Do you have a right to open your spouse's mail?

[Anonymous]

I open all the mail because otherwise it would never get opened. Anything that looks related to credit cards, the house, banks, insurance, etc.

That said, I wouldn't open something that looked like a personal letter. And I don't open his packages.

[Anonymous]

Any time you and your spouse are getting into "rights" it's time to have a deeper discussion, is that how you want to live with your life's partner? Doing things because you believe it to be "your right?"

To answer the question, we both pretty much hate junk, financial, bill related mail so it's more like a hot potato as to who's going to open those pieces anyway regardless of to whom they're addressed. Since we're 100% joined financially, why would a priority letter from an insurance company not be fair game just because it has one person's name on it? I'd be extremely suspicious if he were "livid" that I had opened it because that would make it fishy, did you take out an extra policy on her or your children?

[Anonymous]

Wow, we open each others mail. It never occurred to us not to.

[Anonymous]

Like the PP, I think "a right" is the wrong way to think about it. I do ask, which a few times has meant I called spouse at work to say "you got something from the IRS [or jury duty or whatever] can I open it because it's stressing me out." In those situations my spouse has never said no. I don't really understand why you you would be livid because your spouse opened a piece of business mail, and you spouse may not understand either. Are you hiding something? Do you want to be able to hide something in the future? Was it just not done that way when you were a kid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Financial and business mail, definitely yes. Private mail like a card or letter from a friend, no.

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[Anonymous]

18 U.S. Code § 1702 - Obstruction of correspondence

Whoever takes any letter, postal card, or package out of any post office or any authorized depository for mail matter, or from any letter or mail carrier, or which has been in any post office or authorized depository, or in the custody of any letter or mail carrier, before it has been delivered to the person to whom it was directed, with design to obstruct the correspondence, or to pry into the business or secrets of another, or opens, secretes, embezzles, or destroys the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 778; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, §?330016(1)(I), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2147.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Financial and business mail, definitely yes. Private mail like a card or letter from a friend, no.

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[Anonymous]

DH receives a priority letter from an insurance broker that he is "livid" to find DW opened.

Sounds like the first chapter of a murder mystery.

[Anonymous]

This is the reason why divorce rate is so high in this country. Reevaluate your relationship with your spouse. Do you have something to hide from her?
1. Married-yes
2. Living in the same house-yes
3. Sleeping in the same bed-yes
4. Have sex with the person-yes

If all answers are yes, then yes she has the right to open your mail.

[Anonymous]

Whoever gets the mail opens it. Not a big deal at all. If it's a card, then we let the person it's addressed to open it. We never get any other personal mail. Mostly bills and financial stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Financial and business mail, definitely yes. Private mail like a card or letter from a friend, no.

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[Anonymous]

My view is mail is personal and private. All mail. Same as e-mail, texts, voicemails, etc. I would feel very invaded if my spouse went through my correspondence without asking. If she did it against my express wishes as her "right", we would have a real problem.

But in practice, neither of us really cares if we open generic business type mail. But we still ask each other for permission in the rare cases where one is interested in seeing what the other person got.

[Anonymous]

I'll be the outlier here. I generally don't open my husband's mail unless I already know what's in it (same annuity statement, different month) or if it's a joint bill that happens to be in his name (our cell phones). I do throw away obvious junk mail. But a letter to him from a broker or similar I'd leave alone. I respect his privacy and would hope he respects mine.

[Anonymous]

Except when his private mail is about the $10 million life insurance policy he just bought on you that he doesn't want you to know about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ask about it? Yes.

Right to open it? No.

I agree with this. There's no way I would open someone else's mail unless asked. I expect the same in return.