The Previous Owner Has Been Having Packages Delivered to His House for Eight Months After He Moved In, Boxes Have Sat on His Porch for Up to a Week at a Time, and They Got Angry When One Was Returned

Eight months after buying their home in North Carolina, packages addressed to the previous owner are still arriving regularly. In the beginning, he handled it the standard way, writing not at this address on USPS deliveries and contacting UPS or FedEx when they were involved. Then the previous owner stopped by, apologized, explained they were still updating their address with various companies, and asked if he would hold packages until they could pick them up. He said yes.

More than 20 packages have arrived since then. Sometimes they sit on the porch for nearly a week. Other times the previous owner picks them up the next day. Last week his wife got a delivery while he was at work, assumed it was another misdirected package, wrote not at this address on it, and sent it back. A few days later the previous owner showed up looking for it, found out it had been returned, and got upset. They told him he had no right to send it back and that he should have held it like he had been doing.

He wants to know if he is being unreasonable for wanting this arrangement to end after almost a year.

He Has No Legal Obligation to Hold Anyone’s Mail

The informal agreement he made several months ago was a courtesy, not a contract. He agreed to help out while the previous owner was updating their address, which was presented as a temporary situation. Eight months and more than 20 packages later, the situation is not temporary. It is an ongoing responsibility he took on voluntarily and can stop at any time.

There is no legal obligation for a homeowner to hold packages addressed to a former resident. Writing not at this address on misdirected mail and returning it is not just acceptable, it is the correct and legally appropriate response. His wife did exactly the right thing. The previous owner’s claim that they had no right to send it back is incorrect.

The Previous Owner’s Anger Is Not His Problem

The previous owner getting upset about a returned package is a natural consequence of an arrangement that was never designed to be permanent and that has been allowed to continue far longer than reasonable. The frustration belongs to the person who has had eight months to update their shipping addresses and has not completed that process.

He has reminded them multiple times. The packages keep coming. At some point the continued arrivals stop being an oversight and start being a choice, either because the previous owner has not prioritized the address changes or because the current arrangement is convenient enough that there is no urgency to change it.

How to End the Arrangement Clearly

He can contact the previous owner directly and tell them clearly that he will no longer be holding packages and that anything addressed to them will be returned to sender going forward. He does not need their agreement or their approval to make this decision. He is simply notifying them that the informal arrangement is ending so they have an opportunity to redirect their deliveries before more packages are affected.

If he wants to be generous about the transition, he can give them a short window, a week or two, during which he will still hold packages while they make final address changes. After that window, everything goes back.

What to Do With Packages That Continue to Arrive

For USPS deliveries, writing not at this address and leaving them for the carrier is the correct approach and requires no action from him beyond the notation. For UPS and FedEx deliveries, he can contact the carriers to report the address issue, which often prompts them to flag the address in their systems and reduce future misdirected deliveries.

If packages continue to arrive after he has notified the previous owner that the arrangement is ending, he has done his part. The responsibility for updating shipping addresses belongs to the person whose name is on the packages, not to the person whose porch they keep landing on.

Whether He Is Being Unreasonable

He is not being unreasonable. He extended a courtesy for months beyond what most people would have. He accepted deliveries, held packages, coordinated pickups, and reminded the previous owner multiple times to update their address. Being told he had no right to return a misdirected package after all of that is not a reasonable position for the previous owner to take. The arrangement was his to offer and it is his to end.

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