Legal requirement: house numbers

[JumboBeef]

Does anyone know if there is a legal requirement to display house numbers or names clearly in the UK? Particular, to be visible from the kerb.

I'm a paramedic and it drives me (and my colleagues) nuts how some properties are all but hidden when you are trying to find them.

I lost several minutes last night responding to a 999 trying to find one property where it, and its neighbours, had no numbers visible from the road. Owners either don't think about it, or don't care, that the emergency services cannot find their property quickly when someone might be dying.

Thanks.

[Ilovejapcrap]

I work for a utility company and have the same issue its a real problem.

The best is house no's yet one owner decides to give house a name instead and will not give the no. So you have to drive up and down like a nutter instead of them just telling you it's really no. 8

[marshalla]

It looks like it might actually be a legal requirement since 1847.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/10-11/34/...
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/10-11/34/...

"64 Houses to be numbered and streets named.

The commissioners shall from time to time cause the houses and buildings in all or any of the streets to be marked with numbers as they think fit, and shall cause to be put up or painted on a conspicuous part of some house, building, or place, at or near each end, corner, or entrance of every such street, the name by which such street is to be known; and every person who destroys, pulls down, or defaces any such number or name, or puts up any number or name different from the number or name put up by the commissioners, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding [F1[F2£25]][F1level 1 on the standard scale] for every such offence.

65 Numbers of houses to be renewed by occupiers.

The occupiers of houses and other buildings in the streets shall mark their houses with such numbers as the commissioners approve of, and shall renew such numbers as often as they become obliterated or defaced; and every such occupier who fails, within one week after notice for that purpose from the commissioners, to mark his house with a number approved of by the commissioners, or to renew such number when obliterated, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding [F1[F2£20]][F1level 1 on the standard scale], and the commissioners shall cause such numbers to be marked or to be renewed, as the case may require, and the expence thereof shall be repaid to them by such occupier, and shall be recoverable as damages."


And it's also a legal requirement for street names to be displayed :
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo5/15-16/71/...

"19 Indication of name of street.

(1)The urban authority shall cause the name of every street to be painted, or otherwise marked, in a conspicuous position on any house, building or erection in or near the street, and shall from time to time alter or renew such inscription of the name of any street, if and when the name of the street is altered or the inscription becomes illegible.

(2)If any person . . . F4, pulls down . . . F4 any inscription of the name of a street which has lawfully been set up, or sets up in any street any name different from the name lawfully given to the street, or places or affixes any notice or advertisement within twelve inches of any name of a street marked on a house, building, or erection in pursuance of this section, he shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding [F5level 1 on the standard scale] and to a daily penalty not exceeding [F6£1]."

Edited by marshalla on Tuesday 17th May 17:48

[Beetnik]

Where are the Commissioners when you need them?

[TooMany2cvs]

JumboBeef said:

Does anyone know if there is a legal requirement to display house numbers or names clearly in the UK? Particular, to be visible from the kerb.

I'm a paramedic and it drives me (and my colleagues) nuts how some properties are all but hidden when you are trying to find them.

I lost several minutes last night responding to a 999 trying to find one property where it, and its neighbours, had no numbers visible from the road. Owners either don't think about it, or don't care, that the emergency services cannot find their property quickly when someone might be dying.

Even if there is a house name/number visible, does that always help?

999 was called about a neighbour, a few months back. The first response paramedic headed to the postcode - then got a bit stuck. Our house was the second he tried, asking where the house in question was. It does have a clear sign outside.

Our official address is house name, village name, village-next-door name. No road name. Our village spreads about two miles in each direction from the centre. Next door to us are <very similar house name - we're cottage, they're farm>, village-next-door name. They share our postcode.

[marshalla]

Beetnik said:

Where are the Commissioners when you need them?

A bar or restaurant somewhere in Brussels if the inhabitants of NP&E are to be believed

[karona]

I used to deliver parcels
( but I'm cured now )
The number of properties that were described as, for example, "Forthview Terrace" when their actual address was "High Street", or "On the corner of Maple Terrace" but the postcode says "Bogs View", or the address is "Thistle Cottage, Littlevillage" without a street name or door number, and the whole fking village has the same postcode, but it's always the driver's fault the delivery's late.

[surveyor]

The one and only time we had to call 999 we lived in a house set back behind another house with only a smallish sign on the narrow driveway. Ambulance service seemed to do just fine with wooden gates opposite the pub garden.

