# Could you permanently live on land you own and not have an official address? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 11, 2016, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-permanently-live-on-land-you-own-and-not-have-an-official-address/774430 "2016-12-11T14:18:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-permanently-live-on-land-you-own-and-not-have-an-official-address/774430/41 "2016-12-13T00:35:02Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > The OP isn’t talking about an ordinary shlub but a quite wealthy person. Want supplies? Radio your flunkies what you want they’ll chopper it in. And the chopper itself? Buy one and hire a pilot. And none of this is in your name but run by a company you own. The company itself doesn’t even need a street address but one of those PO box fronts in the Caymans. > > Need to physically go into town but not by air? Take an ATV to the nearest road, meet flunky, flunky takes you to town. > > The world is _very_ different if you have tons of money. Did you read the rest, including extralegal means? ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-permanently-live-on-land-you-own-and-not-have-an-official-address/774430/42 "2016-12-13T00:54:23Z")
> [@slash2k](#): > > Well, the original 13 colonies plus Kentucky, Tennessee, Vermont, West Virginia, Texas, parts of Maine, and I believe Hawaii have their own systems, which predate the Range/Township/Section of the public land survey system. Also, bits and pieces of other states have legal descriptions based on other schemes; I understand some areas of New Mexico, e.g., are described using the metes and bounds of the old Spanish land grants. However, most of the land area of the country, including Alaska, does use this system. The Dominion Land Survey used in the prairie provinces of Canada is very similar, using the same range/township/section nomenclature. I think California is the same in that it does not use the Township/Range system. Also, The APN (Assessors Parcel Number) while based on township and range is tied to the property, but not necessarily the owner. Which is what we call a Tax ID number or schedule number in our county’s case. You can have multiple owners of a property. In particular, condominium properties. The County that I work GIS in, will not allow a Tax-ID number unless the property has a physical address. So if the county knows about it, we will give it an address. And we won’t let you build a residential structure with out drivable access. If it’s not taxed, say a building off the grid on national forest land, It will likely not have an address. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-permanently-live-on-land-you-own-and-not-have-an-official-address/774430/43 "2016-12-13T02:43:13Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > Would cause a bit of a problem when the county assessor visits the property to value it (happens every other year in my county). They don’t generally take helicopters.😉 Well there may have to be a road to somewhere on the property for the assessor, but that road doesn’t have to go to where hypothetical rich persons modular house is. If he buys a 50 acre lot or bigger that has moderate vegetation cover, theres a lot of space to plonk down his cabin far out of view of any roads or neighbours. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-permanently-live-on-land-you-own-and-not-have-an-official-address/774430/44 "2016-12-13T03:40:52Z")
I don’t see why not. It depends on whether you intend to pay taxes, notify authorities, be in a conspicuous spot where others are aware of you, whether you purchase land in your name. If you went into Northern Canada away from roads you might do it. Of course, if you want mail delivery you’ll need an address of sorts, and in practice you would need bank accounts and ID to pay for things. If that rich, perhaps including a company under another’s leadership. But why on Earth would you want to do that? Pay your taxes. ---
**Author:** ![slash2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@slash2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slash2k)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-permanently-live-on-land-you-own-and-not-have-an-official-address/774430/45 "2016-12-13T05:18:02Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > I think California is the same in that it does not use the Township/Range system. At least part of California does, but I think you’re right that some of the areas settled pre-1848 still use the Spanish/Mexican systems already in place there. The original surveys of California to divide it into townships and ranges were notoriously bad, with widespread corruption. (One surveyor, for example, claimed to have surveyed large areas of the High Sierra in the middle of winter, after snows rendered the whole area completely impassible.) See [Benson Syndicate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benson_Syndicate). The feds ended up having to pay to have most of it resurveyed. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-permanently-live-on-land-you-own-and-not-have-an-official-address/774430/46 "2016-12-13T13:39:41Z")
> [@missred](#): > > Did you read the rest, including extralegal means? Of course I did. I see no reason why extralegal means needs to be consider for someone with a ton of money. Did _you_ read the OP? ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-permanently-live-on-land-you-own-and-not-have-an-official-address/774430/47 "2016-12-13T14:24:18Z")
Okay, I’m convinced that if you actually buy land, you will inevitable have an address as at least some layer of government will assign – in whatever format. At the very least, I guess you could use your GPS coordinates. But it seems equally clear you could NOT have a mailing/delivery address (unless you choose to, like renting a mailbox) or the kind of address that would satisfy a questioning policeman. 😉 Fortunately my misanthrope has a ton of money so he can hire plenty of lawyers. ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2016, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-permanently-live-on-land-you-own-and-not-have-an-official-address/774430/48 "2016-12-14T02:04:22Z")
I have an amusing story along these lines. First, a little context information. I visit people in their homes, some of them waaaaay out in the boonies. One day, the address information for a patient was “go to Big Jim’s Grocery and Gas and ask for directions to where patient lives.” Hmmmm. So I google the store location and it’s a little non-chain convenience store in boonies. I go there, and ask for the person by his legal name. Total blank stare from the young girl working the register, BUT she calls her mom. Mom says, yeah that’s Roosterneck’s real name, which got me the directions quickly. Turns out the patient dragged an old trailer up behind an existing trailer 20 years ago and had no legal address. He got all his mail at his mom’s place. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2016, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-permanently-live-on-land-you-own-and-not-have-an-official-address/774430/49 "2016-12-14T05:19:54Z")
