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?

Tell them to name their house.

She needs to contact Royal Mail and complain about her post going to the wrong house as they're obviously not doing their job properly.

My parents are at 35 and the house joined on is 35A, they even have the same surname (and have lived next to each other for almost 50 years) but there's rarely, if ever, a mix up with post.

I think they are bring a bit daft. I lived in a 9a for many years and didn’t have any issues. I bet your previous neighbours didn’t have a problem.

Not RTWT but... It'll transfer the problem to you though

Surely she can name her house and give that on her address details and stick a big sign with the house name on it so the postman can see it... etc.

Pfft, not unreasonable of you at all, and it would be a faff with the council and Post Office. The PO would have to correct their database, the council would have to amend all the records, council tax etc, and the electoral register would have to be amended.

I moved last year and I noticed on my council tax bill that my road name was written incorrectly, nothing major, but not right - say it's 'New Road' and they have it was 'Newroad' - so I contacted them to ask them to correct it and they said they will but it won't be a quick process as they have to go through a lot of paperwork. he said he had looked it up and I was right (well....yeah!) and that he was surprised no-one had told them before. But the weird thing was, it was right on the other part of their website (which I assume draws down from the PO database) and he said they are not linked together. very odd.

Cheeky fucker!

We build our house on land between numbers 12 and 14. We are 12a. Never had a problem in over ten years of being here.

Would never have dreamt of asking our neighbours to change their house number.

Tell her to jog on.

I don't understand cheeky fuckery like this, I really don't. Some people have balls of brass! No no no.

YANBU the PO should be delivering correctly-I wouldn't do-u will have to contact yr bank schools utilities etc.All she has to do is contact the PO! Daft woman! (her not you? )

No way! It would take weeks to contact all your banks, utilities etc. Think of the admin! Also I don't believe it's because of her mail. She just doesn't like being 9A, perhaps because it sounds like a flat rather than a house. C.F.!!

Just say no. They bought the house and they live there.

Perhaps best for your neighbour to speak to the post delivery person.

Agree with everyone who has said what an absolute nightmare it will be to change your address details on every single bit of correspondence from every possible source. Your post would forever be going to them. No, no, no! They can be number 11 if they want!

Don't do it. My MIL moved recently to a small house in the same street and getting places to recognise a change of address with the same postcode has been an absolute nightmare.

As others have said, this would a major hassle and expense to you. What about various insurance policies, passport, driving licence, etc? Something would be bound to go wrong. Apparently before our house was built, along with two other houses, there was originally only one house, no 13 on this piece of land. We are now no 13, next one down has a name and is no 13b, and the next one is 13a. On occasion someone has knocked on our door for confirmation as to which house is which but they are clearly labelled or numbered. It’s normal for an extra house to be called a, b, etc. The postman or delivery people soon adjust.

Also there’s land registry to consider. They take ages to sort things out!

It would need to be changed at the land registry. You can’t just pick a number and let the postman know!

Bollocks is it about the post. Your neighbour feels sub-standard because she’s got a sub-house-number. Tell her to get to fuck, through the front door of 9a.

she must be taking the piss!

Tell her to be No 11

Or name her house

Or naff off

C.F

Bonkers. Surely instead of her post going to no 9's, your post to ex-no 10 would be going to her. It would just be swapping one set of confusion for another, probably worse set because there were 2 x lefit no10s at different times.

That's assuming it were possible and I bet it's not, as PPs have said. I v much doubt the royal mail would accept previously used addresses being recycled on different houses in the same postcode. In fact I think someone in our road couldn't use the name they wanted because it was the old name of a different house in the same road.

No. I wouldn't agree to that. Can't they just give their house a name?

If it was me I would explain that it would take a lot of time and effort to change my address, therefore it’s not a solution for me

I would suggest she applies to council to give her house a name, that would help differentiate between the other two houses

The council don’t dishbour house names. It’s dealt with via an AP1 at the Land Registry.

*dish out

No that is a massive task

We bought a renovated Victorian terraced house - it was a small property & it was hard to see how it could ever have been 2 flats but, apparently it had been - no 61 & no 61A before we bought it& it was a total pain especially with getting utility companies to get the billing right.

Oh dear god I can just imagine the conversation with British Gas/SSE/BT etc - so you haven't actually moved? No. But the house number is different? Yes. But the meter number is the same? Yes. That alone would be enough to dissuade me.

Maybe say you've looked into it and it's going to cost a lot of money and time so if they could just provide you with a cheque for £20,000 to cover your expenses you'll get right onto it.

However YADNBU to say no, no and no some more. Also be careful going forward, she sounds very much like a give em an inch and they'll take a mile type of cheeky fucker. What's the parking like in your cul-de-sac?

No I would not do that. Surely the property deeds say 10 and if you have a mortgage that will also have the number of the house on the mortgage contract so all the land registry deeds would need changing. It is not that simple and I am pretty sure you would have to let the council know too and seek permission.