How to get address and mail service to undeveloped property?

[olywa1978]

I am new to these forums and am about to head to my new 2.3-acre undeveloped lot in S. Oregon in a couple weeks. It's going to be a rough start, showing up there so late in the year, so much to do before the snow starts falling and it gets cold. It's just my two dogs and I out there and I have a bunch of questions for you guys and I'll do my best to search for prior related threads first. I'll create a new thread for each question to make it easier for future newbies to find specific questions in the search.

First question is, how to I get a numerical address assigned to my undeveloped property and get mail service? Who do I contact and how much do I have to pay for this? I currently have a PO box in Washington and I could get another in Oregon, but I want to cut out as many monthly bills as I can, to lower the level of income needed to get my homestead off the ground. Thanks! Mike

[littlebitfarm]

I went to my post office and asked for an address. Might give it a shot.

[K-9]

I think it varies by area but here, you take your physical address which is assigned by 911 and go to the post office and set that up as your rural route address. One note though, if you are on a dead end they will only deliver so far from the next to last box, so you may have to put your box up the road from where your place is located if you are a good distance from you closest neighbor.

[olywa1978]

Oh ok, so it doesn't sound like too much of a hassle to get this done then. When I get up there (er....DOWN there) I'll contact the local post office and go from there. The dirt road I will be on has another dirt road on one end and a highway on the other, so I figure I'll probably have a mail box grouped with other residents at the highway. Thanks for the tip! Mike

[watcher]

Post office is the place to start. They probably don't assign address but they for sure can tell you who does. But be prepared to wait. It took us about six months to get an address and we liven on a road where there were already several people living.

[FakeMountainMan]

Post office tells us they won't deliver mail to us. Have a PO box in town so I usually only check my mail once or twice a week if I'm nearby.

[oneraddad]

You need a certificate of occupancy to receive mail in my area.

[Wolf mom]

First, please, put your location "Klamath County, Oregon" in the upper right under your join date. You should be tired of typing it by now. Plus there's a lot of information that's location specific and will help the rest of us here in replying to your questions.

Here in AZ all you have to do is call the county, give them some basic information then they'll assign an address. Check with the post office to see if they deliver to your rural location. If not, get a PO Box.

BTW: that'd be a legitimate way to visit your closest neighbor (referring to another of your threads)

The post office doesn't deliver where I live, but there are about 28 mailboxes about a mile away, so if I wanted, that's where I'd have to put mine. I have a PO Box as it's less expensive than having to replace it every summer due to juvenile vandals.

[Forcast]

post office here as well

[Shrek]

Call 1-800-ASK -USPS and explain your question and concerns to the customer center representative . They will either be able to answer them or give you the contact number of the post office servicing the area to which you are moving to tell you how to get an address verification, 911/USPS address assignment and who you must contact.

When I moved here I called them to see what address options my property offered me for my business and they told me my property contained multiple distinct numerical addresses and gave me contact numbers of who to contact to activate the one nearest where my shop building was to be located if I didn't want to use my general property and home address.

[Rick]

911 Center will assign or within reason allow you to pick the address.

Ask the Post Master where a good place for the Mailbox would be, in relation to the others in you area.

I am not sure if you must get permission of the land owner to erect the structure on his road frontage, or whether it is considered a right of way due to the road.

[wyld thang]

look and see if your next neighbors have a mailbox. if not get a po box in town. mail theft is a huge problem when mailboxes are far away from their owners. When I lived in Oregon the nearest place to have a mailbox was two miles away, where I am in WA they are a mile away. PO box both places for me.

Locking mailboxes are no guarantee, some folks have fun with explosives.

All that said, UPS and Fed Ex are really adventurous to where they'll deliver to your door.

You're going to need a physical address anyway for your drivers license, they wont take a po box for residence.

[Vosey]

If you want to fly under the radar for a bit, ie the code enforcement officer, having your rural delivery set up might be a tip off. I don't know for sure, just being paranoid. If your mail is coming from the city of Klamath, they're big enough no one may notice. Might be worth the price of a PO Box.

[copperkid3]

When I wanted to build my dream home and needed a physical address,
it was provided by our electrical power company. They gave me a number
that at first didn't seem to be quite what I thought it should be and so I
tried to get them to change it to something closer to what appeared to be
more realistic. No dice. Received what THEY said it should be.
So I've learned to live with it. Not that hard after all.

However, when I needed power, they dragged their feet for OVER 6 months;
claiming that I would need to place a power pole in a specified area that only
their engineer could/would decide. Couldn't be more than X number of feet from
their nearest transformer. Problem was, he wouldn't take may calls or return them.

