Residents usually permitted to keep their neighbours' parcels, reveals the current law

Current legislation in England and Wales gives homeowners the right to keep any item delivered to their homes in most cases, but there are some exceptions.

Copyright: Dwayne Hards.

Delivery companies are legally responsible for the delivery of their customers' parcels, not the homeowner. Therefore, any attempt to retrieve the item from the address would be a criminal offence of theft and a civil trespass without the homeowner's consent irrespective of how immoral it may be. However, the police have often been known not to prosecute these types of matters.

The law currently grants homeowners the right to keep a package regardless of who it was sent to. However, the Postal Services Act 2000 makes it a summary offence to open the mail if it's in someone else's name, but the law's unclear as to whether the item must be returned to the named individual. In reality, though, a prosecution is highly unlikely in most circumstances, as the police usually say "it's a civil matter".