Neighbours have numbered their house…

[UprootedSunflower]

Not with the post office formally, just decided it’s awkward to have a name instead of a number and started using it.

No houses here have numbers and never have. All named from before the area was built up.

It’s really really annoying as they have named themselves ‘one’ but they are set well back from the road and have a high gate/ alley to enter. Mine is the first obvious house front at the end of the road. So I get their post a lot.

It also makes delivery drivers get angry- no one else has numbers, like we should, or knock constantly to ask which end of the road number one is (most houses are set back so it’s me who gets the brunt).

Ive tried talking about it, but they are determined houses need numbers and it’s easier. I’ve tried stopping the postman, but it’s constant agency staff changing over.

So… I started simply marking anything through my door with the made up address and not our names ‘not at this address’ and popping it back in the post box. Aibu? They have got really cross!

They are the kind of people who order constant parcels and get post still

You’re not wrong @Ilovemyshed. I’m in a small hamlet. Not a number in sight. We all have very clear name signs either on gates or by front doors.

Totally agree with this, you can't just number your house randomly.

I have a name and a number but my street is very odd in that it goes 1,3,5,7, 14, 16 etc. It can be confusing.
The name was added to reflect the very identifying feature so I use for example 'windmill house, 3 anystreet' which works.

Street naming is an art though.... DH used to work with new council development and one of the roads on there was named after his boss' cat. Still makes me chuckle if ever I'm up that way now.

YABU. They are the only sane ones for wanting to have a logical identification system for their street, even if they’ve not quite done it right. To return their post because they have tried to implement a logical system is ridiculously petty.
It is spectacularly pretentious to sneer over houses with numbers and is also extremely irritating when your job requires you to find a house with a name and no number. If you ever need an ambulance, police, or indeed parcels delivering by an unfamiliar delivery person, you’re massively delaying them by not having a number.

All very well when its a regular road with regular houses. In a rural hamlet with houses and cottages dotted all over and different paths and lanes to access, then no, that does not work. House names are just fine and usually link to the history of the building. For example, we have a cottage next to a farm house so have XX Farm and XX Farm Cottage. Across the way it is The Old Rectory and up from that is The Rectory and also is Church House, unsurprisingly near the church as it used to be occupied by the Sexton. There is an Old Bakery, an Old Post Office, a Smithy House, a house named after the pub it used to be, and so on. A village history right there as it has changed and developed.

There is a run of a few houses that were built by a local builder called Bird, so the houses are named after common garden birds.

Have you checked with the local council Naming and Numbering Department
They could have officially changed the name with them.
It then gets changed on land registry and all other official documents.

@BrioNotBiro

You can name your house whatever you like and get rid of the number as well
There is a whole department at the local council that deals with it.
There are forms to fill out with them and if it affects others in the area they are written to to ask if they are ok with it. That’s only if there are other house names that are similar

So if there’s a house The Thatched cottage already existing very close by with the same postcode and you want to change your house name to The thatched house it will probably be refused as it would be too similar to an already existing one.
You could also be refused a name if you live in a historical property with a historical name,

Again, the OP is sorting out a problem not of her making whilst the people who should be sorting it out sit back and enjoy her putting herself out for their benefit, all because of they did not sort out changing of their address correctly. Nope, YABU

As @BillStickersWillBeProsocuted says, all other solutions put the onus on you to solve the problem - your current actions put the onus on them to solve the problem. Their anger demonstrates that what you are doing is working. You are definitely not being unreasonable.

It is frustrating. My neighbours have no signage at all…and seven different addresses for their business, holiday lets and residence. They refuse to have any signage either, and it is very frustrating. After years of herding over packages, I just have a sign on the door saying i don’t take packages for anyone else, otherwise I would be a parcel dumping point. I also have put quite a lot of effort into letting the different delivery folks know where we are, etc, to minimise any mix ups. Most people here are very nice, and I don’t mind the occasional wrong package, but it was getting too much.

They've basically created a non existent address.
There is no number 1 flowerpot crescent.
So all their post will not reach them. You'd think the postman could tell them the only way to change it is through royal mail postal address file system. What a bunch of idiots.
In drop down lists the address will not appear, surely forcing them to select their house by name? Is the house named something really terrible, like Savile Cottage? 🤣

A friend if mine has had to do this. Her house is a bit weird, its a later build on a corner; she's officially "housename" on X Road, but her door is on Y Road so every thinks she's no 1 Y Road and delivers their stuff to her.

@UprootedSunflower nothing worse than thick and entitled - sadly sounds as though they moved in next door.

YANBU they could have it sent to a collection point or Amazon locker instead. My ex's dads house only had a name. He also ran a business from a converted barn next door. So he had a similar issue. It is odd having no numbers. Do the house names not shop up on Google maps?

Our houses don’t have numbers either. It happens sometimes with historic properties or smaller hamlets.

This is so frustrating. I think I'd be tempted to put a number 2 up outside my house (smaller and alongside the name) and then at least its clear your not number 1.

I used to do home visits in a village that didn't have street names. It was literally just numbered. I was given a clear instruction to go to the house just beyond the green gate. On entering the village I realised that it was of course in a conservation area and all of them had the obligatory green paint for their gates.

OP what is their reasoning for giving their house a number? I'm not sure if you're on good enough terms to ask....but was it because deliveries and post weren't getting there anyway? Or was it just literally that their belief that houses need numbers? Are they new neighbours?

It all sounds a bit bizarre. I don't mind anyone having a house name as long as it clearly signed. I have a fairly large front garden (not a big house or back garden, all fur coat and no knickers) and I have my house numbers on my front post in HUGE numerals. I'm at least trying to help the cause.

Similarly when I first married I lived at
" HighTrees", 19 x road, London" it was a massive long road and whilst the house was named, the 19 did give some indication as to what end the house was.

I've already answered the thread putting my thoughts but imo you've done all you can, they're being very unreasonable imo.

It sounds a bit like my village - we now have two houses called “The Old Post Office” 🙄with no street numbering.

Sorry! I pressed YABU instead of YANBU. Putting the record straight as this is bloody annoying!

Ta. A relative has been told they need one and have been given one but there is no sign as yet for the lane the house is on

And they run businesses? How does that work then?

@grumpyman
You should ALL have numbers. House names are pretentious.

House names are not "pretentious" and being allocated numbers does not necessarily help differentiate one property from another.

We live in a village where some of the lanes and droves have no house numbers and the properties are known by name only. We live in a semi in a road which does have house numbers but these two houses were built on the site of a single property which had been the village butchers. That property was, for example, number 26.

Our house and the attached semi were numbered 26 and 26a because the next two houses in the road were already numbered 28 and 30. (The odd numbers have been allocated to properties on the other side of the road so these two houses could not be numbered 26 and 27.) When we first moved here, we often got next door's post and parcels and they got ours. We decided to give our house a name and this has helped distinguish between two houses numbered 26 and 26a.

Put the letters back in the post box with 'delivered to the incorrect house'

Send any delivery drivers away

Send the postman packing if he tries to deliver anything

No, it can be taken either way. As in you got the right address, but those people have moved away, or you put this through the wrong letterbox entirely.

Having had a house on a street with an exact same name street the other side of town, if no postcode, it came to me and I returned to sender with not at this address. I never got them twice.

I'm currently in a road with the street behind, same name up til street or Road.
Post often ends up at 123 street when it's meant for me at 123 road and vice versa. I'm ok to walk round and hand deliver, but if I wasnt then I'd put it back in the post with not at this address, because it's TRUE.

No idea why true is in all caps. Sorry