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  • Re: mailbox dispute

    From Roy@21:1/5 to Barry Gold on Sat May 31 10:10:35 2025
    On 5/31/2025 9:23 AM, Barry Gold wrote:
    Found on Quora:

    We bought 5 acres from a friend. He just put a letter in the mailbox
    stating that we are no longer allowed to use "his" mailbox even though
    he sold all the land off. Is this legal?

    The question as asked leaves another unanswered question: where is the mailbox?

    As several people pointed out, mailboxes in the US are property of the
    Postal Service. Who can use it is therefore up to the USPS, not the OP
    or the "friend".

    Several other people did analyses based on property rights (e.g.,if it's attached to the land it's a fixture and goes with the land).

    You'd need more info to figure out who has the right to put letters in
    the mailbox (ownership is clearly the USPS if it's in the USA).
    Interesting area for legal analyses.


    On my farm, the mailbox was on the side of the county road and not on my
    land. It was a locking box The key was not needed for putting mail in
    the box, just removing it so only I had the key and not the USPS..

    My current house has a wooden stand with six mailboxes on it. Its also
    on county land adjacent to the road.. The mailboxes are all individual
    and are obviously not "government" installed probably dating back to
    2002 or so when the area was developed. I am going to replace my
    simple box with a locking one. One of my neighbors just did his.

    Mail boxes installed by the owner are his property but controlled by the
    USPS. Only the USPS can legally put things in the mailbox.

    From the mailboss.com people

    "Once you install your mailbox, and it is ready for the receipt of mail,
    you effectively lease your mailbox to the federal government for the
    service of mail delivery. Let’s not forget that, as long as you have an up-to-code mailbox, receiving mail is a free service. Sending mail isn’t
    free (stamps, shipping, postage, etc). Because you lease your mailbox to
    the Postal Service, they require that your mailbox meet certain criteria regarding placement, design, and usage in order to maintain your
    service. If you do not meet these criteria in any way, you break the
    lease and the Postal Service will no longer use your box for mail delivery."

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Barry Gold@21:1/5 to All on Sat May 31 09:23:45 2025
    Found on Quora:

    We bought 5 acres from a friend. He just put a letter in the mailbox
    stating that we are no longer allowed to use "his" mailbox even though
    he sold all the land off. Is this legal?

    The question as asked leaves another unanswered question: where is the
    mailbox?

    As several people pointed out, mailboxes in the US are property of the
    Postal Service. Who can use it is therefore up to the USPS, not the OP
    or the "friend".

    Several other people did analyses based on property rights (e.g.,if it's attached to the land it's a fixture and goes with the land).

    You'd need more info to figure out who has the right to put letters in
    the mailbox (ownership is clearly the USPS if it's in the USA).
    Interesting area for legal analyses.

    --
    I do so have a memory. It's backed up on DVD... somewhere...

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Stan Brown@21:1/5 to Roy on Mon Jun 2 07:33:00 2025
    On Sat, 31 May 2025 10:10:35 -0700 (PDT), Roy wrote:
    Only the USPS can legally put things in the mailbox.


    I believe that's not quite right. If a letter has proper postage
    affixed, I believe you can put it in the addressee's mailbox even if
    the Postal Service never had custody of it.

    What you can't do legally is put flyers and other stiff without
    postage in people's boxes.

    --
    After using my real address in 37 years of Usenet articles,
    I am now reluctantly posting a fake address because of the
    large number of sites scraping Usenet articles without
    permission and putting them on their own pretend forum sites.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Barry Gold@21:1/5 to Stan Brown on Tue Jun 3 13:01:18 2025
    On 6/2/2025 7:33 AM, Stan Brown wrote:
    On Sat, 31 May 2025 10:10:35 -0700 (PDT), Roy wrote:
    Only the USPS can legally put things in the mailbox.

    I believe that's not quite right. If a letter has proper postage
    affixed, I believe you can put it in the addressee's mailbox even if
    the Postal Service never had custody of it.

    What you can't do legally is put flyers and other stiff without
    postage in people's boxes.

    Correction accepted with one caveat: if you (not a postal worker) put a
    letter in a mailbox, you are supposed to "cancel" the stamps by drawing
    lines cross them with a pen or somesuch.

    --
    I do so have a memory. It's backed up on DVD... somewhere...

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)