I am a tenant in a condo apartment complex where most units are owned by investors who rent out the units they own. Residents’ mail is delivered to individual locked mailboxes that are part of a large bank of wall-mounted mail boxes. After living here for about one year, I walked down to the bank of mail boxes one evening after work to find that the lock had been broken and the mail box “door” was wide open. I contacted my landlord, who sent out a maintenance person to put a new lock on the box. The new lock was always difficult to open, but “difficult” has progressed over the past three years to “nearly impossible”. I contacted the post office serving my zip code, asking them to replace the lock. They told me it was the responsibility of the landlord to replace the lock. The landlord claims it is the responsibility of our condominium association’s property management company to replace the lock. The condo association’s property management company has repeatedly ignored my requests to provide a new lock. When I attempted to collect the mail that was delivered into my box two days ago, I was unable to get the mail box open. I once again requested the condo association’s property management company please repair or replace the lock and once again my request was ignored. Today when I made another attempt to access my mail, one of my two mailbox keys broke, leaving just the tip of the key in the lock. I pulled out the tip with a pair of needle nose plyers and used the second key to (successfully) open the box. However, the second key broke when I tried to pull it out of the lock. I now have no whole key to my mail box.
Is it a federal offense to deny a person access to the mail box into which their mail has been delivered for the past four years? I would like to threaten the condo association’s property management company with legal action, but want to make sure my threats are based on existing laws.
I’d contact a lawyer and have them send a friendly reminder to property management (assuming the lawyer determines it’s their responsibility…bring a copy of your lease.)
It seems like there must be some sort of contract in place charging property management with the maintenance of the mailboxes.
My USPS letter carrier husband says that you could call your local post office and ask if that’s a legal issue they would get involved in. (Ask to talk to a supervisor.) Alternately I think you could find a 1-800 number on their website that might give useful info.
MrWhatsit is also a letter carrier for the USPS, although he would like me to preface this post by saying that he is not an expert, does not have any direct experience with this sort of thing, etc. and so forth.
So anyway, he says that in his opinion, maybe the first thing to do might be to complain to the condo association about how crappy their property management company is and how this is not an appropriate level of service from them.
You can also try contacting your local post office, informing them that your mailbox is not secure/cannot be accessed, and request that they hold the mail there for you so that you can come and pick it up in person. (This is NOT a post office box.) When you make this request, you can also ask them if there is any action they can take to help you resolve the problem and get an accessible mailbox again.
Even if this is true, isn’t it the landlord’s job (not the tenant’s) to ensure that the condo association actually fixes the lock? As the owner, the landlord is the person’s who is actually a member of the association, isn’t he?
If something goes wrong with the property you rent–and it seems to me that access to the mailbox is part of what you’re renting when you sign the lease–then surely the landlord is the person who needs to deal with the issue?
Late last year and early this year I began to have problems with the lock on my mailbox. I live in a garden-style apartment building (i.e., twelve apartments, although one is used as a laundry room and one is used as a storage space at the moment). What was happening was that the set of twelve mailboxes were in bad shape and too small. My box was often completely full, so it would pop open on its own without having to be opened by my key. Over a period of about three months I had the apartment management replace the lock three times, but it still wasn’t working well.
I complained to the apartment management that they needed to replace the entire set of boxes, but they did nothing. I told our local mail deliverer about this. Within a few days, someone from the local post office pulled out the entire set of mailboxes for our apartment building, laid them on the floor, and began holding our mail at the local post office. They called our apartment management and told them that they must immediately purchase a new set of boxes, since the old set was defective. A few days later they put in the new set. The new boxes are larger than the old ones.
I don’t know…who’s property is the actual mailbox?
I don’t think it would be unreasonable to go down there with a drill to open the thing up so the guy can access his mail. The lock is broken. Drilling it out isn’t going to make it any more broken than it already is.
OP should contact the postmaster, or someone with authority at the post office who can tell him where the responsibility lies. The postmaster will also know what is legal or not under the federal law that governs mailboxes.
In my opinion (read: I do not have any legal authority; IANAL), as others have mentioned, it is the responsibility of the condo association and the landlord should be your advocate. But, they both seem to be ignoring their responsibility leaving you caught in the middle. The Postmaster (of the local Post Office) could step in, but does not have the legal requirement to do so as the box is not an official USPS box. (Or it might be. The advice of others about contacting the Postmaster is good advice.)
What you should do is to send a certified letter to the condo association stating that they need to repair the lock and give a deadline of two weeks out. Keep a copy of the letter for your record. State in it that if they do not repair the lock satisfactorily, you will have it done and deduct the cost from your association dues. Then follow through.
Of course, this will likely piss off the board of the condo association, and you need to figure out if this is worth it to you, or if you would rather just pay to have it fixed yourself. But, whatever you do, make sure you attend the next meeting and point out to all attendees the problem you have been having and the necessity for you to do what you are doing (getting it fixed yourself and deducting the cost). If the condo association can’t handle a simple thing like a letter box lock, what else aren’t they doing?
This plan will be more difficult if your dues are automatically deducted. Plus, they could make it difficult for you if they choose to by claiming that you have failed to fully pay your fees. Prepare yourself for this by taking photos, note who you talked to and when, and keep copies of correspondence. These things can easily turn into nasty fights and it is best to be prepared if it ever needs to be presented to a judge. (Yes, condo problems can get to this quite easily. Decide again if you just don’t want to pay to have it repaired yourself. Check with a local locksmith about the price, and if they are willing to bypass the landlord.)
Nonsense!
It’s his mailbox, which he is paying rent for, containing his mail. And the lock is broken, so it can’t be opened, and it destroys any key used to open it. It’s going to have to be broken open or drilled out by a locksmith or somehow opened anyway.
And how can you criminally damage something that is already damaged so much that it doesn’t work?