What are the legal implications and what is my legal obligation if mail for a third party comes to my house?

I worked for the government social services agency for over 20 years. I can tell you that if he is using your address, he is telling them he lives with you. Therefore, his income and your income are going to be combined, legally, as far as taxes, Social Services, everything legal goes.

You don’t want anybody knocking on your door looking for this person, and that includes social services and the police. You don’t know what he’s involved with, as far as the legal system goes (police, Probation, Parole) and you don’t want to be involed in any way with his issues. You also don’t want to be responsible for getting messages to him or telling him that people were looking for him.

I would put the item in the mail return to sender, not at this address.

I would also call the Social Services agency and tell them he doesn’t live with you. Find out who to address a letter to and send that worker a letter,, certified mail, stating that this person is not part of your household, and you did not give him permission to use your address.

Keep a copy of the letter.

By using your address he is establishing a residence. Technically he lives with you. If you came home one day and found he had moved in, you’d have to go through all sorts of hoops to get him evicted. If he is using it for some reason to scam the social services you are unwittingly an accomplice.

It is never okay to use someone else’s address without their permission. I agree with @jca2 in that you need to call the social services office and tell them what is going on and to return the letter unopened with the note that is not the correct residence.

I read the answers above and I don’t agree with everything written so far. Everyone at an address does not automatically become part of the household income nor does it affect your taxes. Roommates living together do not file taxes together.

I do think there is some liability regarding using your address, especially if the person is doing it to gain entry into something they don’t qualify for. An example would be someone using an entrance to get their child into a school district. Another would be to get access into some other sort of benefit.

I wouldn’t have a problem with someone using my address to receive mail for certain things, but I guess the proper way would be to use care of (c/o). I receive some of my boss’ mail for her company, and the company is not located in my house, but the company does have a separate official address.

I think you did the right thing telling the person not to use your address. If you can write down somewhere that you told the person not to do it, as documentation for you, like in your calendar would even be worth doing, that would be good.

Usually, government needs bank statements or utility bills to consider the mail worth anything. For instance to get a driver’s license you can’t bring in a Time magazine with your name and address as identification for a location.

This is not legal from a residency perspective. It sounds like you asked them to stop but if they have given your address as a legal domain address. Ask them pointedly if they used your address for employment, Car registration, etc.
As previously noted, Write on the face of each piece of mail “Return to Sender – Not at this address”. Leave it in the mailbox for the mail person to take back. The postal carrier will then get the message. You can also go to the Post Office if this continues.

Just to add, when you write “return to sender not at this address” snap a photo of the envelope where the date is visible, and probably your phone has a date and time stamp also, and keep that as proof you do not acknowledge that the person lives there.

I would contact the Post Office and also the Social Service Agency by mail and make sure the Social Service letter is certified. you might as well call the Agency and speak to someone there.

I think government agencies take return to sender mail seriously.

If you had just moved into your house and the mail was addressed to the previous person who lived there I don’t think you would be so worried, but it would be basically the same situation. I’m just trying to give some perspective if it is stressing you out. Probably, you would be concerned the previous owner wasn’t receiving important mail. The person never lived with you, you haven’t allowed them to use your address, that’s the truth, truth is on your side.

@JLeslie: When you say everyone living in her household does not automatically become part of the household income, I can tell you that as far as Social Services is concerned, they do. What that means as far as @Jeruba‘s taxes go, I don’t know but as far as SS is concerned, they’re lumpted together.

Also, if the person was at a shelter or on the streets and is now claiming that they live with @Jeruba, they are not going to have any proof of it and SS won’t require it. Mail going to the recipient at the address, received, is good enough for SS. If someone just came out of a shelter or oft the streets, and they move in with a friend (like Jeruba), this is how they establish residency. They’re not going to have a driver’s license with Jeruba’s address on it or a utility bill with Jeruba’s address on it, but now they will have the SS benefit card with the address, and then they can tell other places (like Probation for example), that they live iwth Jeruba.

I’m not going to argue about it. I worked there over 20 years and I know the system pretty well.

Just to add, if Probation or the cops are looking for this person, @Jeruba doesn’t want them knocking on her door or if there’s an arrest warrant, god forbid, knocking Jeruba’s door down. That’s why if I were her, I’d want this clarified so there’s no misunderstanding.

@jca2 I can see where social services would count everyone.

I guess taxes is a separate thing, as you make me think about it more. Interesting how they are different.

Roommates do not file taxes together. Only if one of the people is a dependent or married to the “head of household” would the tax situation come into play. Dependents can be adult children or older parents, etc, but they have to meet qualifications for being considered dependent.

Seems like it’s more a problem for the guy using @Jeruba’s address. Her income would likely make him ineligible for any services he might be trying to get.

@JLeslie The income lumped together thing started from women with children not being married, and living with the children’s father, and not counting the income of the father because they weren’t married. So SS said, ok, everyone in the household, no matter who they are or what relation they are or are not, is going to be counted.

@Jeruba‘s person might be wanting to set up “residency” in @Jeruba‘s county because maybe her county is a more affluent one with a bigger SS budget. The County that I worked in was an affluent one, and paid more toward benefits, and has better shelters, so people would want to come from elsewhere in the state or in the country to go to a shelter in my County, for that reason. Now the County will tell people to go back to the County they came from. They actually have to have permission to move to a different county, if they want to be on SS. If they’re not on SS, of course they’re free to move where they want to.

@jca2 Makes sense.

Your obligation, legal or otherwise, is to put the mail back into the USPS system so that it can be properly delivered.
If mail comes to you and you don’t want to take possession of it for another person, write “NOT AT THIS ADDRESS” (or similar) on it before placing it back into the USPS system.

I thought mailing address and home address were two different entities. If the person just listed your address as mailing address, I don’t see how that could cause any harm to you.