Would it be petty to refuse new neighbour’s request?

[isthispetty]

I live in a cul de sac - the houses are in a semi circle and my house is on the one of the ends.

A few years ago, our next door neighbours knocked down their detached house and replaced it with two semi-detached houses. They live in one of the houses and sold the other.

Consequently, they live in number 9, the other house is 9A and my house is number 10.

The people in 9A have recently moved, and we have some new next door neighbours.

This morning, the woman from 9A came round and asked if we would be willing to change our house number to 11, so they could be number 10. She says that loads of their post and deliveries keep getting sent to number 9, and she just thinks it would be easier.

Would it be unreasonable to say no? I’m used to living at ‘number 10’ - we’ve lived here for years! And I’d have to go through the effort of changing our address, and contacting everyone we know and getting it changed officially and legally.

Or should I just be neighbourly and agree?

Say you've looked into it and sorry, but I can't ....we have too many legal matters deeds, wills etc that all relate to this specific address. SOrry!

Also...she just needs to put a note on her letter box in nice big letters "POST FOR 9A only " and speak to the bleeding postman. Not have you jumping through hoops!

I get post for neighbours, people several streets away with no real resemblance of address.
So I don’t think it will solve her problem

I wouldn’t do it either! Aren’t numbers allocated by plot via the land registry?
Perhaps instead they could change theirs from 9A to ‘Nine Elms’ or ‘9 1/2 weeks’ or 9 3/4 like the platform at Kings Cross

Property Numbering and postcode are assigned by post office and developer
So no the postie won’t be getting lost forever
It’s a weird request at least and at most I’d wonder if it’s a bit hooky

I wouldn’t.
It would be a right hassle for u to change ur address . U wud be the one chasing ur mail !
House name for ur neighbour is the way to go .

Far too complicated for you. You’d have to change so many things, bank accounts, utilities, electoral roles, council/community charge, nat.ins, tax, passports, etc. to name just a few. It’s their problem, let them sort it.

no the problems you would face are not work it.

So basically she knocked on your door and said hey new neighbour! Please can you change your house number at massive inconvenience to you because I can't be arsed to walk next door to get my post!!! Haha CFery at its best!!!

She wants to try living at my house. Seems people can’t read street signs. Rows of terraced houses. At the from Odds on one side, evens on the opposite. At the back though it’s a new street opposite. All have large signs at both ends though. You have to drive past the sign to get to houses. I frequently get a late night knock from various take away places for the same house number but the next street. I had the bailiffs once too threatening to come on and take a list of my saleable items if I don’t pay - had to prove my ID and that they were at wrong house, had the police knocking to tell me my teenage son had been arrested. They’d been when I was out and neighbour told them I didn’t have a teenage son but a new baby. They didn’t believe her so came back. They argued with me a while until it dawned on me and I asked them ‘what street do you think you’re on?’ and they realised I wasn’t lying!! This was actually the first incident of wrong street. I get people turning up to collect things from Facebook selling sites. Alsorts. Always the same wrong house too. I’d love to actually meet the other house!!

No way! She could change hers instead and call her house a name! Bloody cheek asking you to change yours!

What would she do of she lived in a high rise or apartment house?

I do not know any polite response to her audacity and selfishness (definition of CF).

No wayyyyyyyy!!!!!!

Tell her to give her house a name instead.

Why can't the neighbor change from 9A to 11?

Would fit in with normal street numbering, as that's normally odds next to eachother and even numbers opposite.

Absolutely no need to involve you. Neighbor is unreasonable.

Hi, ex Council Street Naming and Numbering Officer here, there's a lot of misinformation on this thread.

The naming of streets and the numbering of properties on them is solely the responsibility of the local council, in England the relevant acts are:
TheTowns Improvement Clauses Act 1847
The Public Health Acts Ammendment Act 1907
ThePublic Health Act 1925.

Royal Mail allocate the post code only.

Usually property numbers are assigned in consultation with the developer and Royal Mail, but the SNN Officer has the final call. The primary purpose of the number is to ensure that emergency services can easily locate the property.

Neither you or your neighbor can just change your house number, you have to get any change agreed by your local SNN Officer, who would have to issue official notifications of an address change... It can be done, but only in exceptional circumstances.

OP, in your case, I can see no reason for a change to be authorised as it would cause all kinds of problems with Land Registry, utilities mortgage etc for no good reason.

I agree with posters who think your neighbors don't want an A as they think it might sound like a flat... however I've numbered numerous houses with ABC etc, it's increasingly necessary as large old properties are developed into multiple smaller ones.

Your neighbors could add a name to their address, however, if a property has an official number, RM won't record a name on their database, so if they order something online the house name won't show up when the post code is input.

Your neighbors should contact their local delivery office and chat up their postie.

In short, your answer should be "No".

CocoaGin That sounds mad, call (and I mean call) your local SNN Officer, that's the kind of nonsense I'd have had great pleasure in sorting out, RM customer services can be a pain, but their address managers are, without exception, excellent.

I think some people have the effing nerve to expect you to go through all that trouble to make their life easier.
What gives her that right. She knew when she was buying the house that there was a 9 and 9A.
I would just tell he: this is a lot of trouble for you, what do you think it would be for me and leave it at that?

Tell her also that you like being No 10. It has been yours for awhile and you want to keep it.

I definitely would not go through the hassle of changing numbers!
If she's having royal mail delivery problems then she should contact the royal mail & complain!! Or ask number 9 to put a small notice saying only mail for (insert name) at this address.
It's a minor inconvenience compared to the royal mail problems you'd have if you agreed to her request!
I think suggest she renames her property, maybe cheekymcfucker??? 😆

Haven’t read the whole thread but you cannot change the number on a house. You can add a letter to it as your neighbours did making it 9A and you can add a name but you cannot change the number.

I did some work for the last census, which involved going round matching buildings to addresses to maps, and some of the numbering and post codes were ridiculous . A new build cul de sac had its numbers running up one side and down the other. They started building at the entrance to the cul de sac, with no1 on one side, no 24 on the other, and worked inwards. No problems, except part way through building they changed the plans for four 2 bed houses to be two 4 bed houses. So numbers 15 and 16 didn't exist, but what was even funnier was that none of the neighbours had noticed - I had several of them walking round the road, counting houses with me.

Another town had houses converted into flats where the ground floor was one postcode, and the upper floors were a different postcode .

But plenty of streets had 20, 22, 24, 24A, 26A, 26B, 26D, 28, 30, 31A, 32, 34 kind of numbering, and usually it made sense when you saw it in real.

11 pages and people are still repeating the same things that have already been said. Hopefully Op has got the message by now.

No way.

Your address wouldn’t match the deeds / land registry. although I realise that is shown as a red line so should be clear, but it would cause unnecessary hassle, proving that the address you were selling matches the plot. Also your mortgage co have given you a mortgage on an address.

No way would I do this.

10 is a nice address number, too.

They just don’t like sounding as if they live in a flat.

just ask 9A to puit up a better display of their number

or change your too

no way change your number

cheeky people indeed

It would be a lot of work, you would need to get permission from royal mail but also the Land Registry it’s going to be a complete hassle and take years for all those Auto-fill in forms (when you buy stuff online) to update with your new number. I think there is a .gov or a Royal Mail webpage outlining what you have to do, I would print that out, show your neighbour and explain that it’s too much hassle so sorry but no.

Good point about fire service needing to know where to go.

Only change in exceptional circumstances. This isn't.