Amazing how fast he got back with me when I called the state's Ombudsman to complain.
Less than 20 minutes after getting off the phone with them, the electrical engineer
was calling me and nearly 'begging' to find out what it was that I wanted.
Then he tried to do the old "bait and wait" trick, by suggesting that he
might be able to, somehow manage to get out the following Monday....
but that he couldn't promise anything!!!
I then 'suggested' that he better get his butt in gear and get out to
my place in the next half hour or I'd be re-ringing the Ombudsman,
as I was getting rather tired of waiting for him to even return my calls
for the past 6 months. Somehow....he managed to showed up on time......
but certainly wasn't happy about it. Can you believe it....this was a large 'service'
company and I've been battling them in one way, shape or another, ever since.

No love lost there by me. IF I could afford to go cold-turkey off THEIR grid, I would.
But I can't - so guess it's a hate-hate relationship. Rural electrical co-ops in Oregon
are a different animal, or at least they were when I resided there for 6+ months while
employed with the U.S. Forest Service. Was still receiving dividend checks from the
one that I belonged to, for the next 10 or more years after having left the state!

And their rates were the cheapest in the country at the time!!!

[Echoesechos]

Originally Posted by olywa1978

I am new to these forums and am about to head to my new 2.3-acre undeveloped lot in S. Oregon in a couple weeks. It's going to be a rough start, showing up there so late in the year, so much to do before the snow starts falling and it gets cold. It's just my two dogs and I out there and I have a bunch of questions for you guys and I'll do my best to search for prior related threads first. I'll create a new thread for each question to make it easier for future newbies to find specific questions in the search.

First question is, how to I get a numerical address assigned to my undeveloped property and get mail service? Who do I contact and how much do I have to pay for this? I currently have a PO box in Washington and I could get another in Oregon, but I want to cut out as many monthly bills as I can, to lower the level of income needed to get my homestead off the ground. Thanks! Mike

Undeveloped lots in Klamath County don't get numerical addresses. You use township range section and tax lot information. It will be on your title or tax info. So if you will be developing your lot then go to Community Development and talk to Meryl and get a address number. I don't think he has retired but anyone there can help. Meryl is who I have worked with thru my job.

If you don't have a physical address you get a post office box. Though if you get a address you will have to find out if they deliver or not. Mailboxes are robbed daily though so prepare your mailbox accordingly.

[Echoesechos]

Originally Posted by wyld thang

look and see if your next neighbors have a mailbox. if not get a po box in town. mail theft is a huge problem when mailboxes are far away from their owners. When I lived in Oregon the nearest place to have a mailbox was two miles away, where I am in WA they are a mile away. PO box both places for me.

Locking mailboxes are no guarantee, some folks have fun with explosives.

All that said, UPS and Fed Ex are really adventurous to where they'll deliver to your door.

You're going to need a physical address anyway for your drivers license, they wont take a po box for residence.

If your property is not considered developed in Klamath County you will not get a physical address. UPS or FEDEX Have a hard delivering anything without a address. Where I live in Klamath County, they will drop off at the local post office if you explain you don't have a address but to get that thru is tedious to say the least. I don't believe you can live for long on a vacant piece of property in the county.

[Echoesechos]

Originally Posted by Rick

911 Center will assign or within reason allow you to pick the address.

Ask the Post Master where a good place for the Mailbox would be, in relation to the others in you area.

I am not sure if you must get permission of the land owner to erect the structure on his road frontage, or whether it is considered a right of way due to the road.

Not in Klamath County. It is done thru community development at 305 main st Klamath falls. They in turn provide to emergency services.

[Echoesechos]

Originally Posted by olywa1978

Oh ok, so it doesn't sound like too much of a hassle to get this done then. When I get up there (er....DOWN there) I'll contact the local post office and go from there. The dirt road I will be on has another dirt road on one end and a highway on the other, so I figure I'll probably have a mail box grouped with other residents at the highway. Thanks for the tip! Mike

Either I missed it or.... But is your place developed? What will you living in? You will not be able to have a mailbox without a physical address. I explained how to check into that. If you plan on skirting codes and living in trailer or??? good luck. But you could get a post office but what happens when you need to renew licenses etc and you can't prove you live anywhere? Start by asking your questions at the correct places.

[po boy]

Here I called the local post office and gae them the property ID # and they assigned an address. I also emailed the local county 911 and got them to confirm the address.

[slingshot]

Ours was a phone call...

Once 911 have us the address, I put the box up, by USPS standards. They have instructions. Then I had to fill a new address form out and a week later started getting mail.