Legal requirement: house numbers
Discussion
I'm not sure if it is all of Horsell or just part of Horsell (Horsell is a part of Woking) but in that area no house (and I mean not one solitary, single house) has a number. I have friends there, and it is an absolute ball-ache to find their house. First time I went there, I had to kerb crawl around the area until I found it. Now I know vaguely where it is I only have to kerb crawl for a hundred yards or so.
The local post office keeps a map of what-house-is-where, but every now and then some local residents club together to try and get all the houses numbered for convenience's sake, then some idiot blocks it because they want to live somewhere that's a bit different.
So, no. There is no universally-enforced requirement that houses have numbers. Otherwise Woking could not exist.
Bloody stupid though.
The local post office keeps a map of what-house-is-where, but every now and then some local residents club together to try and get all the houses numbered for convenience's sake, then some idiot blocks it because they want to live somewhere that's a bit different.
So, no. There is no universally-enforced requirement that houses have numbers. Otherwise Woking could not exist.
Bloody stupid though.
Ilovejapcrap said:
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
A mate of mine also used to work for a utility company and this would really piss him off.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
Folk - getting ideas above their station - would refuse to use the number and gave their house a really w
ky name. The home owner somehow thought they were climbing the class ladder by doing this. Maybe similar to having a 'private' plate on your car?"Is this number 8 Main Street?"
"No its called The Cottage, SeaView"
"Well thats *pointing* number 6 and thats *pointing* number 10 so this must be 8?"
"We don't use numbers about here"
"But it's number 8 isn't it?"
"Well yes, but we don't use that"
If you think that delivering into a village where no houses on the road have numbers then try delivering into the average council estate which has randomly numbered blocks of flats laid out in an illogical manner across the estate, and where even the flats don't have their number displayed, if ever a delivery driver considered throwing in the rope then this is it. Even the poor postie is sometimes clueless!
TooMany2cvs said:
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.
Your official address is highly likely to have a house number, you just may not be aware of itcatso said:
The village I live in has no house numbers, only names, also whilst there are only 3 roads, none of them have signs stating the name, there isn't even a village name sign.
It can be tricky when a 'first-timer' delivery company is calling...
Sounds like you might live near me - although we run to a village name sign.It can be tricky when a 'first-timer' delivery company is calling...
Since I work at home most of the time, I've taken to printing off a couple of the maps from this site : http://www.colinday.co.uk/maps/ to give to delivery drivers who are lost.
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.
Thanks.
What Trust do you work for, is it SWAST?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.
Our Terrafix puts a plotting pin directly over the outline of the property on the screen, so even if you can't see house numbers, it's normally pretty easy to work out which house it is.....dunno what your system looks like.
I do agree though, it would obviously be easier if people thought of that. It's interesting to note that when I visit patients with recurring chronic problems, many of them have put huge numbers in a very visible location, both front and back!
blueg33 said:
TooMany2cvs said:
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.
Your official address is highly likely to have a house number, you just may not be aware of itThere are only three sets of properties in the village which do have numbers. There's 1 and 2 Council Houses; 1, 2 and 3 Agricultural Cottages; and about half-a-dozen numbered in a small HA development. The HA development, and a few other modern houses down that little lane, are also the only addresses in the village with a road name.
My house is in a small village in France. Up until a year ago, my address was "Doofus, The Village, 12345, France"
Last spring, the Commune decided to number the houses, so my address became "Doofus, 11 The Village, 12345, Frsnce"
Late late wek, I needed a service engineer for something, and the lady on the phone asked "Does your house have any distinguishing features?", so I described one of the cars which would be parked outside, and isn't exacltly ten-a-penny.
When the engineer came out, the address he had was complete, but he still had to go to the local Mairie, and ask them where the village actually was.
Last spring, the Commune decided to number the houses, so my address became "Doofus, 11 The Village, 12345, Frsnce"
Late late wek, I needed a service engineer for something, and the lady on the phone asked "Does your house have any distinguishing features?", so I described one of the cars which would be parked outside, and isn't exacltly ten-a-penny.
