Is there a way to simply not accept certified mail?
Yes. I sent something via certified mail to my former landlord and it was returned to me, delivery refused.
However, you must be carfull. I lived in an apartment house that was going to be torn down, and the owner notified the tennents by registered letter, as is the law. Some of the tennents refused dilevery because they thought that it would be
they werent notivied. They received a regular letter which said the the law only said that they had to SEND the registered letter, and even if the letter was regected, the law was satisfied
Spelling and grammer subject to change without notice.
You most certainly may refuse delivery of any class of mail. A Certified letter requires a signature to complete delivery. If you receive a notice in your mailbox, simply ignore it. You will recieve a second notice. Ignore that also. Eventually, after 15 days, the Post Office will return the letter to the sender endorsed “unclaimed”. If you are home and answer the door when the letter carrier makes the first delivery attempt, simply tell the carrier that you refuse the item. It will be returned to the sender endorsed “refused”.
Of course, as Kegg points out, this does not necessarily mean you are off the hook for whatever legal issues may have prompted the Certified letter in the first place.
To say pretty much the same thing as the other posters, declining or ignoring a certified letter really is the same as accepting it. The only difference is you don’t know what it says. When someone bounces a check at the place where I work, we have to send a letter to them by certified mail. I actually like it when the decline it. When it’s declined, as soon as I get the signature card back, I can proceed to the next step, taking it to the police. If it’s signed I have to wait five days from the date it was signed. If it’s ignored, it takes about a month to get back to me, but I can proceed as soon as I get it back.
Oh and one more reason it’s a bad idea not to accept it is…If for some reason you were to end up court and it had something to do with the letter (ie it was a letter letting you know about a bounced check, or a change in rules from your landlord) and you claim that you were never notified, the plaintiff can hand the judge the UNOPENED letter that clearly states the you refused delivery or that you were notified but never picked it up. The judge then can open it and right there it proves that they attempted to notify you, but you refused it.
Hm. One of my scenarios bites the dust, and given how nasty the people in my scenarios act, I’m glad.
How about just accepting it but sign the receipt with a bogus name?
(This may very from case to case, but when we send a letter to someone who bounced a check…) It doesn’t matter WHO signs the receipt, as long as someone at the address does.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not advising anyone to do this. I’m just wondering how it would/could play out.
A friend of mine had his failure to appear charges dropped because he was notified by registered mail during a separation from his now ex. While he was staying at my house, his ex’s then boyfriend accepted a certified letter for him and then “forgot” to give it to him.
The judge was pretty cool about it and let him off on the extra bullshit caused by the a**hole boyfriend.
I wouldn’t guarantee this but the Post Office has been in business for a long time and I suspect they won’t give you mail that has to be signed for without identification.
Your example is an entirely different set of circumstances.
I suppose that if someone signs other than the person to which it was sent - all you have is proof that the letter was delivered to the address. If you want delivery “restricted” to a certain person at the address than you have to pay an additional fee and mark the Return Receipt “Restricted Delivery” at item 4 on the return receipt card. Delivery will then be restricted to the addresee.
I wish the USPS were this diligent. I used to have to send out certified letters fairly regularly. There’s a green card with the adressee’s signature that should be returned to the sender. There’s an option (at an extra charge) that the sender can check for addressee only delivery. I paid for this option.
At that time (and I doubt it’s changed), about 25% came back with someone else’s signature, 25% came back refused/failed to pick up/can’t find, and 25% never came back at all. The remaining 25% came back with the required signature.
By my count, that’s a USPS screw-up rate of better than 50%. (I’m confident that many of the 25% that came back undelivered were because the mail carrier couldn’t be bothered to get a signature.)
I’m in Chicago, which has some notoriously bad post office branches. It’s possible that I would have had a better success rate elsewhere.
Actually, I forgot another frequent result. I’d sometimes get the green card back (indicating delivery) with no signature at all on the card.
So what do you suggest, that the government start firing employees for poor performance? LOL!!
When I reject certified mail, I like to tell it that even though it’s very attractive and witty and charming, I’m just not feeling any romantic sparks.
here’s the question: if someone is trying to send you a certified letter, why wouldn’t you want to know what it says? if someone is trying to sue you/arrest you/attach your property etc., rejecting their letter won’t stop them and will probably make them and the authorities mad. as noted above, in many circumstances they can proceed whether you sign or not. in some circumstances the next step would be to hire a process server to track you down and throw papers at you at your job, your school or your house in front of your neighbors. a judge might be able to issue a bench warrant and send the sheriffs out to pick you up wherever they find you. (some judges have ordered the arrest of citizens who simply ignored a jury summons.) how are you worse off for reading the letter?
Would Viagra help? =)
Certified males wouldn’t think of it -
I signed for a letter for my wife last week. I’ve also signed for my neighbors on several occasions. Then again, I live on a rural route and we all know each other and the mail lady as well.
Reminds me of that cheers episode where Cliff is in a video shown delivering mail and the tenants come out and swap the letters because “genius” is always wrong. That’s how it was when our new post-person? started a few years ago. She’d drop off the mail and when we’d all get home in the evening we’d start walking the road bringing each other our correct mail.
But what do ya want for a couple of quarters? 
Actually, I rarely mail anything these days. I get a lot of mail but most of that’s either bills or junk.
How would anyone know they delivered it? In the past six months I’ve gotten three items not delivered. The post office left me a note. I went to pick it up. They never found the item. Another time they delivered something and instead of leaving a note they threw it on the floor. I was lucky to get it there are 40 other apts in my building. Another time I ordered from eBay the person said it was returned to her. I NEVER got any notice. How is the post office going to prove the sent it?
THe other day I was in the bathroom, my buzzer rang. I didn’t answer it. Someone must’ve buzzed him in. Cause shoved under the door was a FedEx. I looked up the tracking number. It says I signed for it at such and such time. I NEVER signed for it.
I live in Chicago. We have hundreds of cases of undelivered mail. In fact we recently got a letter from the post office saying if you were delieverd mail please come down to the office and return it. COME TO THE OFFICE???
I think you could make a good case if you ignored it by saying you never got a note. There is no proof they did what they claimed. Especially in apartments.