[p1esk]

karona said:

I used to deliver parcels
( but I'm cured now )
The number of properties that were described as, for example, "Forthview Terrace" when their actual address was "High Street", or "On the corner of Maple Terrace" but the postcode says "Bogs View", or the address is "Thistle Cottage, Littlevillage" without a street name or door number, and the whole fking village has the same postcode, but it's always the driver's fault the delivery's late.

Yes, I can see that's a real PITA to delivery drivers, but some very small communities with only a few randomly placed properties really don't lend themselves to a coherent numbering system.

[battered]

No. My folks moved into a newbuild house in 1979 that never had a number. Nor did the others. The house was known by their name and the road name. Ambulance drivers were met on the road on the few occasions they could find the village.

[Doofus]

I expect the law has been relaxed, since most people paint their house number in massive characters on their wheelie bin, and leave that in the front garden.

Maybe the emergency dispatchers could tell the caller to put the patient in the dustbin and leave them by the kerb.

[Defcon5]

You control room should have mapping software, couldn't you ask them to guide you in?

[Tomo1971]

There used to be a door number on a house in Newcastle under Lyme that was on the garage door that was approx three foot high. Definitely not easy to miss.

[anonymous-user]

Ilovejapcrap said:

The best is house no's yet one owner decides to give house a name instead and will not give the no. So you have to drive up and down like a nutter instead of them just telling you it's really no. 8

Removing the number from your house and giving it a name instead, is the preserve of utter fking bd st-faced s.

My dad owned a business that had some delivery vehicles, and I used to work for him occational weekends. Delivery driving is hard enough without some pathetic tosspot suddenly getting ideas above their station, and thinking that having a house with a number is below them, and giving it a stupid name.

I've had many, many daft women absolutely refusing to give me a number claiming '"it doesn't have one" when it clearly used to, and then you are left trying to find a house with a name on a housing estate of 200 houses.

On several occasions I've just given up and phoned the customer telling them to come to the shop and pick their own stuff up.

[Doofus]

Defcon5 said:

You control room should have mapping software, couldn't you ask them to guide you in?

I know, from personal experience after a break-in at a commercial unit, that the mapping software isn't entirely accurate.

[anonymous-user]

battered said:

No. My folks moved into a newbuild house in 1979 that never had a number. Nor did the others. The house was known by their name and the road name. Ambulance drivers were met on the road on the few occasions they could find the village.

I think you've misread the OP. He asked if it is legal to show your numbers or name depending on which you have as a postal address iyswim!

[anonymous-user]

I live in a village in rural East Herts with a population of about 3000 where a very large proportion of the houses only have names, without a number. It's a very old village and many of the houses pre-date any legislation I guess. We live on the high street, and it's quite a long high street - and we have no number. Thinking about it, I don't know of any other high street properties that have numbers either (including some recent/new-builds).

Not sure what that adds - but clearly any legislation is not retrospective..?

[battered]

garyhun said:

battered said:

No. My folks moved into a newbuild house in 1979 that never had a number. Nor did the others. The house was known by their name and the road name. Ambulance drivers were met on the road on the few occasions they could find the village.

I think you've misread the OP. He asked if it is legal to show your numbers or name depending on which you have as a postal address iyswim!

No misread. I do swym. Still no.

[Derek Smith]

My previous house had a name and no number. The other eight houses in the road (nine really but I'll come back to that) were all named apart from one which had the number 2. Also in the road was a house which was on the corner. The front entrance and longest side was in our road, but its address was the other road.

My 2-year-old stopped breathing one night for over two minutes and I called the ambulance. That was when I regretted having a house name.

Great performance from the lads who turned up. Thanks, guys.

[PorkInsider]

NinjaPower said:

Removing the number from your house and giving it a name instead, is the preserve of utter fking bd st-faced s.

My dad owned a business that had some delivery vehicles, and I used to work for him occational weekends. Delivery driving is hard enough without some pathetic tosspot suddenly getting ideas above their station, and thinking that having a house with a number is below them, and giving it a stupid name.

I've had many, many daft women absolutely refusing to give me a number claiming '"it doesn't have one" when it clearly used to, and then you are left trying to find a house with a name on a housing estate of 200 houses.

On several occasions I've just given up and phoned the customer telling them to come to the shop and pick their own stuff up.

You do realise that not all houses start life with a number?

I've just moved to a road where the houses don't have numbers. If I put my postcode into an online insurance quote form, for example, there is just a list of house names to choose from.

I would MUCH rather have a number but other than making one up there's not much I can do. And given that this is a country lane with a few houses, then fields, then a couple more houses then a field, and so on, a lone number would be as useless as a name in terms of helping anyone locate me.