Is there a way to stop renter from blocking mailbox? (contract, state)
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Find out if the owner of the street can put up an enforceable no parking sign. Or a no parking 9 am to noon, or whatever. A public street means the town might own it or the county or the state.
Location: Stuck on the East Coast, hoping to head West
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Quote:
Originally Posted by luv4horses
Find out if the owner of the street can put up an enforceable no parking sign. Or a no parking 9 am to noon, or whatever. A public street means the town might own it or the county or the state.
Thanks for the suggestion. I know it's a county-owned road so I'll ask them.
I live off of a shared driveway. My neighbors and I have a mailbox at the end of the driveway, but on a public street. There are about 6 of us. We live in close proximity and we all get along.
One of the neighbors rented out his house. The renter parks his car on the public street, but blocking all of our mailboxes (they're in a row).
I happen to be friendly with the mailman. He has told me that if this neighbor continues to block the mailboxes, we will all have to go to the mailbox to get our mail. The mailman has left notes on this guy's car, told the guy in person, and told the guy's kid. The mailman has all of this documented. I look out this morning and idiot guy has blocked the mailboxes again.
Is there a way to force the guy to stop blocking the mailboxes? HOA is absolutely no help. The owner of the house has moved to out of state and I don't have any way of contacting him. The other neighbors are annoyed, but I don't know if they will do anything about it.
OK, lots of questions...I'll do my best to answer:
1) yes, it's a public street
2) the guy could easily park further down the street, he's lazy and doesn't want to walk. He also has space in his driveway, but the driveway's not convenient b/c the cars would have to be one in front of the other, not side by side.
3) the mailman has left notes on our mailboxes that say he does not have to get out of his vehicle and we are responsible for free and clear access or he will take all of our mail back to the post office and we'd have to go get it. Incidentally, he also won't deliver if there is ice & snow build-up. I routinely clear that (none of my neighbors do). I don't have a noet in front of me, but he does cite something---don't know if it's law or what.
4) HOA says it's a public street so outside of their jurisdiction.
5) I have tried asking the guy to not block the mailboxes. He's nice and agrees with me. Then blocks the mailbox any way.
This is passive aggressive. I say you should get some nerve and passive aggressively have his car towed....I'm 99.9% positive the courts would side with you if it ever went that far.
Call the cops, blocking a mailbox is illegal, he should get a ticket...
Not sure about your locality, but this is not illegal in most areas. The US Post Office, though, does have their own rules about not delivering to blocked mailboxes.
Call the police department (or sheriff if it's just county) . It would be very surprising if they did not have an ordinance stating blocking a mailbox is at least a ticket able offense.
The US Post Office, though, does have their own rules about not delivering to blocked mailboxes.
yes, the rules is if the mail box is fronting a public street and it is blocked by a vehicle, the carrier has to dismount their vehicle and deliver the mail to the box. When the post office talks about blocked mail boxes, they are talking about those where the space in front of the mailbox is under the control of the owner. If you simply have your mailbox out at the curb on a public street, they are required to deliver it by foot if necessary.
The legality of parking on a public street is under the authority of the local government, not the postal service. It's the local government (or county or state) that needs to establish regulation about blocking mailboxes. Absent any local laws, if parking is permitted on that street, mailbox or no mailboxes the person can park there.
I think the confusion is that when the post office tells you the space in front must be cleared and unobstructed, they are actually talking about you providing it on your property. But too may people push the box right to the road and that's when things can be a problem. It's further complicated because many carriers pretend that the curbside is where it's supposed to be. In many suburban and rural locations the local municipality has given landowners the right to create a legal postal pulloff to their mailboxes. This is when you can grade an area (some may be public land) sufficient to let the postal carrier to pull off the road and reach you box. That graded area becomes a no parking zone by ordinance and is treated just like a driveway. But if the mailbox is right at the curb, there's nothing for you to create unless it's at a driveway and you can extend the driveway turn in to encompass the mailboxes.
yes, the rules is if the mail box is fronting a public street and it is blocked by a vehicle, the carrier has to dismount their vehicle and deliver the mail to the box. When the post office talks about blocked mail boxes, they are talking about those where the space in front of the mailbox is under the control of the owner. If you simply have your mailbox out at the curb on a public street, they are required to deliver it by foot if necessary.
Interesting! Do you have specific USPO regulations that state this? Specifically, for a "rural" route? I live about 1000ft from my Post Office, yet the refuse to deliver to me; saying I need to have a PO box in the office. Fine, I say, but I question why I have to pay for such PO box. If they refuse to deliver to my house, they should provide me the receptacle for free. When I pressed this issue with the post office, they said they would deliver to me, should I have a mailbox on the street, but they would pass me up anytime the box was blocked. As I live on the main street in a touristy village, the front of my house often times has other cars parked there.
If you can cite policy that they must get out of the vehicle to deliver to me; that would be great.
Personally, I'd have it towed. He's been told numerous times.
Maybe I'd try putting some cones down first...
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