My Landlord Insists On Getting Some Of Her Mail In My Mailbox (Tampa: renting, brokers)

[wondermint2]

Several things to mention. Yes she emailed me on Feb 2 - however I moved in on January 7th - so this has been going on for well over a month now. Next, she lied to me by telling me she filled out a change of address form at the post office before I moved in. If she wanted to stipulate a "condition" that I must share my mailbox with her if I was to be her tenant - then she should of discussed this with me BEFORE I moved in and/or put this stipulation in the lease. But the fact that she did the exact opposite and lied about turning in an address change to the post office before I moved in is not something that a "nice lady" would do. Lastly it would seem that if she is so worried about missing some of her mail the LOGICAL thing to do would be to file a change of address with the post office instead of letting her mail pile up in my box. The fact that she still is unwilling to file an address change smells like she is up to something fishy/illegal.

[Sunshine Rules]

Well, there's a way to determine if your landlord claimed a homestead exemption for 2010. That might give you a clue as to whether your landlord has been receiving a homestead exemption to date.

Go to the property appraiser's web site at
Sarasota County Property Appraiser under a property search
and look up the property by address. The tax records will indicate if the property was homesteaded last year. IF a person is filing for a 2011 homestead exemption, they must owner occupy the property as of January 1, 2011 and apply for the exemption by March 1st. If a homeowner already had homestead exemption for the previous year, a card would have been mailed out the first of January that said to mark it and return if you no longer were eligible for the homestead exemption on your property taxes.

After March 1st you could find out if your landlord has actually applied for a 2011 homestead exemption on the rental property you are occupying to save $$ on the tax bill. Whether you want to do anything about it at that point is up to you.

As a couple of other people have posted, the homestead exemption issue could explain her failure to change her mailing address even though you have made several polite requests to do so. I suppose you will find out one way or another in a couple of weeks.

Do you have your landlord's actual mailing address? Have you considered marking the mail with instructions, not at this address, please forward to ____ (address)?

[justNancy]

Well, I think people are being way too suspicious about her intentions, but I do not know her situation. I would only be guessing if I said that she might be in-between jobs or homes and is too embarrassed to tell people. You can have a post office box, even a UPS box or an entirely different mailing address and claim homestead. There's no law that says you have to receive mail at your place of residence.

In any case, I think writing "return to sender" is a bit extreme and hope if you decide to follow that advice, you won't expect immediate service in an emergency. Yes, it's different because she's obligated to fix problems, but only in a "timely manner." I'm a little confused about the 2nd mailbox she offered to buy for you. I didn't think the post office allows people to have 2 mailboxes for one address.

If she gets that much mail, then why not ask her to send you a self-addressed envelope (with postage of course) and send it to her? If she doesn't agree to that arrangement, then you should tell her how you feel, but I would never just return mail when I know the recipient. I guard my privacy, so I understand why you don't want anyone to open your mailbox, but IMO you need to get along with your landlady.

[gettinoutofjersey]

i have to wonder why she would risk not getting her mail. it would be a federal offense for someone to dispose or destroy the mail but things do happen. i know i would not want a bill to disapear and then have interest and fees add up or say maybe my tax refund check to go missing.

[dive77mmwet]

as said sounds fishy and she has you in a tight spot,think of moving? save about 2 weeks of important mail and mark return to sender dose not live here after you get deposit back,she may have a second on the home,of mortgage taken at the end of bubble stating this is her primary not to be a rental.
If I was you find out about the homestead to help secure your deposit back good leverage =Then deep six this broad-One thing before the bubble busted anyone that could sign there name got in to the real estate game and was the major contributing force in projecting/forcing home prices into outer space !!Now its time to pay the piper! Fixer,Fixer GOOD!

[wondermint2]

One alternative I liked better was this: There is a mailbox on my front door that is not used by the postal service. The mailbox that the postal service uses is on a pole near the curb. I asked the landlord if I could just reach in the official postal mailbox everyday and take out the entire stack of mail and bring it inside. Then once inside I can sort through it and on Sunday evening I could leave my landlord's mail in the box on the front door (because she usually comes to pick up her mail on Monday or Tuesday). This would be easier for me and the official mailbox would be less cluttered. But when I approached her with this suggestion she got kind of feisty and instructed me "not to touch her mail" and just leave hers sitting in the regualar mailbox by the curb.

