Why are mailboxes federal property

They regulate my automobile as well but that does not mean they own it. Firearms are regulated, does not mean anyone owns them but the purchaser. Can a POA charge me to use an established mail box located in a mail kiosk? We initially paid a key deposit. Now they changed the rules after many years stating we must now pay an annual fee. I thought once a mail box was established that it is then a free service.

Hi Marsha, this will likely depend on your POA terms and local regulations. Do you own the mailbox, or does the POA? We are not the experts regarding legal proceedings like this, but if you do find yourself needing a new curbside or wall-mount mailbox make sure to reach back out to us!

My 83yo, across the street, neighbor is livid because my underground lawn sprinkling system gets his 30yo metal rusted mailbox wet. Can a neighbor replace your mailbox with your knowledge if it is in their yard? Is this considered tampering? What recourse do I have to be able to get my mail delivered, as I pay taxes to get that, at no annual cost like this? Thank you. Hi Patti, thanks for your comment. This will be something you have to work out with that organization, and possibly the post office.

Try reaching out to your local post office on this matter. I am not a lawyer, but if you have signed paperwork that says you bought the mailbox you should see a lawyer. They can certainly charge an annual fee for the use of the space where the mailbox is mounted, though. Can a subdivision Board publicize, inform, and conduct a vote to create uniform mailboxes within the subdivision at a properly held annual meeting of the membership?

The By-laws require a simple majority vote of the membership on all matters before the board and before the membership for approval, but is each personal mailbox federal property whereby a collective affirmative vote of the membership, does not count?

Ive asked people to leave things in my mailbox, just leave my stuff alone. Saying that Post Office delivery service is free is nuts. They get paid by someone paying them to deliver mail by stamps. If they had nowhere to deliver the mail, there would not need to be a post office delivery service, just a huge warehouse in every city with thousands of little boxes that they would have to pay for! Can you imagine the lines. If delivery service is free, where does the money come from for trucks, bags, post persons, gas, dog lawsuits, upkeep of delivery vehicles?

Read the article. Did not say it was free. If the mailboxes are federal property, why do I have restrictions from a Home Owners Association to affix a special mailbox that fits into their criteria? If my new mailbox fits the criteria that is listed, why to I have to purchase a specifically designed mailbox.? USPS gets no government money to run its operation, its completely funded by the sale of stamps and postage.

Stacy they do get money from the government It seems to work like a loan they need to pay back. I believe the treasury gives them the billions they need but they claim it costs more money to deliver mail door to door than it would to have centralized mail boxes. You can look all this up on the net. My neighbor ripped my mailbox out of his yard today and destroyed it. Is this against the law and what charges could I press against him? When George Bush was president and they cut taxes they see that the budget was going to be blowing to pieces so they made the post office pay for that health insurance to bail out the budget.

For them to deliver it has to be approved. If someone is inferring that the USPS owns my box due to a law covering damages then the state owns my auto if there is a law covering damages to it by someone and that is not true. I have a mailbox that is in the same place as it was when I bought the property 22 years ago. The owner has passed away and the new owner wants me to move my mailbox supposedly to put a driveway in. Is this legal or bullying? Do I have any rights?

You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney and to have that attorney with you during questioning.

If you so desire and cannot afford one an attorney will be provided at no cost. No ur mail box is place where it needs to be and if they want to lay a new drive way then they have to work around it no one can make u move anything. Call ur postmaster for your city and they will tell you what needs to be done and let them know they need to do the same. I live in a rural town in RI and the USPS just notified us that they will no longer deliver to our house due to the conditions of the road.

They informed us that we can place our mailbox across the entrance to our street, however the neighbor near that property claims it is his property. Can we still place our mailbox there or since we were informed to do so by the USPS? No not true they own the land but they do not own the part of the land that is next to the road there is a section that is city own. To use are they need that would include that part of land. Where the city have drains city water running to the land they own.

