--70.168.x.xxx

Does your lease require an emergency contact? If so, I'd go online to USPS and forward all mail addressed to that person to the emergency contact address. That's good for at least a few years. --108.69.xxx.xxx

Is there anyone living there now? If not, remove the mailbox for a while. --71.233.xxx.xx

--71.38.xx.xxx

Likewise, if you wanted to, you could totally remove the mailbox and rent a complimentary PO Box for the tenant for the duration of their tenancy. Then when they leave, you can re-install the mailbox for street service. It occasionally causes problems for delivery ("Do you need my physical address or my mailing address?" "If you send it via UPS, mail it to _____; if you send it via FedEx or USPS, mail it to ______.") but should solve your problem. --137.118.xx.xxx

Landlord of Flies, yes it does and great idea, also Mike45...I like that idea also. I am handwriting with a sharpie getting writer's cramp (labels easier). Hope you all stay well and healthy and safe! --70.168.x.xxx

Grab the mail by the handful and chuck it in a trash bag and put it on the curb on trash day. No, you won’t go to federal prison for 10 years. No, the former tenant won’t sue you for your entire portfolio. Keep it simple. Then when a new tenant receives mail not addressed to them, they can decide what to do with it. --50.107.xxx.xxx

I think "NO LONGER AT THIS ADDRESS" would be more effective than "RETURN TO SENDER." --50.82.xxx.xxx

My office is in a building my dad bought when i was 16,i am now 55,i have been around this building the entire time,i constantly get mail to former tenants from years ago and mail to people i have never heard of,it all just goes in the garbage --72.231.xxx.xxx

I like Mike45 and LLof the Flies ideas and might use those in the future. --75.11.xx.xx

Why not forward to the clerk of court? --76.188.xxx.xxx

I would do as Paulio and Ken said. --73.120.xx.xxx

I have a local pizza shop that hits my properties several times a week with hand delivered circulars. A real PITA to keep on top of to avoid litter and also to remove from railings because it highlights that the property is vacant. To get back at them what I do now is transfer all my ex-tenants' mail to their pizzeria. --70.90.xx.xxx

tonia, forward there mail to your governors house for retaliation on the moratoriums. --73.120.xx.xxx

I just saw Vee's response, that a bad either. --73.120.xx.xxx

Evil Don, pure evil... genius. --108.69.xxx.xxx

Some LL’s have been known to toss it in the recycling bin, after shredding it up of course!! It’s perfectly reasonable to assume the mail in the mailbox belongs to you if there is no current tenant. Accidentally shredding a previous tenants mail, mistakenly thinking it’s yours is understandable. There needs to be “intent” for it to be illegal, I’m sure you didn’t intend to shred someone else’s mail right!?! ;-) --174.196.xxx.xxx

I've got a house I'm in the process of trying to sell. The vacant tag was in the mailbox and the postman is still dropping the mail in, I know the tenant did a forward address on-line and paid the small fee. I just took the mailbox off and put it in the garage. The quality of the USPS has certainly gone down hill the last few years. --64.130.xx.xxx

I’m not a fan of the VACANT tags the PO puts on the mailbox. Here they leave the mailbox open so the mailman can see it without having to walk up to the house. I don’t like to advertise a vacant home. I think removing the mailbox or locking it is the best idea- let them figure it out . --174.192.xx.xx

So I've warned all tenants that I have a 32 gallon trash bin in the lobby next to the Bank of Mailboxes so that tenants can throw away any wrongly addressed mail. If the x-tenants won't take responsibility for their mail, then don't be surprised if someone retrieve important credit card offers and do some identity theft. --47.155.xx.xxx

What is the address Robert? You might be able to do a new investment seminar - buying a house without your credit --24.101.xxx.xx

Fun story: Lat week, I was collecting old mail from my new tenant's box (with their permission) and the nosy neighbor across the street (the one who has been shunning me for 8 years) yelled at me saying I was going to be arrested and it's a Federal Crime, etc. I laughed. It's not a crime to go into your tenant's mailbox, or to remove old mail, but you can't withhold it, or destroy it. So says the US Postal Service. I'm anxiously waiting for the US Marshals to arrive and drag me away in handcuffs. Could be fun. I'm sure he reported me. I wonder how I would look in Orange? --72.199.xx.xxx

BRAD --73.102.xxx.xxx

My mail carrier will cull old mail going to my address. When I have an empty apt I put the rubberband around the box. Sometimes I'll go to the post office and hand them the mail. That has always worked. --24.194.xxx.xxx

A USPS guy told me to do precisely what Brad said. --73.215.xxx.xx

--199.192.xxx.xxx

LLoTF great idea. I just amended my lease. Tenants will be giving me permission to forward their mail to the emergency contact. --107.141.xx.xxx

Anyway, fast forward several years and I am checking the mailbox at the rental house because my current tenant has left the rent check foe me there. Lo and behold, there is the income tax refund for the deadbeat. His accountant used his old address! I took it for safekeeping. Two hours later, my tenant calls telling me that the deadbeat is there at the house looking for an income tax refund check. Told him to have the deadbeat call me. Deadbeat called and kept demanding the check. I never implied that I would keep or try to cash the check but I kept asking him how much of the money that he owed me he was gonna pay me from it. He said nothing because he needed it all to fix his car. I said, well, I am just going to return it to the gov't then, nothing illegal about that. On the envelope there is a box to check if the recipient is dead. Well, I had talked to someone on the phone, but I could not be 100% sure it was not an imposter. maybe he was dead! I checked the box and dropped the envelope, still unopened, into a mailbox. I wonder how long it took for the IRS to issue a replacement?? --73.141.xxx.xx

We get mail for unknown persons at OUR address that we have been at for over 40 years. I have wrote on it but recently googled what to do and another tip was to mark out any barcodes on the front and back of the envelope so it has a better chance to make it to a person who can stop the mailings. --69.160.xxx.xxx