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

Should they also rearrange the houses into a straight line rather than around the old village centre?
Theres a point where people just need to accept things and work with it

That's interesting. Our local council say that any new names or changes to names must be approved by the street naming and numbering officer.

Did you ever come across any really ridiculous examples that you just turned down?

Absolutely incorrect legally OP!!!

please don’t listen to this. You’re actually doing what you’re meant to do legally. You ARE meant to put it back in the post and say not known at this address

ignore this person please

My in laws live in a similar run of properties. Google drop down gives their house name. You need to talk to your neighbours again and get them to put a number and name up obviously on their gate.

I actually agree with someone further up 'not known at this address' isn't the right thing for this situation. Our house was rented for years before we bought it so we have to chuck loads of stuff back in the post box labelled as 'not known at this address' because it's the right address but no one by that name lives here anymore. The people who used to own our house actually live a few doors down so we take their post down to them and they are good at making sure that specific post doesn't come to our house again.
We're also number 1 but the 4th house on our road (because the 3 closer to the road were built afterwards so were given names); it's a pain so I understand your frustration with the combination.
Not sure why your neighbours can't put down their address as House Name, 1 Road Name (my parents do this because their road is numbered but they wanted a house name too). At least that would give both options to delivery people. Or they need to put delivery details on their amazon account which tell people exactly where to deliver and then they can take it up with amazon if its not delivered.
It's not your problem at all, and you're not wrong for being annoyed but I'd probably make it clear you can't pause your work calls to take in parcels or direct deliveries so its their job to manage the situation, either by putting up a sign or using delivery instructions.
It's their own bloody fault that parcels are getting returned so it's inexplicable that they aren't taking any measures to correct the situation.
Obviously they're very unreasonable, and if I were you I'd refuse to answer the door unless you know its for you - though that won't really help if items are left at your doorway (amazon do that to us) - might be more beneficial where possible to reject the delivery.

Quite.
I also live in a village consisting of scattered houses. The only houses for miles in our area that have numbers are a small group where a name was given to a new development so we have numbers 1 -10 Muddy Field Close, The Village. Other than that there are no road names so numbers would be pretty meaningless. Everyone else is just House Name, The Village. Number 6 would be no easier to find than Pear Tree Cottage, possibly harder in fact as it would be impossible to have a logical numbering convention, and even if one was imposed now, it would get completely messed up every time someone built a new house in a gap so you'd have fairly random numbers. Nobody has any preconceptions about the proximity of Church House to Rose Cottage but they'd expect number 32 to be in the same general vicinity as 31, not to be a new build sandwiched between Georgian number 5 and 1930s number 17, which unless the village was renumbered every time a new house was built is probably what you'd end up with.
Yes, on rows of houses all built at the same time numbers make sense and if you live on a road of identical 30s semis all with numbers it's stupid to suddenly decide that number 47 is now Ivy Grange, but large chunks of the country aren't like that. Randomly allocating yourself a number in an area that only has names is no different to randomly allocating yourself a name in an area that only has numbers!

You need a sign saying ‘This is not no.1, those fuckwits live next door’ with an arrow pointing in their direction

@UprootedSunflower Like the postie @fixyourgardengate and others have said you have to get permission from local council to change your house name or number and if approved they then inform Royal Mail and the emergency services.

We changed our house name after buying it (it had a very grandiose name like Swanky Towers and we changed it to something less daft). We had to write to the council and wait for their decision. I would phone your local council and tell them what your neighbours have done, they will send a letter telling your neighbours to stop being silly or do things properly.

You now go tell her neighbours your idea yeah?

make sure they do ALLLLLLL of the work you suggested. Not the OP. (Obviously right?)

If there is a new street it needs a name. How do you expect emergency services to find you in the event of emergency? It needs to be officially registered.

The examples of scattered houses better describe what we have. Some of us are back and forth in a way that sort of aligns with a road, some front onto it more that others. Others are now on other side turns/ across the church garden etc. Very close on foot but to drive between some involves 3 junctions 😬
Names are mostly descriptive though, except us and a few to the other side

Yes names were turned down all the time I’m afraid! A lot of people wanted their name included in the name but this has stopped due to streets and buildings named after the likes of jimmy saville etc in the past. Also they will be turned down if they are too similar to existing names in the locality as this causes confusion.

They use the address? It works fine… especially in the days of Google maps etc
This is bizarre? Are you a bot…?

If the address isn’t officially registered then it won’t come up in things like sat nav and their internal mapping systems! The ‘address’ needs to be official otherwise it isn’t an address!

You get people wanting to do all sorts of silly things, numbers spelt as words, degree symbols and lat long coordinates, @ symbols, a name in a non Latin alphabet

No, they are not within their rights. They need the agreement of the local authority and the Royal Mail Address Management Unit. Without those, their attempt to make their house No.1 has no effect. It is not their official address.

I live in a similar "all names" village. The parish council produced a plan of the village with all houses numbered. They them listed all house names alphabetically and linked to the number on the plan. This is displayed on the village Hall and local notice board and has really helped with deliveries. Once the driver knows its there they use it. We tend to get regular drivers who cover the area for all courier firms so that helps too.
Might be a way forward.

I think you and Sarah557 have some crossed wires.

The posts you have quoted are about road names not house names. She is saying that all new roads need to be named.

She is agreeing with you.

Maybe I need to apply to change my house name to something like ‘opposite the pond with a red door and to the left of the cottages row’ 😄

We had a similar problem. New neighbours who arrived just before lockdown and then departed leaving builders in for 18 months.

Half a dozen parcels a day, followed by building parts and even furniture. Most irritating was that they would be in, but working, so would not answer the door,. Instead would leave us to take things in and at the end of the day would demand their parcels. No thank you, ever.

DD was studying for a degree online during lockdown and got very fed up with the interruptions so put a note on our door saying NO parcels for the house next door. Its still up. We hear their visitors looking at it and discussing why it would be there. The neighbours have not said anything.

It is pretty common in a village or hamlet to have no numbers at all.

I think I would be inclined at least for the time being to put an even bigger note up. (Perhaps A4 size and laminated, fixed to the door) Saying this is Primrose Cottage, not number 1 Cherry Tree Lane. Please do not deliver anything here or knock the door for anything relating to number 1 Cherry Tree Lane.

suggest to them that they use “what three words” a lot of delivery companies are now capable of using them.

When OP writes "not at this address" she means the people do not live at the address the post has been delivered to - i.e. HER address. Which is completely correct (and standard practice).

Why have you drawn up a big list of all the things OP could do to make their life easier when they can't be arsed to do the two easiest and most straightforward things:
1 - formally tell the post office they have changed their house name
2 - put up a big 'number 1' sign on their gatepost/entranceway so posties can actually see it!

I agree with the posters who suggested writing 'address not registered - return to sender' might be more accurate. While she could go further and specify "delivered to Honeysuckle house in error" if the same parcel then got redelivered her neighbours would see it and probably moan at her for not just giving it to them.

That I understand. Down the lane between St Agatha's and Ibiza Dreams doesn't help.

I used to love a conversation with people trying to find us where my attempts to work out where they were went something like, where are you? / I don't know / well what can you see? / there's some trees & a White House /OK anything else? Any road signs, post boxes? Etc, etc