased" and re-delivering.

We are still getting a few pieces of mail and we bought over 4 years ago. They are still in town, so at first I would collect a few pieces and drop it off or tell them to come pick it up. Then I just got tired ... now if it looks important I write "Not at this address since 2010" and underline the 2010 twice! If it looks like junk it goes in recycling.

If it's first class mail, I write "Moved, left no forwarding address" and put it back out for the postman.

If it's anything else, it goes in the trash.

'Cause it's not my problem!

We trash most of it, but the last one was from the IRS. Luckily we know the former owner's phone number, so we called and got her address and forwarded it to her. She is mystified but figured out she was a sub contractor for someone and somehow her old address didn't get changed. We now have her new address so if something looks really important, we just forward to her. We have invited her many times to see all the changes we made, and she is very nice but the house holds too many memories for her.

I mark on it "RETURN TO SENDER" and hope the mail carrier will pick it up eventually.