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

Actually, any number would do.
Quickest and easiest solution.

I don't think that's especially against the grain. It makes life much easier for delivery folk (who are usually already on shitty schedules to comply with). If you want a name as well there's no harm in doing that.

fwiw I grew up in a house with a name and number, and now live in a house with only a name like the rest of the road and we are forever having people come to our door because google maps puts the postcode pin right on our drive. This is especially true now it is dark before 5.

Is it illegal though? That's my question. If they've gone through legal routes, or doing so adhoc by yourself is legal, then yes, it's a choice. Not talking about agreeing with it, just the reality of it..

My parents once got a letter addressed to "Bob, Brenda and family, House beside the church, near x town". X town was the nearest town but almost 10 miles away. Tbh there was nothing near our house but a large church.

You should ALL have numbers. House names are pretentious

This is marvellous! I’ll travel back in time 300 years and tell that to whoever it was that built and named my house, sure they’ll appreciate the heads up. 😂

Having lived in a series of flats with problematic addresses (PO having a mixture of flat numbers/letters/A and not A etc) I can't understand why anyone would want to introduce confusion into their address! It's a permanent pain in the arse, not to mention difficult with credit scores etc if your bills are going to a 'different' address to the electoral register etc.

My current house has a name and a number - it was here before the street with its original name and a street was then built around it and it was numbered accordingly. I have to say we only ever use the number, for simplicity, but both variants of the address show up on drop down menus. Thankfully we get post without any trouble, but I've wondered now how the house has ended up with two entries!

Misdelivered just puts it back into the system for redelivery. Fine if you want to go around in circles. The official advice from Royal Mail is to cross out the address shown on the envelope and write not known at this address. This takes the item out of circulation and Royal Mail will return it to the sender.

House numbers are allocated by the local authority who cross reference with Royal Mail on postcodes. Anything else is illegal.

It’s not ridiculous to want a system that actually makes sense. They’ve gone about it the wrong way (as I said, if you read my post), but their intentions are more sensible than insisting on living in “The Poplars” when nobody knows what a poplar tree looks like or they all got cut down 20 years ago.

And why is ‘1’ any worse than “Rosemary Cottage” or “Churchview House” in this circumstance? None of the names of numbers mean anything to anybody except the owners.

Jeez, you can tell the folk who’ve never been to old villages where it’s usual to only have house names.

Where I grew up the only numbered properties are those built in 1970s/80s cul de sacs on the outskirts, everything in the heart of the village has been standing there since before numbering was commonplace.

In this case, they are effectively naming their house 'Number 1' and confusing everyone else in the process. Numbering just one house absolutely does NOT make sense.

I’d just toss all the parcels over the hedge, fence, wall on days when it’s raining so they’re sat out in the wet. On dry days I’d refuse to accept them.

If you look at what it says, he advice is pretty much the same - if the person to whom the item is addressed has never lived there, the recommendation is to cross through the address and write ‘not known at this address’. That way the item will be returned to the sender to deal with it. The second option applies to receiving mail which isn’t in your name or address - to re-post the item so that it will be reprocessed and delivered to the correct address. Which will be the OP, over and over again.

I have looked at what it says. I'm the one who found it and shared it with you! I'm just saying what you originally said was Royal Mail advice was not the case.

Even a postie has commented on this thread saying the same.

We live on a road with names.
Several houses share the first part of its name with another on the street. e.g. Bluebell House and Bluebell Cottage or Daffodils and Daffodil Cottage.
It is sometimes a pain because deliveries often go to the first one they come to as they never look beyond Bluebell. In our situation, we are the ones who end up with our post going to the wrong place. Luckily the residents at the address we are paired with are friendly and being stuff round or let us know we need to collect.
But, there is also a good, logical historic reason for the pairing, and no one would want to change them.

Weirdly in the distant past, the previous home owner did the same.. Instead of logically picking number 1, they bet on the land being built on next to them so chose a random number, say number 25. A few others did the same so we have 50
etc., generally desirable numbers.

So this means we have 11a, 11b on houses - it is a mess.

Thankfully it’s a legacy mess and everyone is used to it, it’s all official etc., but it’s funny to think someone would do it unofficially today.

Nothing really to do with the OP. She’s doing everything

shes tried to sort it with the neighbours multiple times before she started putting it back

totally the neighbours fault. The OP has fulfilled the correct way to do it and it didn’t work

I’m sure if the op had spoken to the neighbours and they’d of sorted something way before this then she wouldn’t be putting it back in the post box. End of

That’s the same as where I live now, 1850s houses. It goes 1-15 then there’s a gap until 23-41 on one side, and starts from 34a and 34b the other.

It says to put it back in the postbox with doesn’t life at this address

which is exactly what she’s been doing!!!

It makes as much sense as giving a house a name that has no relevance either. You might as well name the houses Cat, Dog, Potato and 50. Unless the name is an extremely clear description of the house, which is rarely is, the names are as pointless as the number.

Again everyone go to www.what3words.com - it's an amazing bit of tech that EVERYONE uses including the post office, delivery companies and emergency services

master.logic.tight is my gaff and I have never had an issue with not having a number 😂

Normally I think people on here are bit werid about not every giving out real names and stuff, but you've just put your exact location on here - I'd take that off if I were you!

The link you gave says word for word ‘If you’ve received mail which has your address, but not your name, this is because we deliver to addresses rather than names. If this does happen, you can put a cross through the address and write 'Not known at this address' or 'No longer lives here' and put it back in a postbox. Where possible, we’ll return the item to the sender hopefully allowing them to update their records.’

The second alternative is ‘If you’ve received mail which isn’t in your name or your address, we're really sorry we've made this mistake and inconvenienced you. We'd like to get the item to the intended recipient as soon as possible and would greatly appreciate your help. Please post the item when you can, you won't need to apply any postage, we’ll then process and deliver it to the correct address.’. This isn’t appropriate because the address is not correct - which isn’t. Royal Mails’ fault because OP’s neighbour has appropriated a wrong house number. So OP will just get the same piece of mail back. All of which is exactly what I said.

Not if 'Cat' 'Dog' 'Potato' etc had been in that village / on that lane for 150+ years and has had deliveries to it for decades.

Everyone locally knows where 'Cat', random village, somerset is as it's on Google / Waze / internet etc - it's on an official register. If it's still hard to find you can use www.what 3words.com

None of this is Op's responsibility. Her neighbours should stop being annoying and officially register the house and see if the council approves it

Going to go out on a limb here, and say unlikely their address 😅

If I'm wrong - I'm sorry Ma'am!