As a tenant, what are my rights regarding having a separate and locked mailbox from other tenants?

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As a tenant, what are my rights regarding having a separate and locked mailbox from other tenants?

I live in an old highrise building. My apartment is a split from an original apartment. Therefore, myself and 20 other apartments are not in the original bank of separate locked boxes off the lobby. We have to go into the leasing office, only during certain hours of their operation, and find our mail on top of a file cabinet. Most of the apartments have mail slots. I do not. Mail is often in rubber banded bundles. I have been expecting a certain piece of mail for 5 weeks now which was re-issued 2 weeks ago. I searched bundles and slots and found mail from 3 weeks ago but no the 1 piece I needed.

Asked on July 10, 2011 under Real Estate Law, Maryland

Answers:

MD, Member, California Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 12 years ago | Contributor

I am surprised that the post office hasn't done or said anything or required anything of the apartment owner. You may wish to contact the postal inspector and file a complaint because by law someone other than the person to whom mail is addressed cannot accept the mail. There are a whole host of legal reasons but bottom line is the type of mail delivery you are describing does not appear to be legal. The U.S. Post Office has many delivery questions and answers in its FAQs section so you may wish to seek clarification on home delivery or consider opening a post office box to which you have access at any time. Even if you had something like central point delivery, there could be for those batch of apartment one unit with your individual compartment or lock box.


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