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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

House Numbers

43 replies

Chickorma · 16/01/2022 09:30

I've been on a spring clean. Got rid of loads of bits to the charity shop, tip and a few bits of furniture on Facebook Marketplace. Great!

What's not so great is now I've discovered Facebook Marketplace, I've also picked a few bits up from there over the last week (although the nest of tables I got cheaply meant I could get rid of the set we already had, also on Facebook Marketplace). All good.

However... Why do so many blooming houses not have house numbers on? Literally out of the 4 items I picked up, 3 were from houses with no house number on display! One I could find because of the number on the bins, another from neighbouring houses, but the third was impossible to spot, on a new build estate with lots of twists and turns so not easy to work out linear street.

I just don't understand why you wouldn't have a house number. How do delivery companies deliver parcels? How do you expect people to collect items you're selling? Just why wouldn't you?! Please could those of you without a house number explain why!

Also, voting:

YABU - house numbers aren't necessary!
YANBU - Yes Chickorma, I'm with you, why don't people have numbers on their houses?!

OP posts:

Mynameisnew · 16/01/2022 20:47

For heaven's sake it's so annoying. I managed two days as a hermes delivery driver and was ready to kill by the end of it. Even houses with numbers often have them so small you can't see it from the road, especially I'm the dark.

IJoinedJustForThisThread · 17/01/2022 00:49

That’s one of my (many) pet hates too. I always wonder how they expect an ambulance to find them.

PlasticCupPolitics · 17/01/2022 00:56

This drives me insane, I work in the community and I cannot tell you how many times I have to ring people because I can’t find their house due to lack of name or number.

Absolutely no point in house numbers or names if you aren’t going to bloody display them!

I beg you, if you are reading this and you don’t have a house name or number that can be seen clearly from the roadside, please do something about it if you can!

Bigoldmachine · 17/01/2022 01:32

Oh god I agree. I live in a chocolate box type village (although I happen to live in the newer bit in a very ordinary house). The obsession people have with giving a house a name!!! I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve had delivery drivers ask where Such and Such Cottage is. This is houses on a long road where lots of them do have numbers. Even the new builds that we’re only built last year and we’re allocated numbers - all but one of the new owners have called their house a cutesy name And took the number off. Why???!!!

I mean, I completely get it if it’s something obvious like “the Old Schoolhouse” or “the Old Police station” or even VillageName Hall / House (lord of the manor type house). But for a normal 3 bed that’s in a row of other normal 3 bed houses? Bizarre!!!

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 17/01/2022 02:49

Oh, that is so immensely irritating. To be honest, in the modern online delivery economy (as well as things like ambulances, of course), I think the government should make it the law for house numbers to be visible from the road by somebody slowly driving past.

Not that they will, of course, because very few (if any) people in the government have ever had to deliver parcels to make ends meet or done anything as useful as making house calls with the emergency/caring services. I bet they'd love it if all of the signs were taken off all of the doors of their own offices and those they visit, leaving them to just waste their time trying to guess where they need to go.

See also people who have too-small, stiff, snap-back letterboxes right at the bottom of their doors and noisy, aggressive dogs.

KloppsTeeth · 17/01/2022 02:59

I totally agree. Our neighbours either side haven’t got numbers, they rely on our our house number being visible.
We have one of these under a light. It is large enough to read from the end of the drive.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 17/01/2022 03:04

Our neighbours either side haven’t got numbers, they rely on our our house number being visible.

Still not very helpful for delivery people, where it might not be obvious which side is 27 and which is 31.

It's slightly irritating if you have one small, light thing to drop off to one house, but for all of the delivery people - many of whom are under huge time pressures and very poorly paid - who have to do this with heavy parcels for hours on end, every day, for their livelihood, it's just horrible.

Chasingaftermidnight · 17/01/2022 03:09

I’m with you, I hate it. We recently moved house to a house without an obvious number. We ordered one of those big slate number signs immediately but that first week while we were waiting for it to arrive was so irritating - constant phone calls from delivery drivers asking which number we were, visitors unable to find us, etc. I don’t know how the previous owners tolerated it for 30 years.

The weirdest thing was they had a novelty sign about their car on the outside of the house. Just no actual number.

Ericaequites · 17/01/2022 03:19

Having an obvious number on my house has been very helpful when an ambulance is needed, and makes deliveries simple. It’s a good civic practice.

KloppsTeeth · 17/01/2022 03:25

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

Our neighbours either side haven’t got numbers, they rely on our our house number being visible.

Still not very helpful for delivery people, where it might not be obvious which side is 27 and which is 31.

I know, it drives me mad. I am always super helpful to delivery drivers, I keep bottles of water and kitkats in the porch for them to help themselves (hope I am not outing myself to my regular delivery drivers). I will also take in parcels for neighbours as I am a kind soul 😇

caulkheaded · 17/01/2022 03:41

Yep I agree. We’re in a badly shaped cul de sac where the even numbers are one side and the odd numbers are the other and it’s mightily confusing for delivery drivers.

kittykat33 · 17/01/2022 03:55

Yep this is such an issue. Im emergency services and there's nothing worse than knowing someone desperately needs your help and you're counting numbers in the dark trying to work out which is the right house.

