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I tried googling this and found that it is probably illegal to throw away someone else's mail but the only thing I found from the US postal service itself was instructions on how to return the mail with no mention of a legal obligation to return the mail. I do know that if it says "or current resident" I'm allowed to toss it but it usually doesn't.

My situation is that I have been living in my current house for 2 years now and I get mail addressed to the previous resident almost weekly, sometimes more. We have informed the post office several times that they no longer live here but the mail still comes. So far we have obliged in writing "not at this address" on the envelope and leaving in the mailbox (although sometimes our postal carrier just ignores it and puts new mail on top of it several days in a row).

I'm getting tired of it though, I know it probably sounds petty and lazy but I don't carry a pen with me to the mailbox so every time I get their mail I need to bring it back inside, write "not at this address" on it, and then bring it back out to the mailbox. It takes me at least 5 minutes to bring their letters inside, write "not at this address" on them, and then return them to the mailbox so assuming 1 letter per week (which honestly is likely a conservative estimate), in the past 2 years I've probably spent more than 8 hours simply dealing with returning someone else's mail. And usually it appears to almost certainly just be junk mail. Are there any sort of limitations on how many times I am obligated to provide unpaid labor for the us postal service?

jesse_b
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  • @BlueDogRanch Thanks I was just reading that, it doesn't really but I'm imagining my question is likely unanswerable and may even cross the line into legal advice. That answer also gives me more questions. – jesse_b Dec 16 '23 at 20:57
  • If it is rented property you can pass a wad of it to the letting agent periodically, who should know where to send it (but unlikely to tell you). Otherwise, two years on and with no forwarding address, shove it into a box in the barn. But why have you wasted 8 hours carrying mail back to the mailbox when you could have done that the next day when you went there? – Weather Vane Dec 16 '23 at 22:32
  • @WeatherVane the law mentioned in the linked duplicate says it is illegal to obstruct the delivery of mail. Obstruct can be defined as delaying for any period. I have left the letters for when it's convenient occasionally but that usually results in me forgetting about them for extended periods of time which might classify as obstruction. Also it probably takes 1-2 minutes just to find a pen and write on the letter which multiplied by 52 weeks in a year x2 is still 1-4 hours. It doesn't seem like much in the moment and initially I want to help but when will it end. – jesse_b Dec 16 '23 at 22:43
  • Why do you think it is essential to put the re-addressed letter back in the box within a few minutes, but obstructive to do it next day, knowing that postie usually won't take it anyway? Obstruction is refusing to do something, or impeding it. – Weather Vane Dec 16 '23 at 22:53
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    @WeatherVane I don't think the next day is but I'm lucky if I remember my keys and wallet when I leave the house so if I don't do it right away it could potentially be forgotten for weeks. However as trivial as it may sound it is very stressful to me to have to worry about someone else's affairs so often. – jesse_b Dec 16 '23 at 23:02

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