Website of the UK government

Wrongly addressed post – what you should do

Royal Mail must deliver post that is addressed to your home.

To stop post for someone not living at your address you should:

• cross out your address on the envelope
• write on the front of the envelope 'not known at this address' and 'return to sender'
• post the item back (put it in a letterbox – you don't have to pay any postage)

Royal Mail will send the item back to the sender if there's an address on the back of the envelope. If the sender's address isn't on the envelope, Royal Mail will open the item to see if there's an address inside.

Once the sender receives the wrongly addressed post, they should know not to send post to your address again.

Stopping unwanted post addressed to you

Unwanted post might be mailings addressed to you that you don't want to receive or unaddressed letters, leaflets and brochures.

You can stop a lot of unwanted post that has your address on it by registering with the Mailing Preference Service (MPS).

Companies that send mass direct mailings, eg offers and competition letters, check their postal list against names and addresses registered with the MPS. They won't usually send unwanted post to you if you register with MPS.

Registering your details with the MPS can't stop:

• items addressed to 'the occupier', 'the householder' or a business
• free newspapers and inserts in magazines and bills
• mail from some small local businesses
• post from organisations you've dealt with before, for example charities you've donated to

To stop post from organisations you've dealt with before or local businesses, you will have to ask them to remove your address from their database.

You can also register a previous occupant's name with the MPS. This will reduce unwanted mail to your address under their name.

If you register with MPS and still receive unwanted addressed mail, you can report the company that sent the mail to MPS. MPS will investigate your complaint and as a result the company may be given a fine.

• Stop unwanted post or report a company (MPS website) Opens new window

Stopping unaddressed post

Royal Mail runs a 'Door to Door' service that delivers unaddressed promotional letters, leaflets or brochures with your post.

If you don't want to receive this material, you can remove your address from the Door to Door list.

• Stop unaddressed post (Royal Mail website) Opens new window

More useful links

• Protect yourself against scams

• Types of scams

• Consumer rights - an introduction