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

This is very much their problem isn’t it, you’ve tried to reason with them to no avail, so they’ll have to live with it.

Also people who had tiny letterboxes through which I was expected to deliver the Sunday Times - an even more enormous wedge of a newspaper in those days than it is today.

Put a plastic box outside your gate labelled #1. Tell your neighbours to keep checking it for their mail. If it gets rained on or stolen, that is not your problem but theirs for not checking often enough.

Ugh how infuriating for you and how thick of them.

Don't they realise unless they formally change their address NO company will recognise their residence? It won't be on any database that the post office / delivery services use.

Deliveries / Post have NOT been misdelivered. These people have chosen to re-name their house but not through any official channels, therefore it is not recognised by anyone but them.

All of this is caused by their stupidity

I would just put the above in writing and tell them all post / deliveries will be sent back as this debacle is entirely of their own making.

FYI - what3words.com is bloody brilliant for tricky addresses and it's recognised by virtually all delivery services as well as 999 services

I think continue as you are or put a box outside your house on the pavement clearly labelled ‘Post for No1 ( house name ) and then just ignore it and if people steal their post / parcels that is their problem .

Do the houses have recognised numbers officially? I think I would find out which number mine actually is and put that on gate/door somewhere obvious. I maybe wrongly assumed that all houses have numbers unless it's the only one in the street.

Don’t write Not at this address as it’s not your address you’re writing about.

I would call the post Office Depot first and ask for their advice.

I’ve seen this a bit.
The problem is- I still want my own post! I don’t want anyone wandering off because my post isn’t labelled number 2

I'd say you're definitely not being unreasonable.

Giving their house a number and not registering it with the rightful authorities has been the main issue for them having their post/parcels go a stray, blaming you isn't going to miraculously make their post appear through their letterbox, it's not your fault, they need to make sure they have adequate signage and go through the proper channels to change their details.

I'd continue to return/refuse post don't let them bully you into taking the blame for their own miss doings, you've asked them to sort their problem, they've chosen to ignore a problem of their making, which now they know about I find odd in them not wanting to rectify it sharpish.

It sounds like it can be solved easily but it's their responsibility not yours, you can't register and change the address for them, it's you being inconvenienced by having to keep telling deliver drives, returning their post and having your work schedule interrupted.

You're not their personal gopher.

Hardly! I live in the countryside where all the houses near me have house names. I have about 5 houses on my lane.

Loathed people whose house happened to have a name they didn’t allocate to it?

Which is what will happen..

The street names on our current estate are confusing - and the numbering down our street more so - one side doesn't have as many houses and corner houses at slant are sometimes on our road and sometimes on side roads and which isn't clear.

Everyone tries to help other's out being as helpful as possible and lots of house signs and numbers - it works on good will and reciprocal help.

The Op neighbours are using the wrong address and have been told this is causing inconvenience to OP - they don't seem to care. Only way to change anything is to make it their problem not the OP s so yes return to sender unknown at this address.

You could be more explicit unknown address on top. It what happened when we get post for number that doesn't exit down this road - return to sender - unknown name and address that does't exist.

Bought two house and nether had either done a postal re-direct - in first we spent years dropping off post to estate agent as asked - before thinking this is mad and retuning to sender. Here did it straight away - then had next door who were friends have a go at us because we weren't passing it on - due to 18 months after selling the DVLA were sending letters here I think. Seems to only get sorted when you make it their problem not yours.

I think you should probably speak to someone about that tbh.
loathing people for having house names isn’t really a normal reaction and to still be carrying it about all these years later reinforces my thoughts.

They're being ridiculous, they can't just decide to number their house 😂
Companies will use the official post office registered address not some made up one! I think you're doing right and they're going to have to learn the hard way when all their parcels go to the wrong place!
I would put a sign on your door along the lines of "this is not number 1, please do not leave mail here for number 1"
We used to live in a house with just a name and 2 postcodes , the old wrong one that the landlord told us when we moved in, and the newer official one. When we started using the official one all issues with deliveries etc suddenly went away!

Presumably you have Amazon and online purchases from many other websites who don't use the main postal service to deliver?

Unlike your postie, Amazon and other delivery people seem to change all the time.

Unless there are no other houses for a mile or so or it's a hamlet with two houses, or your home is called 'Old Church Cottage' and it's the only one with a lychgate and a massive steeple on top(!), it's terribly inefficient - as it means that delivery people who are unfamiliar with the road have to potentially walk or drive at a crawling pace up the whole street to find one address.

I completely disagree with PP who say that it's 'twee' to have a name and no number, as it's usually historic and it worked perfectly fine that way for centuries - and it's a lovely tradition. It just doesn't work in the modern day. Absolutely keep the names; but add an official number as well.

See also: people who don't clearly show their house number (or name) so that it can be seen from the street, without having to go up every driveway to look. I know that some dwellings can't easily or practically do this; but most could.

"People like you"

You mean people who buy houses in an area where all of the houses have names and no numbers are worthy of loathing?

What a ridiculous attitude

I think people on this thread are confusing houses on numbered streets where the homeowner has given the house a name which they are using alongside or instead of the number, with houses where no number has been allocated and the house name is the only formally recognised address.

Do they have their house name on their property ?
If not, it sounds like it’s the set up of the properties that are confusing, not just the inclusion of a house number.
Any people - deliveries, taxis, ambulances etc will find it confusing to find house names too, if they’ve never been there before, regardless of it being named or having made up number. Unless it’s a very small street, I think house numbers should be issued to everyone.
Poor delivery drivers trying to just do their job and facing this nonsense.

I would be annoyed by this as well. I would contact RM to ask their advice. I certainly wouldn't be giving my house an unwanted number or putting plastic boxes outside my house.
I would continue to write on the envelopes, but instead add ' address unknown' or 'try house name . It is the responsibility of your neighbours to sort something out, not you.

Then put up a sign that says :

  2

Treetops

That way there is no possibility for confusion and if a postperson sees the 2 they will also see the name.

Id report to the post office or whoever are the authority on housing numbers.

Id also open every single package that got delivered to me because I'm nosey.

Round us the roads don't have names, just the general district name with houses scattered over a number of lanes. It would be meaningless to attach a number if there is no clue which lane the number applies to!

What conversations have you had with them about this, @UprootedSunflower— like, how did they express their annoyance with what you’re doing, and what did you say back? They sound so ridiculous

There's nothing to stop you having both name and number, it's a pretty common thing to do, as a child I lived on several roads where all the houses were named though my father always included the number too. In those days it was so much easier as most deliveries came by Royal Mail and the postmen knew their rounds.
But I really do sympathise, it must be very frustrating to keep getting all their deliveries. Our post goes astray all the time as we are at 21 Somewhere Close and there are six blocks of flats on the same road. So an inexperienced courier or postman sees the number 21 and puts it through the first door marked 21 that they see, especially if the post isn't sorted properly by postcode.