Previous owners coming over uninvited after selling the house
Former homeowners frequently return to the property unannounced or continue having sensitive mail and packages delivered there. This invasion of privacy forces buyers to manage awkward confrontations and safeguard forgotten personal property or medical shipments that require secure handling.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- The most recent one is from September 2026.
- This comes up 24.0× more often in r/homeowners than across the site as a whole.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Returning letters to sender and refusing to accept parcelsDid this help you?
- 2Asking the former owners to let you know before coming overDid this help you?
- 3Setting a hard line, refusing to accept packages, and threatening or calling the police for trespassingDid this help you?
- 4Blocking contact with the previous ownerDid this help you?
- 5Surrendering the pet back to avoid guiltDid this help you?
- 6inviting them inside to exchange phone numbersDid this help you?
- 7ignoring text messages or avoiding interactionDid this help you?
- 8Refusing visits entirely after taking possession of the dogDid this help you?
- 9Walking away from the adoption deal to find another dogDid this help you?
- 10Attempting to negotiate fewer visits or setting a cooling-off period with no contactDid this help you?
- 11Being upfront about schedule limits and what frequency of contact is comfortableDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Previous owner of my house stopped by looking for her mail one day - unannounced.”source ↗
“Then yesterday, she stopped by to drop off an installation manual for the gas range while I was home- something that I did not even need and hit the garage door. Now she isn’t admitting to it.”source ↗
“When we bought our house the former owners kept sending their medications (!!) to our house, including ones that needed refrigeration and had to be signed for.”source ↗
“A few months into owning the house my dad is in the basement and finds this little hidden away stash of pretty valuable guns. [...] The son shows up on a weekend evening saying something to the effect of “hey I think something of my dad’s was left behind in the basement. Mind if I come see if it’s still there?””source ↗
“Long story short, next day my wife said she can't live with the guilt and decided to give him back.”source ↗
“I had to give my dog up to a very good home after I was made homeless some years ago and I had to act like she passed away, that was the only way I could get over it.”source ↗
“Would it be confusing for a newly rehomed dog to see its previous owners every weekend?”source ↗
“That feels very different to us than an occasional visit.”source ↗
“Our biggest concern is the dog. We want the dog to understand that our house is now its home and that we are its family.”source ↗
“When we first discussed taking the dog, the current owners asked if they could still see the dog every once in a while and maybe take the dog for a walk occasionally.”source ↗
“They asked if they could come take the dog for a walk every weekend.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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- 2Parents walking into classrooms unescorted after school
- 7Why am I getting so many unsolicited acquisition and sales calls?
- 3How to stop unwanted small talk with a plane seatmate