On Feb 4, 2022, at 12:48 AM, Dian Ågesson <m...@diacritic.xyz> wrote: > Genuine question: > > If I go to Officeworks and get a sign printed with the name "Bob" and put it > on my letterbox, does that become the name of my house?
I would think this is an EXCEEDINGLY "locally variable" question (and answer). To wit: I once lived at a house, in a city, with a post office, in a country with a postal service, that had a three digit address. There was a "granny unit" (called an "auxiliary dwelling unit" in local California real estate / zoning parlance) in the backyard where a couple lived (they necessarily shared utilities with the "main house," but it was like a little cottage, completely separate from the main house, but built on a different foundation on the same property parcel). At a certain point, to avoid both confusion and mix-up and to offer some additional privacy (as to where certain people's mail was coming from), a new mailbox appeared on the porch (next to the other mailbox for the main house where a group of us university students shared housing in our salad-days of under- and graduate-school semi-poverty). This new mailbox was labelled (somewhat amateurishly by one the couple in the backyard cottage with the three digits of the house number, likely designated by either the city, the post office or both a century or so ago (old Victorian-style house from the early 20th-century), plus the figure "1/2" (one-half). During the time I lived there, the garage was converted into a living space (likely illegally, i.e. without proper permits), and once again, a new (third) mailbox appeared at the cluster of the previous two, this time, with the three digits of the main house's address, a hyphen and the capital letter A. Nobody did anything, nobody asked permission (of the city, of the post office...), and mail "so addressed" was actually placed into the proper boxes. This lasted some number of years while I lived there and even for a while during the time my mail got forwarded until my name was no longer was associated with the address. A few years ago, I drove by that house (sentimental memories?) and while not much else had changed, there was only a single mailbox there. I could not tell if either the "backyard cottage" was still there, or if the garage was still occupied (with "illegal" plumbing and an outdoor shower shielded by little more than some tall bamboo), but one mailbox seemed to fit the circumstances of all who lived on the property. Are there "proper" procedures to "split" an address or "name" a house? Probably (in some places). Probably not, in other places. I'd ask around locally, as I really think this is an EXCEEDINGLY "local" thing. _______________________________________________ Talk-au mailing list Talk-au@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-au
