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

Only when they are in fact not at the address that the item is addressed to.

It would be an entirely correct response if things were being delivered to the correct address on the item, but the person they were addressed to didn’t live there.

These items are being miss delivered. Not addressed to someone not at the address.

Do go read the Royal Mail info if you’re so keen on being legally correct.
personal.help.royalmail.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5156/~/ive-received-someone-elses-mail

I'd send letters back with either incomplete address or address does not exist on it. If they aren't going to use a proper address, then they aren't going to get their post.

Instead of writing "Not at this address, I'd write in big letters on everything, "NOT
UPROOTED SUNFLOWER HOUSE."

As PP above said, report them to the council. You are not allowed to arbitrarily just change your address.

Some of them are hundreds of years old

They are a legal entity, you can't add or remove one willy nilly

They sound much wiser than my local council. It's such obvious stupidity and guaranteed to cause confusion and misdirected deliveries, but we have a number of roads where you get, say, Elm Road right next to Elm Close.

We've just seen a new development built and a new road created, which they've gone and named Elm Lane.

There'll be a real nightmare if the add Elm Street into the mix!

This is an additional problem: when whoever names/named the houses has no sense of originality or gives a second thought to distinguishing themselves from others.

So many houses out there are called things like 'The Cottage', '[same name as whole road] House, or, in Wales, 'Cartref'.

It's almost like they really don't want to receive any of their post.

Even if/when they do formally apply to register a numbered address, do not allow them to choose No 1, not if your house is intuitively No 1, that'll just keep the confusion cascading for decades to come!

I'd write to the council/PO, explain the entire rigmarole, and include that neighbours numbered address, if they apply, and if approved, has to be No 2 (or whatever it would logically be if you all had numbers).

Then sit back in peace and enjoy their outrage when their precious numbered address is eventually assigned as something other than number 1.

OP, have a word with residents/businesses from one of the other places that could rationally be called 1 <Your Road> and get them to apply properly.

I know it raises new problems but it solves yours and has a good amount of schadenfreude about it.

Oh god, we have this, say my small road of about 25 houses is Acacia Avenue, half way down is a small cul de sac with about 10 houses and bungalows, what did they call this? Acacia Close.

The house on Acacia Close that has the same number as me, i get their post all the time, deliveries, even had my wheelie bin cleaned! We have a regular post lady now so we dont get their post anymore, but anything out of the ordinary still comes to me. Acacia Close had the British Heart Foundation come round to pick up furniture and came to me, same as the water company wanting to read the meter (didnt have one at the time) flowers being delivered, a new bed being delivered etc

If we use uber eats, they take it to the wrong house, and even a taxi i used went to Acacia close, our postcodes are different so not sure what is happening there.

Going against the grain but I also agree that numbers are better than names.
Op, is what they've done illegal? Don't know the rules, but if it's not, it's their choice and we do live in a democracy... I get that it's effected you, but has it really effected you sooo much that you're now in a dispute with your neighbour? Maybe can you create a system where anything wrongly delivered is put in front and they can come get it and it's their responsibility? I wouldn't send posts back out of spite. That'd take even more of my time and headspace.

That isn't your problem! You could be petty and take in anything for them, charge a storage fee at the end of each month 😆

You can't just decide to change your address.

We live down a lane where there are 3 houses, 2 are cottages & ours is a barn style that has been built from what was once a cottage.
The 2 cottages have names, not numbers & our house is named Haymarket Cottage (not actual name), so out of 3 houses, the only one that isn't a cottage is named 'cottage'
We have tried to change it with the Post Office & we have been told we can't add that is the registered address.
Makes deliveries interesting!

OP should write 'Not at OP House Name, no numbers in this road'

Slightly longer, I know but will have effect, in that the local collection office might raise it with the local postie if in same building.

OP could also try and catch postie and say 'there are no numbers here so please stop putting post that's not for us, the OPs name, through our box'

OP could also print off the bit of the website at her LA that says what to do about house naming./numbering, highlight the pertinent bits and stick it through annoying neighbour's letter box.

@ttcat37 don't be ridiculous.

They have named themselves '1' when there are other houses either side of it. e.g. Why didn't they use '5' if they were the 5th house along, why use '1'?

They have not gone through the council to change it officially so NO ONE recognises it - no businesses or post or emergency services etc.

All these people say I Royal Mail won’t deliver if there’s no proper address…
We got a letter once addressed to:

The (insert foreign nationality) family
Name of area

Royal mail got it here! Bit of a delay, but the letter arrived. They seem game for trying.

You are not a delivery service. Would do same. Or annoyingly repeatedly text them that parcel was on your porch awaiting collection etc.
So be it if it gets a bit wet... or lost or stolen. Not your problem. Repeat until they do something to alleviate a very annoying and avoidable problem

"...a name in a non Latin alphabet"

I could just imagine that. What do you want to rename the home to?

"мой милый дом"

"私のスイートホーム"

"บ้านแสนหวานของฉัน"

"הבית המתוק שלי"

At least we need to be grateful, I suppose, that transferable 'cherished addresses' aren't a thing.

Imagine if you moved from 16 Shakespeare Terrace, Reading to 437 Burns Avenue, Dundee - and decided to just keep and transfer your old address regardless!!

We have a situation whereby us and the neighbour across from us both are the same number however we are different roads. We both have made our house signs have the number and road on it. We have also labelled all of our bins with number and road. As a result we do not get each others post or parcels very often.

Honestly I'd put a note on your door with "This is not number 1, any post or parcels will be returned to sender". It's not up to you to redirect your neighbours post. Most websites allow you to write notes in a box. I'd kindly tell your neighbour to start using what 3 words and ensuring they put that info in the box. If they want to be daft twits putting a house number on their house then leave them to it.

That is super impressive!

Just refuse to take in their parcels if you're at home and leave any that are delivered in your absence in a box on your porch at your neighbours' risk. Neighbours can come round and collect them.

It's not their choice.

You can call a house to a degree what you like but you can't number it - especially when it makes no sense!

We had a couple of those when I was a kid, addressed to something like
"Susan
The house with the red double garage next to the dentist's surgery
Village Name
England"

(and it was a biggish village 3000+ inhabitants)

Regarding the confusion between Acacia Close and Acacia Road and not using the postcode to differentiate, we also had a letter addressed to

"Mr TattyAna's Dad's Name
26, Next town Road
The Village"

whereas we lived at 264 Next town Road.

The postcode was the correct one for 264, which was different to the one for 26.
The people at 26 had obviously looked my Dad up in the phone book, corrected the house number and chucked it back in the post box (there are a couple of miles between 26 and 264) after writing on it "wrongly delivered, why don't you use the postcode?" because when it arrived at ours someone at the post office had added a remark to say "the postcode applies to several houses, not just one": totally ignoring the fact that our postcodes were quite different due to the distance between 26 and 264, and that since the letter was coming to 264, not going back to 26, it was totally pointless to reply to the people at 26.

Exactly - OP is merely exarcebating the issue!