withholding mail.

[natalie7]

i live in a block of 3 flats and my mail nearly always gets posted upstairs because the lazy postman cant be bothered to walk down my stairs.
anyway, i have spoke to royal mail and told them and i have also spoke to my neighbour and asked him to bring mail down when he gets it.
when he does decide to bring my letters down, they are usually a month or so old and contain overdue bills.
at the moment, i owe him some money for buildings insurance but can he withhold my mail because i haven't paid him yet and could i do something legally? any advice would be most grateful.
thanks.

[Ethel]

He can't withold your mail, but he could put it back in the post box to be resent.

In your position I would prefer to collect my mail from the Post Office and complain again to the Royal Mail.

[Postdog]

I must be missing something here, as, being a postman, I cannot understand why your mail is delivered to an upstairs flat. Do you live in some kind of weird block that means he doesn't have to go by you to get upstairs.

Anyway, to the matter in hand - it isn't acceptable, so keep on at the delivery office, and if you get nowhere, take it up with customer services. If you still get nowhere contact the main area sorting office. That said, you SHOULD get somewhere at the first stage. A note would normally be on the sorting frame asking the postman to either ensure delivery or show all mail to that address to the manager, who will then log it. If you have a regular postman, this just shouldn't happen, and eventually he will be disciplined, but it is possible your address is on an overtime or reserve walk, and then some postmen - not all - maybe slapdash because they aren't on it the following week.

It's not your neighbours fault that they are going to his address, but you are both aware that this is happening, you have requested him to give them to you, and by not doing it he is guily of effectively stealing your property. If he doesn't want to give it to you, then he should simply post it back endordsed "delivered to wrong address". The danger is, he might endorse"not known", in which case letters will be further delayed before being killed off. Whatever, take it up with the police if you have to, and don't be fobbed by saying it is between royal mail and you. Trying to sort it is, but once it goes through a box and is being deliberately witheld despite asking for it, that is theft.

If you collect mail, by rights you should be charged, but if you make a fuss because it is not being delivered properly, this should be waived. Get something written down too - don't rely on verbally complaining.

Don't quite get your comment "haven't paid him yet" so is there something you aren't saying?