Charging For Post Delivered

[AliFlump]

Hi all. Have friends who live on a caravan site 11 months of the year. They have a house which they pay council tax for.

They have been there for 3 years and have had post delivered to the site reception the same as most of the other caravans on site have. They have to go to reception to pick up the post, it isn't delivered to their caravan for them. This arrangement works well for them.

Now, the site have introduced a £250 charge per caravan per year for accepting of post. If this is not taken up, post will be returned to sender.

Someone has mentioned that this is not legal (something to do with the queen. But as usual they have no knowledge to back this up)

Can anyone advise if it is illegal ( I'm doubting it but happy to be proved wrong) or anyone had any similar experiences? Thank you

[Old_Geezer]

They'll be saying next that there's far too many houses on the streets so everyone must address post to house No. 1.

[Vagus]

Individual caravans don’t have a postcode, the site office does. As do individual houses.

[sanmac]

OG, in practically all new housing developments in Ontario mail is not delivered to individual houses. Scattered around the neighbourhood are groups of mail boxes which residents have to drive or walk to in order to pick up their mail. This is also spreading to older areas of the town or city.

[Old_Geezer]

Individual houses do not have individual postcodes. They have numbers, similar to mobile homes.

Aye, foreigners do, do strange things at times. Their misfortune not to have been born British :-(

[Old_Geezer]

Trouble is modern day UK seems determined to soak up others' lesser way of doing things to replace our own. Especially from the US

But that's a bit off subject.

[Canary42]

///They'll be saying next that there's far too many houses on the streets so everyone must address post to house No. 1.///

Then I also would charge for a storage or re-delivery service.

[barry1010]

OG, the difference is the mobile home is on private land owned by the site owners. In the case of holiday homes (as is the case here) each mobile home doesn't have a resident. The mobile homes don't have letter boxes. The owner doesn't pay council tax on the caravan and it is not classed as a domestic property. Just as the postperson won't go traipsing round a factory to deliver to each office, he or she won't go traipsing round private land

[Old_Geezer]

But since each is a home, unlike offices, it suggests the whole system is an abomination. Why don't they have letterboxes ? Who's controlling this scam ?

[fiction-factory]

If I live at number 99 and convert the garage into a granny flat and put a front door on an extension for my children to live in, added letter boxes and labelled them 99a and 99b, I wouldn't expect the postperson to deliver to the 3 separate address, O-G.

[Cloverjo]

But they’re not ‘homes’ as such, O-G. People have to move out for at least one month per year.

[fiction-factory]

O_G- should royal Mail deliver to every room in students' halls of residence on university campuses for example?

[sanmac]

Also, FF, perhaps each individual unit in large apartment/condominium complex.

[AliFlump]

Thanks for your contributions. We are not expecting that the postperson delivers their letters to each caravan ( the letters are addressed to Mrs Smith, Caravan 12, Road B) it's just that the site are introducing a fee for accepting the post. The caravaners still go to collect any post from reception, this they haven't got issue with, it was just whether the site can issue a charge for accepting the post when the cost to deliver the post had already been made by the sender

They accept that they aren't true residents as they cant stay for a full 12 months (tho site is open 365 days a year, you can visit the bar, gym, swimming pool even in closed season as long as you dont sleep at the van) but the site does really promote the residential aspect

It was just the legality of the charge.

[Peter Pedant]

well it depends on the contract and what is covered by the service charge

practically speaking - I would value what an alternative is - poste restante is apparently only if there is enough personnel = service therefore NOT guaranteed

so the alternative is a drop box or POB for which they pay and it boils down to - - - which is cheaper

[Mamyalynne]

Royal Mail PO Box - £270 per annum for the Collect your own service.

https://www.royalmail.com/receiving/po-box

[douglas9401]

"I wouldn't expect the postperson to deliver to the 3 separate address, O-G"

Of course not, that would be unreasonable, unless the postie was a normal human being, educated to primary level thereby able to read an address and the corresponding letter box.

A caravan site by any other name is different.