That is why the they told u to place it there. If you still have a problem call the post master he can help u take care of this problem and get ur mailbox placed where it needs to be. No one by law can tell you what they are say to you. We have had a mail box in front of our house for 20 years. We have never used it because we have a box at the post office. Can I have my paper delivery person start putting our morning newspaper into it?

Hello everyone, my landlord who lives in Hong Kong take out my name from the mailbox and the intercom and I am having troubles receiving my mails and packages. Is he legally allowed to do that? Many thanks in advance to anyone who would have some advice in this regards as this has become a major nuisance. In a situation where 8 condos share the same mailbox, one man owns 6 of the condos.

He took down the mailbox in the process of changing some landscaping. His condos are only rented out for 1 to 7 nights at a time.

Could he be fined by the post office for failing to put the mailbox back up? I purchased a home in June. There was a mailbox that was used by the previous owners with our street number on it. Two weeks from our settlement we noticed our neighbor removed the name and changed the numbers on the mailbox to his address.

What do you recommend we do? We own a apartment complex that has the mailboxes just inside of the entrance of each corridor. These mailboxes Were installed in , and are needing minor repair but they were installed and owned by the postal service. Keys have to be purchased at the post office.

It is our understanding that our service personnel can not repair them. I believe a refund and past due rent is owed to me. Is any of this against the law?

Am I permitted to decorate my mailbox since it is federal property? My neighbor built a new house and he put his new mailbox almost directly across from my driveway. When he was building the house he agreed to move the mailbox about ten feet further down the cul de sac and that would clear my driveway.

The road is only wide enough for one vehicle at a time. If the road had been a two lane road it would have been okay. Who do I contact to get him to move his mailbox? And are really tired of it! Is this company liable for damages? All we want is for them to replace said mailbox when it has been destroyed buy their big trucks..

In one city we develope in the Postmaster is trying to make our company give out the keys to new homeowners. In other cities we deliver the locks and keys to the Postmaster and they take it from there. Does a Postmaster have the authority to make me responsible for giving keys to new homeowners? I am a local contractor i put a hand written bill in a customers mail box.

The post office took it out put it in a envelop and put it in mine three days later. I wonder why the USPS is not making any money. So i called the post master they told me they own the inside of the mailbox and no one but them can put anything in it. The single dumbest thing someone from the government has ever said! Any mail delivered was paid for by someone to have it delivered to a certain location meaning it is not free but rather the USPS is doing what they were paid to do.

This is why your going broke, the UPS and FedEx carriers come to my door and ring the bell with a smile on their faces. I personally believe dissolving the USPS and contract it out to commercial providers would be a blessing.

You have sealed your own fate!! Removing stuff from my mailbox without my permission is theft. I am very upset that items in my mailbox without postage were confiscated. My neighbors should be able to leave items in the box for me to retrieve. It has absolutely no effect on thier mail delivery. Not sure why the USPS believes they have the right to confiscate. Hi, my front yard is shaded by oak trees causing it impossible to grow grass.

Why I want a nice front yard at my best and they cost me my personal money. Area only covers small area of yard. Called post office to be advised they could walk anywhere on my property. Being a single senior citizen my little garden brings me pleasure. Why are they allowed to destroy my garden and be disrespectful to a senior woman? Carrier is supposed to leave the area they way they found it…if you are describing accurately your property with free access without going thru flower bed then carrier needs to avoid it…depending on the route type and description, yes carriers are supposed to make the most efficient means of travel to the next delivery, even if it means walking on the grass…if a customer desires one not to cross grass or carrier deems it unsafe due to problems, which a supervisor should verify, then the carrier stays off it…you need to escalate your concerns to next level thru ask usps with customer complaint or contact the regional consumer affairs unit of usps in your district which is easily found online…the issues put thru this way are sent in hard copy to the offices with a satisfactory response and answer to the customer and copied to district and washington..

This is completely incorrect. A privately purchased and installed mailbox remains the property of the purchaser. This is no different that an automobile — when an individual purchases a car, the car is the property of the individual. The vehicle does NOT effectively become govertnment property just because you drive it on a city, county, state or federally funded roadway.

