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

Think making a change to your address requires communication with the post office to register it.
Your neighbour is being deliberately awkward by messing around with their address unofficially. If their post goes astray that's on them.

No we don't -Amazon deliveries are though An Post - We have DPD nad Fastway as well as GLS and DHL too - They all seem to be able to deliver to our house no issues. Probably lucky we do have same postman for a while but they do change etc however they get to know or are told who everyone is. Its quiet common for country roads to have 10 houses all in a row built separately and no house numbers. when we moved other side of town not all our post was updated to new address however we will go post addressed old address and delivered to new address

Your neighbours are obviously being unreasonable and causing you inconvenience - not inconsiderable by the sound of it. However you are being disingenuous pretending you dont know where the mail and parcels are intended for (the neighbours name will be shown presumably) and stating the address does not exist will usually mean the mail is eventually returned to sender rather than a delivery reattempt. So you can understand that specific action escalates the issue and will have upset them.
Personally I would write formally but politely to them acknowledging the current situation is clearly unacceptable to both parties. They need to clearly signpost their property from the road entrance with both the name and number until such time as their chosen number is accepted by the authorities and formally registered with PAS. In the meantime, mail delivered to my address will be returned -periodically - into the mail system marked 'delivered to wrong address' and courier deliveries will be declined. I cannot take responsibility for parcels left unattended and in error or for delivering mail to you myself'
Quantify your inconvenience - in the last week I have been interrupted to take receipt of 4 parcels for you, and have received 7 items of post which must now be redirected for want of clear and accurate signage on your property. I am sure you would prefer your mail and parcels to arrive directly and I would prefer that too - so please register your address and put up that sign.

I know you have said you have asked this already but perhaps there was too much noise about house numbers and house names and not enough about registered addresses and signage. (much like this thread 😀)

Thank you for this. I always remember being told to use "not known" but I never knew that there was a specific reason for doing that.

I'm not sure why some posters are putting the onus on you to change things like adding a number to your address, which will make it not your address. If the neighbour want their post they should make sure that their house number is clearly seen from the road, after going through the correct procedures to have a number for their house

Had similar. I was main door, there was basement flat.
Basement flat (3 early 20s) used to get many many deliveries of “baseball hats from China… I’m a collector”. This was said like I should be excited to collect deliveries. Deliveries hats/high street clothes/ebay almost daily or more. 7am til like 10pm.
They treated me like a service - but you are home?
i had a new baby. Running down stairs for front door not always convenient.

They never put “basement” on deliveries because they were not home in day, They knew I was home with new baby. The endless doorbell chimes waking baby.

My strategy-
Note on door.

Basement deliveries —->

Do not knock!
Baby sleeping - no not knock or ring bell /no deliveries

At the time, I rarely ordered online, and if did, of course I changed the sign.
If something got stuffed thru my letterbox, I just let it sit there til they came looking as I was no longer going to be their delivery person. They were just rude about it.

They eventually started to get stuff delivered to their offices/work or to delivery hub.

Make a sign with house name & “Deliveries for One —>”

watch the what3words advert. It might give you some ideas😂

I agree. Put a little Google map image up with a 'You are here' and then 'Number 1' label.

Putting things back in the post is totally fair, if they aren't taking on board how inconvenienced you are over all this.

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.

Eircodes are distinct to the house - Google is generally pretty good, and the Eircode finder is obviously spot on, although I did have a bit of time when Amazon was delivering to my neighbour (and the less said about UPS the better TBH) - everyone else does fine. Numbers wouldn't really work where I live - you can see some houses from my lane, but their entrance is actually on a different road for example. Might be fine in housing estates, but not out here in the country.

OP putting a number on her house would just be adding fuel to the fire. All you can do is make it their problem by returning to sender, or the plastic box idea. If they want to play silly idiots by declaring their address to be something it isn't then more fool them.

