Mailbox Move (Demolished Property)?

Question

I live in a residential neighborhood where mail delivery is all one side. The other side of the block is a school that has been torn down and is a neighborhood park now. The mailbox belonging to the former school sits on my property at the edge. I'm getting ready to do some lanscaping. Now that the school is gone, can I take down the mailbox? Or do I need to get the Post Office to do it for me? I know tampering with mail is an offense in the USA and don't want to inadvertantly break the law.

Answer 1

If it was me. I would contact the Post Office. That way it also gets the address off their books and if you had removed the mailbox without consent, you might start to get the mail from that old mailbox when you have a substitute mail carrier. Or some idiot might report it as stolen.

Answer 2

Tampering with mail is a Federal crime, but not moving a mailbox. The problem exists with the mail route, and not the mailbox itself. If you move the mailbox so the postal carrier loses track of it, then it becomes a problem.



If you want to remove the mailbox totally, go through the post office. They probably have a procedure to decommission the address. Then the mailbox becomes dead. If you are just moving it while you do your work, and then put it back, it seems reasonable to complete your work, on your private property.



This is someone elses mailbox, not yours, so you would be in fact tampering with mail, if you removed the mailbox totally.

Answer 3

The mailbox belongs to the property owner, not the Postal Service.



Legally you should contact the jurisdiction that owned the school (city hall, if it was a local school) and get WRITTEN permission.



In reality, if you took it down and nobody knew (even if they did know, probably), it's doubtful that anybody would raise a stink, but you'd be taking a little bit of a chance.