However, all of those entities have power to regulate what you do, and cannot do, with your vehicle while on the road. My neighbor has his mail box covered with political stickers.

How can this be legal. It is like the federal government taking a position. My mail carrier keeps writing my house numbers on my mailbox with Big Black magic marker. What are my rights here? Buy a piece of magnet, and place 1. I live in Minnesota and we have 3 mailboxes on a post with not a lot of room to put the flags up.

The post needs to be replaced as well as the 3 mailboxes. Who is responsible for taking care of this? There is a website that outlines requirements for mail receptacles.

It is called the domestic mail manual. Receiving mail is a privilege not a right. You still get mail even if you never send any. Restrictions placed on mailboxes are to help with delivery standards and keeping costs down. If everyone could use whatever they wanted and place mailboxes wherever that wanted, delivery would cost a lot more because you made extra steps for the mail carrier.

Remember, you only check ONE mailbox, they go to hundreds per day. What can one hang on their mailbox? Can a neighbor hang a spandex stuffed with something with a g string wearing high heels? Bought a mailbox had it installed on side of road as advices by postal employee.

I was later advices my box was going to be relocated for road work for about a year. I had to travel a farther distance to retrieve my mail. Last week mailman stopped me to let me know I could now move my box to front of my home and mail deliver to my home????.

He stopped by to tell me my mailbox had been removed and destroyed.?. Never was told there was a time frame. I live on a set income, my box was bought last year, and now need another one. We would like to re-purpose one of those outgoing boxes so that residents can drop non-stamped Association fees through the slot, and the USPS can deliver mail to the same box through the back. This box, and the remaining 3 outgoing boxes, would be clearly labeled as such.

Our regular USPS deliverer would be fine with it as well, but he wanted me to call the post office to make sure it would be ok. Yes, more or less. It seemed the Post Office had crushed its competition—at least for a while. Flyers, advertisements and newspapers continued to be delivered, just now stuck inside front doors, underneath welcome mats, and left on stoops and front yards.

First Class mail still had to go through the Post Office. Then came e-mail in the s, followed by online shopping and banking in the s and early s. The volume of First Class mail dropped every year and, as the quantity dropped, the US Postal Service increased the price of a First Class stamp, which then motivated people to use more e-mail and to start paying their bills online, which further reduced the demand for First Class stamps. Increasingly, those utility companies that had created the problem for the Post Office in the first place made it increasingly possible to be paid online.

Package delivery services, which offered better services and often cost less than the Post Office, became widely available in the s. This took further business away from the Postal Service. Its role remained central to the movement of facts and all manner of paper-based reading materials, so its power was enormous.

Its legacy is too. A century later they still are the most widely used. Today, the Postal Service still delivers to over million addresses, but on average American adults have nearly two e-mail addresses, too, outnumbering their physical addresses.

In , it handled billion pieces of mail, employed , people, and operated out of over 31, post offices. And you still cannot stuff mailboxes with neighborhood garage sale flyers or other things you want to conveniently leave a neighbor. James W. Cortada is a Senior Research Fellow at the Charles Babbage Institute at the University of Minnesota and the author of several dozen books on the history and use of information in business and information technology.

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We help our customers to create a uniform, upscale appearance and increase property values by "bundling" themed packages of decorative street signage , mailboxes , post and wall mounted lighting, and wayfinding signage. You can count on the experts at Forsite to help improve the quality of your community today.

Contact us today to get started by talking to one of our experienced team members at This site uses cookies to deliver a better experience. Are Mailboxes Considered Federal Property? Friday May 15, Mailboxes make it easy for consumers, as well as businesses, to send and receive tangible letters and small packages. Why Mailboxes Are Federal Property In the United States, mailboxes are considered federal property to protect against mail theft, mail tampering and vandalism. About Forsite: Welcome to Forsite!

We help our customers to create a uniform, upscale appearance and increase property values by "bundling" themed packages of decorative street signage , mailboxes , post and wall mounted lighting, and wayfinding signage You can count on the experts at Forsite to help improve the quality of your community today.

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