Apartment Blocks

[Punk]

Can anyone tell me the correct procedure for delivering packets and signed for items to apartment blocks with the letter boxes outside of the building? Some say your meant to gain access and take the item to where the actual apartment is inside the building, while others say you should not enter the building and the recipient must collect from the door as you are not insured to be inside as the delivery points are outside. Asked Dom today and he was very non committal. Cheers.

[indio]

Can anyone tell me the correct procedure for delivering packets and signed for items to apartment blocks with the letter boxes outside of the building

If the letter boxes are outside then that's the delivery point and residents need to come out to you. If the boxes are inside on the doors then you need to go in and deliver.
Simple.

BTW don't let residents bully you into going in if the boxes are outside!.

[RobertT]

I deliver to a couple of places where the letterboxes are in the communal hallway. None of the downstairs flats have numbers on their doors(don't know about upstairs as I've never been up), so unless they answer their buzzer and come down and collect, parcels get notified.

[Punk]

As I suspected then, they come down and collect. I won't be getting bullied into going up neither, just my luck to break me ankle on the stairs and end up getting conducted for it. Most of them come down anyways, it's just a few that buzz you in expecting it to be taken to the door. Thanks for clearing it up.

[chrisj]

The same with some offices where the receptionists or workers cannot be bothered to come downstairs to sign for items or collect parcels.

I tend not to go up the stairs - absolutely will not with an LWT but even a pouch up and down is not ideal when they could easily come down. However, you tend to get 'but the other postmen come up'...

I tend to just wait until they come down or just buzz them again and start to write a card. Although, I have gone up on the exceptional cases where customer says, I have a baby or an injury or is/are elderly.

* The one that annoys the most is a woman telling me that she was not dressed - What! (then put a coat on and come and get your item)

[fishtank]

Delivering Mail to Multi-Occupied Addresses

If you live or occupy business premises in a location where our delivery staff only have access to a single point where they deliver mail for multiple residences or premises within that location, this is considered to be a multi-occupied address.

Where delivery arrangements already exist where a facility is provided such as a central point for the delivery of mail or the provision of external lockable letter boxes at a building/site, these will be deemed as the delivery point for the individual addresses. In such circumstances, Royal Mail will not perform deliveries to individual residences or business premises, if requested by individual customers, even if the delivery standard criteria below are met.

Residential Locations

Where separate facilities are provided for each residence, we will only deliver mail directly to your residence or to a centrally located box corresponding to your residence, provided all of the following conditions are met:

Your residence is a self-contained property and is separately and individually rated by the local authority for council tax purposes.
Your residence can be clearly identified (with a number, letter or name) and has its own letterbox (or a secure lockable receptacle that clearly corresponds to the residence)
Our delivery staff can gain safe and easy access to perform delivery to your residence.
The residence is a permanent structure
Should any of the conditions above not be met then we are not obliged to deliver mail directly to your residence. Instead, we will deliver your mail to a suitable central reception point or letterbox for your location, together with other mail for this location.

Changes to Delivery Arrangements

Any requests to change current delivery arrangements for any multi-occupied location will be dealt with on the following basis:

Any review of the delivery arrangements for the location must include all the residences/business premises.
Any such requests must come from the building or site owner (or similar) who commits to ensuring that delivery arrangements are similar (where appropriate) for all residences or business at the location.
If a communal delivery point is provided and an occupant of an address contained within a multi-occupied location requests a delivery to their individual address, we are not obliged to provide this.
Where a facility is provided, such as the provision of external lockable letter boxes in a block of flats, these will be deemed to be the delivery point for individual addresses within a multi-occupied location. In such circumstances, we will not perform deliveries to individual front doors, if requested by or on behalf of individual customers, even if all the conditions outlined above are met.

[OnAFlyer]

We've had loads of arguments with residents of blocks of flats we deliver to. Some don't even answer the intercom, just buzz you in and cut off (boxes are in the hallway). Anyone that won't come downstairs gets a 739 left, one woman was shouting out of the window as I walked out of the block - I asked her if she was coming down and she said no, so I got in the van and drove off

I find buzzing them and saying 'I've got a parcel for you, can you come down please' usually works and once they know to come down most people will always do it.

[Punk]

I wouldn't begrudge taking something up to an elderly or disabled person but I certainly ain't for someone whose just to effin idle to come down and collect s**t they've ordered.