We live in one of those developments where all the houses have their mail delivered to a set of boxes down the street. Well of course we had one key, and no matter how often I told myslef to get it duplicated I never did. Of course, now it is lost? Do I contact the post office or just call alocksmith or what?
These are called cluster mailboxes or neighborhood delivery and collection box units (NDCBU).
If you are the property owner then the mailbox is probably owned by you and you will need to call a locksmith to have it drilled out and a new lock installed. However according to this FAQ there may be instances where the USPS owns and maintains cluster boxes:
You could probably call a locksmith, not sure if they would be able to help or not. You can also contact post office and they can probably answer your question better, tell you what can be done.
Contact the post office first. They often will change out the lock and for a lot less than a locksmith will charge. We’ve had to do this because our tenant took off with the keys (and changed the lock on the doors, as well!!!) Locksmith drilled the doors, but the post office fixed the mailbox.
In my case, when I needed a key for a business mail box set I contacted the carrier and he gave me a key.
Any respectable locksmith, such as myself, will pick/impression it and create a key from the pins/wafes inside. The purpose of this is two fold: a) they’re not destroying government property and b) in the even that the postmaster has a key, we’re not locking him out by just drilling the lock and ruining any sort of clue as to what key worked there originally.
You can call a locksmith and they’ll do it for you. However, make sure to tell them it’s for a mailbox on the phone. A lot of us don’t mess with mailboxes for liability purposes. Also, be prepared to show proof that it is in fact your mailbox.
I would call the post office first. they often are responsible for the lock. They also have the key that opens the back of the entire box, which allows for easy lock changing.
I just moved into a house that has a community mailbox. The landlord has somehow lost the key to the mailbox. The local post office wants $75 to replace the key. My landlord says he will find the key. Today was day 3 with no mail.
Not precisely the same issue, but when our condo complex replaced the mailbox cluster last week, we had to go to the post office to pick up our new keys. So obviously the P.O. has a great deal of say about those keys.
Ed
We have the same kind of mail delivery. You need to call the post office because they are “Property of the US Post Office” When my son lost the only key we had left to our box , the Post office charged us $15.00 for a new lock and 2 keys.
Well I called the post office and they said they do it every Tuesday for $30, so I arranged to have that done. Of course, as soon as I got home that evening we found the key.
Rental property manager here. We got three sets of keys from our local post office. We keep one on the hook and one goes to the tenant. If the tenant loses theirs, we have a locksmith who will duplicate our copy. We charge $50 for duplicate keys. If any tenant loses our key, it’s $100.
The third set of keys stays locked up in my Boss’s private bathroom.