Redirecting post to a safe place

jrmb

I hope I've posted this in the most relevant place, but please feel free to move it.

My partner and I rent an apartment in an old building and the post for the whole building is left inside the front door, which is often left unlocked. We're really worried about identity theft or having something important stolen.

We found out about PO boxes online and decided to apply for one. On the form, you can ask for all the mail for an address to be kept in the box so we opted for that. An Post called me this morning to say that it wasn't possible in our case because they can only redirect the post for a whole building, not an apartment.

We can have the PO Box with no redirect, but banks and public services don't deliver to PO boxes, so that would defeat the purpose. It would also have to be in our area's delivery services unit, which isn't actually the nearest one to our local shops. It's really disappointing, particularly because we were willing to pay almost €30 per month and sign up for a full year.

An Post has a great initiative where people without fixed addresses can use a virtual address and collect their post in person, but people living in apartments don't have an option like that. I've lived in a few different blocks across Dublin and the post was almost never kept in a secure place.

Has anyone else had an experience like this? Are there any workarounds we could use?

Thoie

Is it an old house that's now 4 apartments? Or a bigger apartment building? Is the post left inside the front door because there's a single normal letterbox and someone picks it up and puts in a table, or because the postman can enter in the front door?

If the postman can come in, talk to the management company about installing a bank of individual postboxes in the hallway.

If it's an old house that was converted into a small number of apartments, is there space outside the door to install multiple An Post delivery boxes outside?

jrmb

Thoie wrote: »

Is it an old house that's now 4 apartments? Or a bigger apartment building? Is the post left inside the front door because there's a single normal letterbox and someone picks it up and puts in a table, or because the postman can enter in the front door?

If the postman can come in, talk to the management company about installing a bank of individual postboxes in the hallway.

If it's an old house that was converted into a small number of apartments, is there space outside the door to install multiple An Post delivery boxes outside?

There are 10 apartments in the house and an annex at the back. The post all comes through a letterbox and then it's all left on a shelf. We thought about getting a delivery box, but there wouldn't be space for every apartment to have it own. We have a private landlord and no management company.

DubCount

For anything important, could you use a Parcel Motel Address?

jrmb

DubCount wrote: »

For anything important, could you use a Parcel Motel Address?

It would work for once-off shopping, but not for personal documents that come in the regular post.

Marcusm

jrmb wrote: »

I hope I've posted this in the most relevant place, but please feel free to move it.

My partner and I rent an apartment in an old building and the post for the whole building is left inside the front door, which is often left unlocked. We're really worried about identity theft or having something important stolen.

We found out about PO boxes online and decided to apply for one. On the form, you can ask for all the mail for an address to be kept in the box so we opted for that. An Post called me this morning to say that it wasn't possible in our case because they can only redirect the post for a whole building, not an apartment.

We can have the PO Box with no redirect, but banks and public services don't deliver to PO boxes, so that would defeat the purpose. It would also have to be in our area's delivery services unit, which isn't actually the nearest one to our local shops. It's really disappointing, particularly because we were willing to pay almost €30 per month and sign up for a full year.

An Post has a great initiative where people without fixed addresses can use a virtual address and collect their post in person, but people living in apartments don't have an option like that. I've lived in a few different blocks across Dublin and the post was almost never kept in a secure place.

Has anyone else had an experience like this? Are there any workarounds we could use?

That’s a choice on An Post’s part and not a requirement. I would press further.