Are you responsible for moving your mailbox if a house was built behind it? Should you have to pay for the relocation expenses when your mailbox has been in its current location for at least 40 years?
#Mailbox Dilemma: Who Should Shoulder the Cost?
## Background
– Long-standing mailbox placement
– Changes due to new construction
## Key Issues
– Ownership of the problem
– Responsibility for costs
– Neighborly relations
## Your Input
What do you think? Share your thoughts on this situation and how you would handle it. Let’s hear your perspective!
#MailboxMoveDebate #NeighborlyEtiquette #ResponsibilityQuestion #HomeConstructionChallenges
Let them put theirs up next to it. Put numbers on the boxes. Mailmen are usually very good at matching letters to numbers.
eta: NTA.
NTA – That shouldn’t be your responsibility.
INFO
What’s the legal situation? Who put up the mailbox? Whose property is it on?
Once a mailbox had been installed with mail delivered, is it not property of the USPS? You might want to check with your local Postmaster before anyone touches it.
If the post office wants it moved they will let you know.
NTA. Before OP can move that mailbox, they need to contact their local postmaster. It may be that this is a motorized route and the mail carrier only drives down the other side of the street, or there may be some other reason that the mailbox was put in that location. Check this out with the USPS first!
NTA-your local postmaster determines if the mailbox is attached to the house, on the street, and which side of the street the mailbox goes. They also can make height and size requirements. Contact your local post office.
NAH. This is a question for your local post office. Find out from them where your mailbox is supposed to be.
NTA My mailbox is across the street from my house and all mailboxes are on the same side of the street. I imagine it’s been this way for 60 plus years. This is a very common occurrence in townships and more rural and older neighborhoods. If I moved my mailbox, I suspect I wouldn’t get mail! Call your postmaster for clarification, your mailbox may have to stay where it is, whether your neighbor likes it or not. If your neighbor wants “nicer looking” or wants matching mailboxes, they should pay for it.
Oh, no. Two mailboxes side by side. Have your new neighbors never seen clusters of mailboxes on a road?
NTA and let THEM call the postmaster if they think it should be moved.
Is this a rural area?
If so, all the mailboxes are on one side of the road. They are frequently doubled up if not more depending on if theres a small side street the mailman doent want to travel down.
I always assumed the Post office decided mailbox location to be honest. Didn’t even realize you could move them. They also chose to put their driveway next to your mail box.
I’d say NTA but finding a common solution may be in your best interest long term.
NTA but neither of you actually get to decide this one. The postmaster does. Direct the neighbor to them
I will say this, the road we use to take our son to school has the mailboxes on just one side of said road. Houses on both sides. If that’s the case here you should be good. Some of those houses weren’t evn there 40 years ago. But do check it out with USPS. NTA
NTA
I’m a mailman. It’s out of your hands. If they’re so concerned they can talk to the local postmaster. It’s very difficult to force an existing customer to move their mailbox
Usually the post office tells you on which side of the road the mailbox is to be placed. You don’t have a choice.
If there is a choice, then they should dig the hole to move your mailbox. They bought the property with the mailbox in place.
If you live in the US the USPS tells you where your mailbox is supposed to be. You can’t just move it. If anything they will probably tell them to put theirs right next to yours. Tell the neighbors to call the post office. Also if they touch yours it’s a federal offense.
NAH – It’s not any of your choice. Talk to the post office. This is their choice, legally.
You are not legally allowed to move your mailbox.
NTA
You do not move a mailbox unless instructed to do so by the post office. We have a neighbor across the street’s mailbox on our front yard. We sometimes get their packages delivered to our porch directly behind the mailbox. Our mailbox is by our driveway which is on the side of our house.
NTA. Had the EXACT same scenario in 2018. We calmly explained that the mailbox was fine where it was, (for me) unless they wanted to move it to an equally convenient location (with permission from the postal service!!), or add a post that held box boxes.
They chose to leave the box in the same spot, but added the post to hold both boxes.
Federal law. You have to get clearance from the post master on where to locate it.
NAH. New neighbors can ask, but it’s not just up to you two.
“Important: Before installing, moving or replacing your mailbox or mailbox support, you will need to contact your Postmaster or mailperson from your local Post Office™. All mailboxes must be approved by the Postal Service”
Source:
https://faq.usps.com/s/article/Requirements-for-City-Delivery-Mail-Receptacles#:~:text=Important%3A%20Before%20installing%2C%20moving%20or,if%20they%20meet%20established%20standards.
NTA. It’s common to have mailboxes on that side of the road for houses on both sides so the mailperson doesn’t have to get out of their vehicle to deliver, they can just put theirs next to yours.
NTA. And not your responsibility to move the mailbox.
Just talk to the people and suggest that they put their mailbox next to yours, or across the driveway from it, etc. Or if they’re adamant about it being moved, let them pay for the costs.
As other have noted, in some areas the mail carriers require the mailboxes to be located on a single side of the road to make delivery easier, or that they be clustered together. I recently moved away from an area where the mailboxes were clustered like that, so my neighbors across the street had three side-by-side mailboxes, even though each had an acre lot and the houses took up 200 feet of road frontage. My box was across the street, next to one for my neighbor on the right side. Nobody worried about it, except when a tree fell in a bad storm and destroyed four of the five mailboxes. Sure that was a pain, but if the tree fell differently it would have damaged 2 or three houses. Mailboxes are much cheaper.
Something to consider, is that depending on your state or provincial laws, the land next to the road is considered road right-of-way. So your mailbox may not actually be on the land owned by that neighbor. If this gets contentious, though you don’t want to go that way, if your mailbox was located there for long enough, some state laws in the U.S. allow something called “Adverse Possession”. To enforce that would require lawyers and legal costs, and that’s just not a good way to be neighbors.
NTA. I’m a former postal worker, and if you want to move your box, you’ll have to ok it with your local office. The boxes are placed on a certain side, so the route runs smoothly and efficiently. In the office I used to work in, unless a resident had a disability, you couldn’t move the box into your driveway either.
NTA. Are they just city folk or something? Do they not get that the mail person only delivers to one side of the road?