[Milleka]

Originally Posted by wondermint2

On January 7th I moved into a rental house in Nokomis. My landlord used to use the house as her office for many years as her real estate office. Before I signed the lease and moved in the landlord indicated that she had contacted the post office to have her mail forwarded. Well several weeks after I moved in she was still getting mail in my box and looked like the post office wasn't forwarding her mail. So I contacted the post office and told them I was the legal resident there now. They said they would inform the carrier. I then asked the landlord about it and she says that she preferred not to fill out the change of address form with the post office but instead prefers to contact all her contacts herself to inform them of her address change. Her reasoning is that she won't miss anything this way. I don't understand that reasoning at all. Then she claims that occassionally her daughter gets mail here. She (landlord) wants to stop by my house about once a week and take her mail out of my box. She says I should not touch hers and just let it sit in the box until she picks it up. It seems like most of it now is junk mail. After I informed the Post Office on February 2nd I stopped getting my landlord's mail here until today - when I got about 3 of hers in my box again. I had told my landlord that I had contacted the post office about it. After I stopped getting her mail on Feb. 3rd (until hers came again today) I had assumed that she had went ahead and filed her address change with the post office. But apparently not so. For some reason she doesn't want to do it? I hope that she has not somehow persuaded the post office to re-start delivering her mail to my box? Or the other explanation could be that there was a substitute carrier today. My landlord claims this will only be temporary. She also suggested that the previous tenant just used a PO Box and that if I want she could put up another mailbox for me if this current situation was too much trouble. She doesn't seem to understand that standing at the curb at my box for several minutes every day sorting through the mail stack so I can find mine is an inconvenience. What REAL REASONS could there be for her wanting to do this? I thought about just writing "No Such Person" on hers and hoping the carrier takes them back tomorrow. But since I just recently moved here I'm thinking in order to not sour my relationship with new landlord I'll just put up with it a bit longer and see what happens. I don't want to rent a PO box for my mail as that's extra trouble and expense. Is she legally required to provide me with a private mailbox at the address on my lease?

Sounds like she's using your address to run a scam somewhere else- in regards to legal residency to receive benefits or something like that. I wouldn't like it either. What a pain in the ***.

[loves2read]

I wonder if there is some type of legal proceeding going on with this address and that is why she does not want to notify (and it seems like lots of mail is still coming to the old address)

maybe she has some type of "requirement" that she be at that address--and that is why she is not really getting the word out that she has moved...

I too think the volume of mail seems not to have falled off -- so IF she WERE changing address that would have happened...

and tampering with anyone's mail is a Federal crime--junk mail or not--
so the landlord could get you into trouble with postal authorities if she suspects you are doing anything with her mail...
YOU can go to the post office and turn in stop/hold mail for anyone getting mail at that address I believe since you are the legal resident--
take a copy of the lease to prove you have right to be there and tell her to go to post office and pick it up

[wondermint2]

Well I looked on the Sarasota County tax assessor website for the house I currently rent out. My landlord's tax bill for this property in 2010 was ZERO and 2011 is also showing ZERO. I can't find anything where it states specifically about a Homestead Exemption - but how is it that she is paying ZERO taxes for this house. (Her bill was actually ZERO).? It must be exempt under some kind of law/rule? She was using it as her office and I don't think that she actually lived in it. There is an adjacent parcel of land that she also owns that she is trying to sell now. This land for sale is zoned commercial. Any thoughts?

[wondermint2]

Well I just did a bit more research. The assessed value of the house is only $46,000 and the Homestead Exemption is $50,000. So that probably explains why her tax bill is ZERO. However it also states that if she was living in the house on January 1st that she can go ahead and claim it as her primary for 2011. I moved in on January 7th and the official date on the lease is January 9th. The law does state that you cannot claim the Homestead Exemption on rental property. But it looks to me from my understanding that she is legally entitled to the Homestead Exemption for 2011 because the lease is dated January 9th. Does this seem plausible to you as far as how the law works? If so then I don't understand her reluctance to file a change of address with the post office. Unless she wants to continue in 2012 with another Homestead Exemption. It does seem like her mail here has tapered off and I can tell that most of it is just junk mail now. I do believe she contacted her important contacts and notified them of her address change. But no change of address yet with post office.