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My landlord insists I leave the junk mail and town news in the mailbox and give it to her. Also she insists in the lease, 'It is not the tenants responsibility to return mails to postoffice/sender'. I feel she is taking away my rights. If i want to read the Town news and the junk mail and tell postman that isnt my mail and return it, I should be able to and I dont think it should be in the lease. She doesnt live at my address either and owns another couple of houses in the same town. I assume she is making all the tenants at her houses do this.
If the items were delivered by the US Postal Service to a receptacle identified for the delivery of US Mail, the items in that receptacle is intended for the person who it is legitimately aimed towards. If its junk mail sent to "occupant", "resident", "Our neighbor at", or any similar wording, it is yours. If you receive any mail not addressed to you and you were the one who noticed the incorrect delivery (by name or address) it's your responsibility to return it to the Post Office. Odds are, if this were to end in a court battle, the condition would be deemed null and void. If there is some free tenant advocacy organization or one of those free legal clinic, you may want to ask about this and see what they say.
If the mail is specifically addressed to her, you should not be opening/reading it - even junk mail.
If the mail is addressed to "Resident" or something similarly generic, well that's you and you can open/read it.
However, I would not allow it to pile up in the mailbox. I would set aside the unopened mail, and tell her to let you know when she'll be by to pick it up.
If the town news doesn't require breaking a seal, then read the town news and then put it in her pile of mail to pick up.
It sounds a lot like you are renting a room. So, no, you should not be making a determination about other people's mail. What's so flipping hard about leaving the junk mail?
I have never heard of a landlord doing that. Very strange if nothing else. If you are renting a house or apartment, I can't see where she has any say over the mail in your mailbox. Also, why should you be responsible for holding onto piles of junk mail until she picks it up or you have to deliver it to her? If mail is addressed to previous tenants or whatever and not to her, why does she feel she has the right to intercept that mail?
Just because something is in the lease, doesn't mean it is right.
It must have been a problem since it has been reduced to writing and incorporated into the lease.
The other point is never sign an agreement unless you understand and can adhere to the requirements.
Mail is huge issue and some of my properties still get mail for people that last lived there in the 1960's...
When I was starting out I would return the mail to the letter carrier and he told me anything that says resident or occupant has been properly delivered... anything that doesn't have first class mail is junk mail and will be destroyed.
My tenants still get an occasional first class letter for me and some places I have not lived there for decades... mostly Christmas cards and similar.
It is a federal crime for your LL to remove mail from your mailbox. Leave the junk in the box and put a camera on it. Take the recording to your post master and let them handle it. Just because it is in the lease doesn't make it legal, and in some states it voids the entire lease though that is rare.
Edit: Nevermind. You are renting a room you do not have exclusive rights to the mailbox. Technically speaking she can demand you send your mail to a PO box and you won't get it delivered to her home.
Unless you personally have your own mailbox, you don't get to make such decisions. It sounds like you're 'sharing' a mailbox with the landlord so yes, she can make that call.
If you want to have control over the junk mail, get PO Box.
I'd NEVER share a mailbox with a LL. Or another tenant, for that matter. It's just asking for trouble.
Get your own PO box. Let your LL's mail pile up. Her problem, not yours.
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Lol...