They sound like idiots. Can't you add a small '2' under your house name, temporarily at least?
I do feel sorry for delivery drivers though in this situation, we are also in a village which is just one road through, no house numbers, just names, and all have the same postcode. It must be very annoying to have to crawl along looking for the names, and many homeowners can't even be arsed to have a clearly legible name plaque viewable from the road.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UtG_FAzb5bw

These small daily things add up to a lot of frustration over time. I grew up in a street where three houses had very similar names. Think Oak cottage, Oak house, The Oaks. It was constant. We probably only got a third of the post we were meant to.

Just to be clear, it sounds that OP's street / lane has NEVER had numbers on it. These thick people have just put it upon themselves to change to a number but also doing it UNOFFICIALLY so literally no business or person recognises their address. This is the problem.

The debate on whether all houses should be numbered or not is irrelevant in this circumstance. I grew up in a 'named' house, however, it's because it was rural and on a single track lane, not a proper road. It was also really old.

Sorry quoted wrong post.

Probably lucky we do have same postman for a while but they do change etc however they get to know or are told who everyone is.

Irish posties are brilliant - if there's a locum, or a new postie, they always share who's who (and often stop and introduce themselves), and my postman has my mobile number so he can give me a call and get confirmation it's OK to leave whatever it is on my porch if I'm out. They're truly wonderful.

Great idea.

Put a big number 2 in their letterbox.

That'll learn 'em.

The local authority decide what the number or name of a dwelling is. Where I live there is an £80 fee for the application and the council says:

"Any proposed new house names or changes to house names must also be
approved by the street naming and numbering officer in order to ensure that there will be no duplication or confusion caused by the proposals."

This. There are several long roads here with just house names. When I've had to drop DDs off it is a nightmare, I have to stop and walk up to several houses to work out which is the right one.

I think all houses should have numbering as well as a name if people want one, unless you are somewhere very rural with hardly any houses. In the middle of a town it's just poncey nonsense and a total pain in the arse.

DSM lives in a village where the only houses with numbers are the new ones built on the Glebe and numbered 1 The Glebe. The streets don't even have names so the address of each house is "House Name, The Village". The whole village has a single post code too.

There seem to be quite a few people suggesting OP should do things she doesn't want to do such as apply a number to her house. I strongly disagree.

Her neighbours have chosen to apply a number to their house. They have done so without legal authority and without going through the correct process (which involves getting agreement from both the local council and the Royal Mail Address Management Unit). They do not, therefore, live at No.1 whatever they think. There is no No.1. The problem is entirely of their own making. They need to solve it. If they don't like the current name of their property (which is still its official address, whatever they think), they may be allowed to change it, but it is highly unlikely they will be permitted to assign a random number to their house.

But that wouldn't necessarily work. Around were we live we use house names (but we are also number 1 - officially).

I'm not sure why some posters are putting the onus on you to change things like adding a number to your address, which will make it not your address.

Me neither..

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. This is the key - whether it’s a name or a number it needs to be clearly visible from the road. The problem in my mum’s road is that there has been a lot of infilling where large house have been demolished so while there used to be a logical numbering system number 28 may be as many as four house after number 26 with assorted names in between. Nightmare for random delivery drivers who see 26, assume next door is 28 (without clear signage) and once delivery is posted thru door it’s too late to do anything. It should be said the problem rarely occurs with the Royal Mail as they know exactly which house is which. Fortunately it’s a neighbourly street and most householders are accommodating. Those slamming @grumpyman’s comments have clearly never had a newspaper delivery round.

My son has both name and number, he usually puts the number on the address when he orders something. But obviously OP's neighbours don't have a house that is easy to find so I'm not sure that their deliveries would easily end up at their home however it was addressed.

How about the neighbours putting a labelled mail box at the gate end of their alleyway? Obviously this wouldn't take larger deliveries but it would at least take letters and smaller packets and could be clearly visible. I can't understand why this gate isn't properly marked anyway?