Neighbour using house name

[Baggyprincess]

Rural house. Lived here many years. Neighbours next door but one moved in at the end of last year. Their house was lived in by a very old man, it has since been renovated and rented out.

Our house has a geographical name to help locate it as the village in our address is over a mile away. The neighbours house has the same geographical name but is followed by a traditional business type name. They have decided to add ‘House’ to the end of their property name and now we have had multiple deliveries for them and more recently ours have been misdelivered to them. We have only recieved their deliveries when we have not been home and things have been left in our parcel store but they have accepted our parcels without informing us they have them.

For property names think Castle House for us and then Castle Forge which they have changed to Castle Forge House for them. Castle Forge gives Google results but Castle Forge House does not. Yet they insist Castle Forge House is the property name. I’m convinced it’s just Castle Forge and would like them to revert to that name - I only realised they were using the modified name this week.

How can I prove to them that Castle Forge is the correct name for the property that they rent and get them to drop ‘House’ from their address?

I believe you have to get approval for a house name from the council and then register it with Royal Mail. They shouldn’t just have started using a new one.

is it worth talking to them about the issue? If they aren’t receptive then talk to Royal Mail and the council.

They can call their house anything it doesn't have a legal name so to speak so I'm not sure you can do anything at all.

The easiest way to resolve this would be to give your house a number alongside the name to avoid any confusion.

You cannot

It could cause issues with emergency services too.

You’re not allowed to just give your house a number

Presumably it already has a number though which is what I was referring to, apologies if it seemed like I meant to choose any random number.

Oh got you. I assumed it didn’t have a number, it’s not unusual rurally for there to be no house numbers just names.

you can call your house whatever you want

so I don’t think you have any legal challenge

What in the Compton?

lol you should have kept it unedited!

When we named our house (a new build) we had to get it agreed with the Post Office before we could start using the name. At a different property I bought the Post Office changed my house number from the site plan (another new build). So I don’t think you can just start using any old name. Particularly with these house names creating confusion I don’t think adding House to their property name is sensible or would be approved by the Post Office.

But how do I convince them? I have tried showing them Google searches for their postcode, I have tried talking to them. They won’t tell me their Landlord’s name, just that the Landlord told them that’s the name. With the property history and renovation it’s possible that the Landlord has inherited it and is mistaken. I don’t believe anyone is trying to pull a fast one but I would like them to use the original name and reduce the opportunity for confusion.

No road name as it’s rural. Just the house name and then the village a mile away!

Return the parcels to the post office. Put a sign on your parcel box with your address in bold type and then write that the other address will be return to sender.

Presumably, there is a name on these parcels?

I would put a note on your house directing all deliveries to Mr or Mrs XYZ need to go next door.

That’s what I was doing, but this week they received our parcel, didn’t let me know and I had to track it down. The issue seems to be with couriers rather than Royal Mail (our Posties are fab!)

They can’t see the issue,”it’s only a few parcels!” But that’s more than in the rest of the time we’ve lived here!

Some of the advice on this thread is incorrect.

If a house has a number, the owners can give it any name they want. However, if the house does not have a number the owners must get approval from the council for any name change. As part of this process, the council liaise with Royal Mail to ensure the new name is acceptable. Assuming the house only has a name, the name that comes up in postcode searches is the correct name for the house and the only name that can be used legally. You should notify the council that they have changed the name without going through the correct process.

It's a postal address file from royal mail. Which originates from when house was built/ when records began whichever is more recent. So it's royal mail they need to speak to. Would they believe the postman?

Absolutely this. You need council permission to change a name. We had several turned down before they settled on one of our other choices

You can find out who the landlord is at the Land Registry. www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry

While this is being sorted you could add an extra line to your address for deliveries etc, and add instructions for finding your house. Eg Green front door to the left of the postbox, Volvo in drive. I do that now as my house is hard to find. Couriers are grateful,

Could you close up your parcel box so that parcels can’t be put in it. You could arrange to pick up your parcels from a collection point (not a good solution). The courier parcels of this other house you’d just leave by your front gate in the rain. Let them come round (you don’t call them) and find their parcels. This should change their house name idea right away.

Surely tenants don’t change the name of the place they rent? How bizarre!

From OP's post at 22:18, it sounds like the landlord has incorrectly told the tenants that this is the name of the property.

Oops, missed that! Thanks for correcting me.

as others have said upthread, Royal mail have rules for house naming and I believe one is that there shouldn't be another house with the same name within a certain distance.

if you were to pretend to order a parcel to their address on some website where you enter your postdcode and then select the 'house name or number', what comes up? does that have Castle Forge or Castle Forge House? If the former, they are definitely wrong. If the latter, then the central Royal Mail database is wrong or confusing.