Property managers still have not installed mailboxes after 2 months and just ignore my appeals

user225688

When I moved in they said 'don't know' when they will be installed with no further explanation.

It has now been 2 months and still no sign they will ever be put in or any explanation; on the contrary any further inquiries I make have just been ignored.

It is a new build and no-one else has them either and everyone has to go to the management office to collect mail. It isn't like a 'concierge' as some people have said, indicating it is a benefit rather than a hindrance, it is, rather, an office where they are doing their clerical stuff and you have to ask them when there is mail.

It seems their primary concerns are just getting new tenants in and those already in are just left to fend for themselves (I will say they deal quickly + efficiently with stuff they deem important; if there are issues with the flat's internals etc, but if they don't deem it a priority you get no help). Since mailboxes are not a 'legal requirement' they seem not to care about doing it at all. I can't see how it is convenient for them though to have to give mail individually to people on request. It would only be like a day's work and a couple of hundred quid to install mailboxes on each block.

I was thinking of ringing the delivery office and see if they would agree to come to my block to put my mail if I make a temporary one however I can see the LL complaining if any drilling is involved to secure the box (which could be avoided by using a chain maybe to a railing) and I can also envision the postman complaining about having to make an extra trip just for me when he is able to just dump the whole lot into a box in their office as is the current arrangement.

I know there is no legal requirement for LL to provide a postbox however is there a legal requirement for the posty to deliver mail if I made an ad-hoc one myself (rather then their preference to just avoid the extra hasstle and refuse to make an extra trip). I worry about incurring the wrath of a disgruntled postie if he didn't want to though.

I hate not having control of my own box. It is a real deprivation to me and have not thought if a workaround as yet. PO Boxes are ridiculously expensive and would still mean I would have to go nearly 2 miles to the depot.

I was wondering about click and collect options or something. There are a couple of options, well 1 I know of, where you can use a real address and at retail stores which are signed up to it you just get mail delivered there; so maybe that. I am sure it will be cheaper than PO Box but still out of my own pocket and still less convenient than a real one, but a lesser inconvenience than having to pester the office for it all the time would be an improvement.

davidmcn

Previous thread here:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6075427/moved-to-new-place-but-no-mailbox-setup-yet-here-is-post-office-best-option-for-temp-address

(OP - for future reference, easier for the rest of us if you just bump the original thread by posting a comment on it rather than start a new one, then we can see what's already been suggested etc)

G_M

£10



https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Large-Metal-Lockable-Wall-Mounted-Letter-Post-Box-Mailbox-Square-Outdoor-Garden/183850702225?hash=item2ace5b1591:m:mDP4APE7VDeife0QdKmh9dQ&var=691505469963


sorted! (forgive the pun....)

HampshireH

Guessing you are in a flat by reference to blocks. You will not get permission to install your own or screw anything into the building you do not own.

If your site manager hadnt responded to your written complaint with a resolution have a friendly word with your local councillor.

They love this sort of thing

user225688

G_M said:

£10



https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Large-Metal-Lockable-Wall-Mounted-Letter-Post-Box-Mailbox-Square-Outdoor-Garden/183850702225?hash=item2ace5b1591:m:mDP4APE7VDeife0QdKmh9dQ&var=691505469963


sorted! (forgive the pun....)

I am not allowed to mount anything so I feel my hands are tied.

This is just ridiculous. I reluctantly ordered a something from ebay recently which I thought I could not get locally and it is such a rigmarole to get it.

I have to go to their office and ask and it is not sorted in any kind of order so they have to sift through everyones' mail. It hadn't arrived so I left. A few hours later I got an email from ebay saying the item was delivered so I have to traipse back down and ask them to look again.

I asked the landlord about it again when I was at the office and it seems he couldn't care less. He just said 'bear with us'; no indication of any timeline when it will be done meaning maybe months away if at all.

What are the postal service laws about this? I don't see how I can get around it if the landlord won't let me secure a postbox to the building and yet he refuses to sort it out himself.

giraffe69

When you are told "bear with us" and you then go away, perhaps sighing then from the point of view of the landlord it is job done until the next time. I think you need to be more persistent with a view to making him fed up and perhaps inclined to do it rather than face you again. Perhaps saying "this is the third time I have born with you" might be a start.

user225688

So I have now installed the postbox after ringing the post office and them agreeing they would deliver it to me direct if I installed one myself however I am still not getting my mail after having send 2 different test mails.

I left detailed instructions with them at the post office but it still isn't coming.

I am wondering what are their obligations to deliver it now I have told them where it is and it is setup? Can they just renege on it and say 'oh that is too much hassle having to sort mail for one other person'? Also I placed it half way up the first flight, I am concerned they might say it is too much trouble for having to climb a couple of steps because when I rang the post manager and he agreed for it to be delivered if I installed one he said 'there aren't any steps are there' so I hope that has not nullified the agreement just because there are a couple of steps.

Just wondering what their obligations are now? can they still refuse it if they can't be bothered to sort the mail just for one person, preferring just to dump everything in the main management office as is their standard practice for the rest of the tenants?

It can't be that much trouble for them to separate my mail from the rest at the sorting office can it once a marker has been put on my name/flat number to do so? because if it was a separate house it would be done without question so why should it be any different for another flat of an apartment block provided a note had been set to do so.

Such an onslaught to solve something that should have been in place by default.

xylophone

https://www.royalmailgroup.com/en/about-us/regulation/how-were-regulated/universal-service-obligation/

user225688

I managed to catch *a* postman today, it was one on the other side of the road from where I live, but it was not the one who delivers to my buildings.

When I asked him about it he seemed to know who I was already and he said he heard I had complained about not receiving mail and when I inquired why I am not receiving it he said that his collegue 'doesn't have time to deliver to all individual flats'. He said if they delivered to my individual flat then what if everyone put their own mailbox in and then the postman would have to deliver to every door and it would take him 45 minutes.

That is rubbish because wherever I have lived in blocks of flats before the mailboxes are all on the ground floor so other residents could just put any others on the ground floor.

When I said that I have a right to receive my own mail he said 'yes' but then said that it is not their responsibility if they deliver it to the office as that is where their responsibility ends and it is the property management who should deliver it to individual flats.

Even though I said the post manager for my area's post code had already agreed to it this guy said the manager 'must be mistaken'.

Then he showed me some device that said he is being tracked every minute for how long they take and it would log that he had been stood talking to me for 5 minutes implying that it is squandered time to deliver to individual flats; but if there were post boxes in the apartment blocks that would be part of their job to deliver! so doesn't make sense like that would be some out of hours time that was being 'wasted'.

xylophone

When I lived in a flat, the post was delivered through my letterbox - same for  everybody else whether on the ground floor or the third.

davidmcn

xylophone said:

When I lived in a flat, the post was delivered through my letterbox - same for  everybody else whether on the ground floor or the third.

Indeed, I would say that was normal practice.