When the engineer came out, the address he had was complete, but he still had to go to the local Mairie, and ask them where the village actually was.
blueg33 said:
Your official address is highly likely to have a house number, you just may not be aware of it
How would one go about finding the number?Everything I have for this house just has the name stated, including the council tax bill and all the paperwork from the solicitor regarding the purchase.
I've also just changed my address with the DVLA online and their address search, via postcode entry, brought up nothing but house names to choose from.
Oddly enough, my house has both - our address reads "<House Name>, <House No.> <Road Name> etc etc. For some reason the previous owners (the ones who also stripped a lot of character from the place 
) removed the number from the door. I didn't think much of it when we first moved in, but after the third delivery ended up at the wrong house I swiftly reinstated the number on the door.
I quite like having the house name, it's part of the history of the building (it's part of an early Victorian school building, the house is named after one of the proprietors I believe). But if I'm giving my address for visitors or deliveries I'll always use just the house number.
I sympathise with some of the previous posters as well - a couple of years as a supermarket delivery driver in the wilds of Kent (back when satnavs weren't nearly as good as they are now) made me appreciate clearly-marked houses. I also appreciated when residents of difficult-to-find houses (of which there are plenty, irrespective of naming convention) bother to fill out the 'additional info' box to help find the place!
) removed the number from the door. I didn't think much of it when we first moved in, but after the third delivery ended up at the wrong house I swiftly reinstated the number on the door.I quite like having the house name, it's part of the history of the building (it's part of an early Victorian school building, the house is named after one of the proprietors I believe). But if I'm giving my address for visitors or deliveries I'll always use just the house number.
I sympathise with some of the previous posters as well - a couple of years as a supermarket delivery driver in the wilds of Kent (back when satnavs weren't nearly as good as they are now) made me appreciate clearly-marked houses. I also appreciated when residents of difficult-to-find houses (of which there are plenty, irrespective of naming convention) bother to fill out the 'additional info' box to help find the place!
TooMany2cvs said:
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.
Same with ours. If you put our postcode into the Royal Mail website, there are 15 properties, none of which have a road name or house number.It causes lots of issues with deliveries because sat navs usually direct drivers to the houses on the other side of the valley. The one time an ambulance was needed, I think they found us without too many problems but I was unconscious at the time, so I can't be sure!
Edited by moorx on Tuesday 17th May 23:56
Edited by moorx on Tuesday 17th May 23:59
Another one here who lives in a small village where the houses are mostly very old and not a single house in our postcode has a number. Our house is [village name] House, High Street, Village. The problem is, we also have [village name] Grange and [village name] Manor both of which are also on High Street, and the three houses are all about the same size. Most of the delivery companies now know the houses but it still confuses people, even our postie occasionally puts the wrong letter through the letterbox. I do feel sorry for anyone who's looking for a house for the first time though. When I'm working from home, I occasionally spot someone who's obviously having difficulty locating the correct house and I almost always go out and try to help. Our house and pretty much all the houses in the village do have the house names clearly visible but that doesn't always help!
PorkInsider said:
blueg33 said:
Your official address is highly likely to have a house number, you just may not be aware of it
How would one go about finding the number?Everything I have for this house just has the name stated, including the council tax bill and all the paperwork from the solicitor regarding the purchase.
I've also just changed my address with the DVLA online and their address search, via postcode entry, brought up nothing but house names to choose from.
All new properties definitely have a number, we have tried several times to give one off luxury houses names, and they are always allocated a number, but the name can be used, it just doesn't supercede a number
PorkInsider said:
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.
Same here, hardly any houses on the road have numbers and they predate that newfangled number stuff so numbering mine would be pointless, it is a pita getting taxis and deliveries and usually end up standing in the street guiding them in like a lollipop man on an aircraft carrier :-/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.
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