Post addressed to a deceased person.

[mrs.chappie]

Today I moved into a property that belonged to a chap who died. The deceased's solicitor is handling the chap's financial affairs. There is a lot of post addressed to the deceased, at the property. Should I pass the post onto the solicitor to deal with, or return the post to sender?

TIA. x

[suzie1]

hand it to his solicitor, i would do that, it could be important.

[boxtops]

Yes I agree, there might be bills in there too!

[jedimistress]

Definately to the solicitor. If he has family the solicitor can pass on anything personal.

[mrs.chappie]

Thanks very much. It's a bit sad really, as some of the post is quite obviously of a personal nature, eg Christmas cards and hand-written letters.

The strange thing is, the estate agent has been round to read the meters and their office is just below the solicitor's office. I can't understand why they didn't take the post to him.

[mrs.chappie]

Apparently the chap had no close family. He had a cousin who he didn't see much of, according to the neighbour.

[Vagrant]

Mrs C - it's because estate agents ere even lazier than solicitors!

[mrs.chappie]

Thanks Vagrant. You're probably right!

[suzie1]

ahh that is really sad, but we just have to think that we will all meet our maker someday. You do the right thing, also the estate agents may not like to get involved into things like that.

[buildersmate]

If the cousin isn't even interested enough to set-up redirection such that he/she can deal with the post, passing relevant financial ones to the solicitor, then you are doing the right thing. Shame really; the costs of dealing with all this gets built into the eventual fees, but that isn't your issue.

[dzug]

The cousin is not entitled to set up redirection - the Royal Mail ID requirements won't allow it.

The solicitor is entitled to - but only if there is a will, ISTR

If not it's up to you to do it, either by forwarding thriugh the mail or taking it round to the solicitiors.

[mrs.chappie]

Thanks all. I dropped the lot off at the solicitor's office yesterday, except for one which was obviously a Christmas card and it had an address sticker on the back.

I returned it to sender with a little note explaining that the addressee had died. This morning the lady rang to thank me and we had a long chat. She's ninety years old and sounded remarkably good for her age.

Thanks again all. xxx