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.

[JumboBeef]

garyhun said:

I must be the only one who misread the OP.

I thought he was asking if it was a legal requirement to show your number if you have a number OR to show your house name if you only have a name.

Thanks for the replies.

Mainly it was that houses should show what they are known as, number or name, clearly and can be seen from the road.

As already said, emergency services have good Sat navs but this still doesn't help if you have lots of properties all together without any fecking numbers or names on show.

[JumboBeef]

Thanks for the interesting replies.

The thing is, I don't care if you live at number 7, number 221B or at Pampas Grass Manor, as long as you have a sign which clearly shows it and which can be seen from the road.

Is that too difficult?

[JumboBeef]

Red Devil said:

The house I lived in during my childhood is a mile from the nearest village and four miles from the post town. It dates from the reign of Elizabeth I and has never had a number. Not at the Land Registry, on RM's database, or in any local authority record. When we lived there a nameplate was totally unnecessary. Everybody in the surrounding area who needed to knew where to find it.

So, if your sister/mother/whoever went into cardiac arrest at 4 in the morning and you were being talked through CPR on the phone by the 999 call handler, would you still think a nameplate would be 'totally unnecessary' if I or my colleagues were outside with skills, drugs and equipment to help.......but we can't find your fecking house because it isn't displaying a name?

This is a scenario I and others have played out many times, sometimes loosing many minutes which will in certain cases mean the difference between living or dying.

Please make sure your house has its number or name on display and can be seen from the road.

[JumboBeef]

Red Devil said:

JumboBeef said:

Red Devil said:

The house I lived in during my childhood is a mile from the nearest village and four miles from the post town. It dates from the reign of Elizabeth I and has never had a number. Not at the Land Registry, on RM's database, or in any local authority record. When we lived there a nameplate was totally unnecessary. Everybody in the surrounding area who needed to knew where to find it.

So, if your sister/mother/whoever went into cardiac arrest at 4 in the morning and you were being talked through CPR on the phone by the 999 call handler, would you still think a nameplate would be 'totally unnecessary' if I or my colleagues were outside with skills, drugs and equipment to help.......but we can't find your fecking house because it isn't displaying a name?

This is a scenario I and others have played out many times, sometimes loosing many minutes which will in certain cases mean the difference between living or dying.

Please make sure your house has its number or name on display and can be seen from the road.

As it happens we had cause to need attendance by the fire brigade and an ambulance during the time I lived there. Both (separate) incidents were after dark and long before the days of satellites/GPS/online mapping and in neither case was there any difficulty at all in finding our house.

I have no idea what location aids you use but the house has been marked by name on Ordnance Survey maps from long before I was born.
I take your point though as that won't be the case for many (most?) rural properties.

In the old days, crews worked in local areas and so know local properties.

Nowadays, with Sat nav we can be sent anywhere, many miles away. I have been sent to towns I've never been to before, let alone streets.

It doesn't matter if it is marked on an OS map and known by old Bob the clobber, it all looks the same at 4am in the driving rain (or even on a sunny afternoon). Get a number/name on display!