Is it illegal for my former Landlord to open my mail? I moved out of the flat last month and he has opened two letters addressed to me at the property he rented to me.
Interfering with mail is technically an offence under the Postal Services Act 2000 Section 84. Proving it, however, is often difficult and in such circumstances former tenants can often leave debts and hoards of letters chasing outstanding payments etc.
Sometimes these have to be opened in order to establish the position if only to advise the author that the individual no longer resides at that address. Sometimes mail is genuinely opened accidentally.
In any event you should ideally have arranged for all your mail to be forwarded to your new address through the Royal Mail Redirection Service. Any subsequent mail received at the property could either be binned, opened, or destroyed by either the new occupant, or the Landlord and you would be none the wiser.
* Emyr Pierce is Managing Director of Emyr Pierce Solicitors in Rhiwbina, Cardiff, Western Mail Conveyancer of the Year, specialising in Domestic and Commercial Property. Contact www.emyrpierce.co.uk or email law@emyrpierce.co.uk