Twenty years ago, a lot of the rural West was like this. Most of the roads had no names. The dwellings had no addresses. Sometimes they got mail at a box on the county road, under the “Rural Route 3, Box 145D” system. Many just had a P.O. Box in town. Drawing maps of these areas was challenging. Property taxes were collected and recorded based on cadastral records, which generally began with the Public Land Survey System, and sometimes proceeded to a subdivision that might have been filed decades ago and mostly forgotten, or to various divisions among heirs of the old ranch. But along came Enhanced 911—with a phone bill tax to pay for giving every resident of the state an address. Each county appointed a Rural Addressing Coordinator, named their roads, and assigned official addresses. They mostly also compiled the GIS records to support this new record-keeping. _Of course,_ you can have a dwelling with no address. But in most counties today, there’s someone whose job is to assign you an address, and there may be a county ordinance requiring you to post the numberplate where it’s visible from a public road. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2016, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-permanently-live-on-land-you-own-and-not-have-an-official-address/774430/50 "2016-12-14T06:23:56Z")
As a point of reference I own a “bush block” in Tasmania in Australia. It has no road, electricity or water connected. It has only a right of way to construct a track to a 4WD only road which connects to a main road. (It was pretty cheap as you might expect). It’s address is of the form “Lot 21 of Plan 15689”, referring to the cadestral plan when the land was subdivided and sold (was crown land before). They also note down the nearest road that the right of way over private property also joins to, but thats about 3km away from the boundary of the land. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2016, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-permanently-live-on-land-you-own-and-not-have-an-official-address/774430/51 "2016-12-14T06:29:58Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > As a point of reference I own a “bush block” in Tasmania in Australia. It has no road, electricity or water connected. It has only a right of way to construct a track to a 4WD only road which connects to a main road. (It was pretty cheap as you might expect). > > It’s address is of the form “Lot 21 of Plan 15689”, referring to the cadestral plan when the land was subdivided and sold (was crown land before) . . . Technically that’s not the address; it’s the “land description”. An address would be a set of direction which would get you (or a letter or package) _to_ the land. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2016, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-permanently-live-on-land-you-own-and-not-have-an-official-address/774430/52 "2016-12-14T06:58:58Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > Technically that’s not the address; it’s the “land description”. An address would be a set of direction which would get you (or a letter or package) _to_ the land. Well according to what I’ve seen the other property owners do in the area, if I needed anything sent there I’d put a mailbox at the end of the public road with my name and the lot number. So the address would be Name, Lot XX, Somestreet, Somewhere, Tasmania, Australia. That would get to me, and I wouldn’t need the plan number as part of the address because that street area would all be part of the same plan. So yeah the bush block technically has an address, even though it has no road, no buildings, no water, no power. Legally it’s got a property ID assigned by the local council which I use when I pay the (very small amount) of land tax on it. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2016, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-permanently-live-on-land-you-own-and-not-have-an-official-address/774430/53 "2016-12-14T07:16:26Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > Well according to what I’ve seen the other property owners do in the area, if I needed anything sent there I’d put a mailbox at the end of the public road with my name and the lot number. > > So the address would be Name, Lot XX, Somestreet, Somewhere, Tasmania, Australia. That would get to me, and I wouldn’t need the plan number as part of the address because that street area would all be part of the same plan. So yeah the bush block technically has an address, even though it has no road, no buildings, no water, no power. Legally it’s got a property ID assigned by the local council which I use when I pay the (very small amount) of land tax on it. Yes. You’ll notice that [street name] is part of the address, even though the property is several kilometres away from that street. That’s because you use [street name] to approach the property, which underlines the point that the address is basically instructions on how to get to the property. The system you describe works well as long as [street name] doesn’t provide access to two different properties which happen to have the same lot number (on two different cadastral plans). At that point (if not before) the Shire will intervene and will start assigning street numbers, usually based on the distance between the start of the street and the point which provides access to each property. So you could end up with an address which takes the form [street number], [street name], [locality] even though your property isn’t on that street or in that locality at all. ---
**Author:** ![Jesta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Jesta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jesta)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2016, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-permanently-live-on-land-you-own-and-not-have-an-official-address/774430/54 "2016-12-14T10:45:56Z")
Seems anything goes here on the map of Tassie! “Generally within Tasmanian Cities, all properties will have an address allocated. Within some of the smaller towns and some rural areas the Local Government authorities have not fully completed the property addressing within these areas. This is gradually being undertaken by Councils but currently it is estimated that outside cities and major towns **approximately 5% of properties containing a residence are yet to be fully addressed**.” > **[LIST\_Address\_Points\_information.pdf](https://listdata.thelist.tas.gov.au/public/LIST_Address_Points_information.pdf)** > > 329.19 KB and from [Ambulance](http://ambulance.tas.gov.au/community_information/help_us_help_you) “Allocation of rural address numbers is based on the distance from the nominated start of the road and is the system used by all of Tasmania’s emergency services to find rural properties.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-permanently-live-on-land-you-own-and-not-have-an-official-address/774430.md?page=2)