Mail Forwarding

[AndyF52]

I am a private landlord and after months of hassle I Have finally got my tenant evicted due to non payment of several thousand pounds of rent. This tenant is now asking for any post that may have been delivered to the property. I politely replied that I will be happy to forward any post if he will kindly provide me with a forwarding address, or this is not forthcoming, I will, as Elvis sang, return to sender, address unknown. As you might imagine he is reluctant to provide an address.
My question is, what obligation do I, or perhaps more importantly, my new Tenant have with regards to mail delivered to a previous occupier. Do we legally have to deal with it or simply can we put it in the bin?

[AndyF52]

Thanks for your replies. From my experience with Tenants who don’t pay rent, the majority of subsequent mail is from Debt Collection Agencies and for that reason they are reluctant to have mail forwarded by the Post Office thinking that the Debt will somehow disappear and not follow them to a new address.
I have no goodwill left for this individual who spun me a pack of lies for over 8 months and I have no desire to further tell him what to do, since he ignored all my polite requests to pay rent.

My question really addresses what my legal obligations are in this matter, not what the ex Tenant should do, because he won’t follow the sensible route as has been suggested above. My thoughts are that by asking for a forwarding address, i have made “reasonable steps” to have the mail forwarded. If he is not prepared to provide an address, then the post goes in the bin.