Just put a number on your door. A clear bold and preferably lit number visible from the road.

orio · 17/01/2022 07:21

Completely agree, the time I've spent looking at numbers either side to see the one I'm looking for. And agree on the emergency services, must be so frustrating for them!

halfsiesonapotnoodle · 17/01/2022 07:39

Agree completely. Can any offenders explain why they do not put the number or name up?

Original poster

Chickorma · 17/01/2022 07:48

Ah thank you for all the agreement! I try to understand people's points of view over various topics but this one I can't see why you wouldn't have a house number. I'd not even considered emergency services needing to find houses, that makes it all the more important!

Our street is one of those with similarly named streets in the same estate, so we have a plaque on both the garden wall and on our house saying our house number and street name, as well as stickers on the bins that say number and street too!

OP posts:

CheeseCakeSunflowers · 17/01/2022 07:54

I do not have a number because the village where I live has never been allocated them. It consists of approximately 100 properties and with the exception of 4 small closes we all have house names. The postcode gets delivery drivers to roughly the right area and then they have to look for house names which are often hidden or nonexistent. Dog walks often include giving directions to new delivery drivers, I do feel sorry for them. Why we have never had numbers I do not know.

UserBot314159 · 17/01/2022 08:02

I know, haven't done it for a while now but I hate when you have to piece together from clues which house is number 27.

I think sometimes neighbours do shrug and think, well next door is clearly marked 29 so we don't need to do anything. But yeh, is it 27, 31, 28 or 30.

We have only had postcodes in Ireland for about 9 years but my post code which I do use all the time is my house. Specifically.

IME the very people who won't use it typically live in a townland with three families with the same surname. A woman I had to send a letter to (work) rang to chastise me for not putting her full first name in the address. I had Ms A McNamara and she was furious because her sister in law was also Ms A McNamara now knew all of her financials. The rest of the address was something unspecific like lowerlands Co kerry. shudda given us an eircode

Puddstalk · 17/01/2022 08:07

I live in a small village with no numbers just house names - I have signs on the road side garden wall - on the front of the house and at the back entrance - deliveries have never been an issue except for one particular company - I know when they are being used I will end up wandering around the village (approx 25 houses) trying to find my parcel…..

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 17/01/2022 08:17

We get lots of confused drivers as our house numbering is illogical (due to properties built at three different times).

Added confusion by unclear street names and the bollards put all over place so cars can't drive through the estate as a shortcut...

bigbluebus · 17/01/2022 08:28

I live on a small estate where 20 houses were built 30 years ago in 2 short roads - all numbered logically. Our bit only has odd numbers as the original intention was to build across the road where the even numbers would be. However, the developer pulled out and there was a gap of 20 years before that land was built on - another 20 houses. But they built and numbered the houses in such a bizarre way so in spite of the new houses having numbers both by their front doors (which face into a different road to the street they're actually in) and their back gates - which back directly onto the road they are in, the even numbers they've been given do not tie up with the odd numbering of the original houses. Eg number 1 is opposite number 30. I once had a takeaway delivery driver trying to get in through my side gate looking for the even numbered house which he hoped to find between us and next door as he couldn't find the house he needed. If I had a £1 for everyone I directed to an even numbered house I'd have made a fortune over the years. So even numbered houses can be confusing!

HappyThursdays · 17/01/2022 08:33

we used to live on a road like @CheeseCakeSunflowers with no numbers just names. It also had no street lighting whatsoever at night. If I was ever out the front putting the bins out, there would often be delivery drivers walking around with torches trying to read the names of houses. How they ever found anything I do not know. It was complete madness.

I watched one of those ambulance programmes the other day and almost every shout they were struggling to find the right house because of this issue - I know it sounds a bit dramatic but it could make the difference between life and death!

MarshmallowFondant · 17/01/2022 08:34

When we moved into this house there wasn't a number on it. Next door didn't have a number either.

First thing we did was buy a wee slate plate thing with the number on from Timpsons.

nordica · 17/01/2022 08:36

My local council was running a campaign about this recently on social media and the local paper, telling people to make sure they display one so emergency services can find them.

TwoLeftSocksWithHoles · 17/01/2022 08:38

@Kloppsteeth

I am always super helpful to delivery drivers, I keep bottles of water and kitkats in the porch for them to help themselves

That's a bit miserly, I put out a full Indian takeaway (in a thermal bag) with six bottle non-alcoholic Kingfisher lager or a celebrity chef home box and a bottle of Chateau Lafite.

If I'm at home when they call I will give them a piggy-back back to their van (which DP will have quickly jet-washed).

Gardeningdream · 17/01/2022 08:43

Our house only has a name, but it’s prominently displayed at the gate. I also don’t understand why people don’t have one out, I had to pick something up from someone recently and was trying to work it out from neighbouring houses, it was an estate from the eighties.

Some of the neighbours were just as bad, it ended up with me parking up and wandering up the road confused and trying to read hidden house numbers. It must be so annoying for delivery people.

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