Mailbox Regulations – Regulations You Shouldn’t Ignore
The USPS (United States Postal Service) has mailbox regulations regarding residential mailboxes and mail delivery. Mailbox requirements are designed to standardize the mail receptacle, mail delivery and pickup.
Post Mount, Curb Side Mailboxes
There are regulations regarding curbside mailboxes. A curbside mailbox can be one of three size for residential mail:-
- Small T1 (C1)size is approximately 5 inches wide by 6 inches tall and 18 ½ inches long.
- Medium T2 (C2) size is approximately 6 inches wide by 7 inches tall by 19 inches long.
- Large T3 (C3) size is approximately 8 inches wide by 11 ½ inches tall by 22 ½ inches long.
The “T” stands for Traditional and the “C” stands for Contemporary. The dimensions reflect the minimum interior size.
The curbside mailbox post should be positioned 6-8 inches from the curb and approximately 42-46 inches high measured from the lawn to the top of the installed curbside mailbox, not the top of the post. If the post has a vertical arm, the arm should not extend any closer than 6 inches from the curb. When installing your new set, make sure your set complies with these regulations.
Be cautious when building your own mailbox and post. Approximately 100 motorists are killed yearly in collisions with curbside mailboxes. Some posts are mounted in concrete or constructed of indestructible materials. In a collision, a motor vehicle can be severely damaged and its occupants injured or killed.
The USPS does not have rules or regulations for wall mount mailboxes, however, you should notify your local mail carrier before installation to ensure proper placement of the mailbox and check for any local codes or regulations governing placement of the mailbox. The product should operate easily and nothing should obstruct the opening and closing of the lid. Also check with your home owners association to see if they have any rules or requirements which you need to comply with.
Related posts:
I would like to know what the laws are pertaingin to posting association notices on curbside, residential mailboxes in a planned community.
Thank you.
I would like to know if a homeowner association can tell you NOT to put your name on a mailbox.
Thanks.
3.1.4 Clear Approach
Customers must keep the approach to their mailboxes clear of obstructions to allow safe access for delivery. If USPS employees are impeded in reaching a mail receptacle, the postmaster may withdraw delivery service.
Domestif Mail Manual (DMM) USPS
Can anyone look inside a mailbox and go through their mail to see who lives at the address?
Can a person put trash in your mail box because they found trash in a ditch line. They are trying to make a point but I don’t thik this is the way.
I agree with you. It is not the way.
help!! there is a truck parked daily, atop of my grass, and curb, and atop of my curbside mail box. this neighbor has
5 vehicles, and says, he will not move his vehicle. we are squeezed into this cul-de-sac. he says his garage is for entertaining!! what are the usps rules??
check if all the tags are current. they can be forcibly removed if not.
If a mailbox is not within regulations being put too close to the curb, and I hit the mailbox and break my mirror is the homeowner responsible for replacing my mirror?
Configure your rss please, I reading blogs news via rss reader, thnks.
I had been arguing with my close friend on this issue for quite a while, base on your ideas prove that I am right, let me show him your webpage then I am sure it must make him buy me a drink, lol, thanks.
- Kris
I have a neighbor that continues to park in a manner that block my mailbox. I have ask the neighbor to stop blocking the mail box but it continuse to happen. The postal personal has not been able to deliver my mail and this is a problem. Does the USPS have any rule regarding this?
i got a question is it ok to have many names in a mailbox eventhough they dont leave here…. coz sometimes if there’s a new mailman or mailwoman in our street they dont put the right mail on the mailbox and its been 4 days. and when we check the other mailbox our mail was there… and here’s the weird thing the people that live upstairs on us they take our mail gues how i found out i got a catalog issue on dec 2010 that i got first den the next week i got a catalog with the same name and its dated on august 2010. how weird is that? and i caught the girl pulling out mail from my landlords mailbox the one that sticking out she pulled it right out and put all the mail in their mailbox and by the end of the week they clean their mailbox with the mail that she took didnt even bother putting it in the right mailbox.
I have a neighbor who puts notes in my mailbox any she wants to communicate with us. What is the law concerning this situation?
Nobody other than USPS can take or put items in or around the mailbox (attached to the side etc.)
Is it possible for a person living in a recreational camper trailer as his permanent location to have and use a mailbox at his rural location?
Is there a requirement that community mailboxes must be locked?
I have a neighborhood cluster box that does not have a drop slot, requiring me to go elsewhere to mail items.
Is there some law or rule preventing me from installing my own box on my property. Who determines weither you can or can’t?
I have a neighbor that insist on parking his van as to block my mailbox.Is there a law on the books regarding this issue.
in winter esp. I would like my mail delivered to my house and not down the lane at a box.
I am to old to go out everyday to get mail this way and liked having it delivered to my door/ handed to me. wish there were some rules about this for the benefit of seniors.
I’ve noticed that there are colored stickers placed our mailboxes. 1. A white rectangle, 2. A red circle, 3. A black circle (I think it was a circle). What do they stand for? I live in Charlotte, NC?
I am a bit upset that I cannot insert the annual civil code (paper) into my tenants mail box on an annual basis. I just had a postmaster bring me back all of the civil codes which I inserted. This is a community on private property, I have had a extreme run-in with one of the tenants several years ago and he beat the heck out of me. I was traumatized needless to say and so I really have an issue with delivering this item to tenants doors. I also don’t understand why if I cannot touch mail going in and out of the mail box, what gives postmaster the right to go and retrieve each individual paper, just to them all back to me and reprimand me for doing something so horrible. My tenants weren’t complaining, they knew I was out there inserting this item into their mailbox and besides that, earlier this year the new mailman who was learning this route, took a sharpie pen and wrote on each individual mailbox the address number or house number. It looked hideous, people were angry and appalled that a usps carrier had the gall to do this and was so naive that he didn’t have the ability to read the numbers right off of the home. My numbers were inpossible for Mr. Magoo to miss, I don’t understand why they are so government sometimes and not so much at other times. I believe their privelage is one which is unfair and we should have some say one way or the other.
Thank you for listening.