Post Restante (Post Office service providing a temporary mailing address)

[Fawkes Cat]

I am also expected to change address in 2 months.

when you reply don't forget to tell the railway your new address.

I will reply to them but what to reply because my address in not fixed

Posting this as a new thread as while inspired by the above, I am not sure if the suggestion I am about to make would actually work - but if it does it may be of more general application.

The Post Office offer a post restante service: see https://www.postoffice.co.uk/mail/poste-restante. But this is limited to three months' use (which could be a problem in the specific case I have quoted from) and I also ask myself whether the railway would be willing to send to a post restante address.

Or does anyone do this commercially and affordably? ('Get your post sent to E-Zpost, then tell us your address and we'll forward it'). The thing is, with the summer approaching I can imagine that there will be a number of students who gave their term time address which they will give up shortly, returning to a different address next year.

 

[some bloke]

I would first ask the company if they would contact me by email. They may prefer it, and view as helpful the attempt to enable reliable and prompt communication.

Also, if they email, that could mean someone at the company receives the response soon enough that they still have some details of the case fresh in their mind (especially if the passenger addresses the response to a named person). You could email back within a few minutes if appropriate.

The case may then be easier to deal with, and could result in not just a faster outcome but also one more favourable to the passenger.

 

[island]

It's possible to hire a PO Box and collect your post from it, both from the Royal Mail themselves and commercial enterprises like Mail Boxes Etc., though I am not immediately sure this would be cost-effective.

 

[Dai Corner]

Posting this as a new thread as while inspired by the above, I am not sure if the suggestion I am about to make would actually work - but if it does it may be of more general application.

The Post Office offer a post restante service: see https://www.postoffice.co.uk/mail/poste-restante. But this is limited to three months' use (which could be a problem in the specific case I have quoted from) and I also ask myself whether the railway would be willing to send to a post restante address.

Or does anyone do this commercially and affordably? ('Get your post sent to E-Zpost, then tell us your address and we'll forward it'). The thing is, with the summer approaching I can imagine that there will be a number of students who gave their term time address which they will give up shortly, returning to a different address next year.

Search for "accomodation address". It's a widely offered service.

 

[some bloke]

There are also mail scanning services which may end up cheap and convenient.

mail scanning service at DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.

duckduckgo.com

 

[Fawkes Cat]

There are also mail scanning services which may end up cheap and convenient.

mail scanning service at DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.

duckduckgo.com

Ok. So there are options out there. I agree that these days the best default is probably to ask the railway to communicate by email. Do we foresee them declining to do that? If so, do we see any chance of the railway agreeing to write post restante/an accommodation address?

 

[Feuillesmortes]

The Regulation of Railways Act 1889 says "give the officer or servant his name and address" so any mail forwarding type service doesn't satisfy that.

The post from @furlong in 2018 suggests that the railway's view is that foreigners should be given discretion / benefit of the doubt https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...ers-with-non-uk-addresses.175729/post-3800756

 

[Haywain]

Wouldn't a proper address be required in order to serve a summons?

 

[zwk500]

The thing is, with the summer approaching I can imagine that there will be a number of students who gave their term time address which they will give up shortly, returning to a different address next year.

If the post can wait until they return, then going round and knocking on your old door is a fairly regular ritual for many students who forget to change delivery addresses etc on online ordering. The bigger issue is if you're coming home for the summer and may need to respond to the post within 28 days, in which case you can ask the Landlord to check regularly with the new tenants and arrange to forward on, or if you hold the lease until the end of the summer you can hang on to the keys and pop back to check for yourself.
Student houses tend not to be unoccupied for very long - usually at least 1 housemate will either stay late or return early, or the room will be sublet, or the landlord will take advantage of the 2-month break to do urgent repairs. It does depend heavily on how good a landlord you get though - mine was excellent, but I know plenty who had absolute horror stories

Wouldn't a proper address be required in order to serve a summons?

How does that work for people appearing in court of no fixed address? Would the only way to get somebody to attend be to issue a warrant and have the police detain/arrest them in order to put them before the court directly?

 

[AlterEgo]

The Regulation of Railways Act 1889 says "give the officer or servant his name and address" so any mail forwarding type service doesn't satisfy that.

The post from @furlong in 2018 suggests that the railway's view is that foreigners should be given discretion / benefit of the doubt https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...ers-with-non-uk-addresses.175729/post-3800756

It would be perfectly acceptable to give the address you currently lived at to the RPI, and then follow up in correspondence with another address for Mail.

 

[some bloke]

One company at least seems to have agreed to contact the passenger by email at the preliminary stage:

I have just received an answer that they haven't received the details of my case yet and it can take up to 6 weeks to receive the report. They will make a note and will email me as soon as they receive further details.

 

[Gloster]

Around twenty-five years ago I had a PO Box address as my main address for letters and then, for an extra fee, had the post delivered to where I was actually living. This sufficed for most purposes, with only a few organisations (HMRC, DVLA, etc.) requiring my actual address, although a few tried to persuade me that they had to have my actual address in some very trivial situations. This lasted for six years, while Poste Restante is only designed for temporary absences.

It depends what the railway is legally entitled to ask for. If it is necessary to ask you to give your place of (normal) residence, then a PO Box might not be regarded as adequate. However, if it is only permitted to ask you for a permanent (postal) address, then a PO Box should (legally) suffice.

It wouldn’t surprise me if RPIs and their superiors do not know exactly what information they can insist on being given. It has probably been passed down as ‘get their details/address’.

 

[Trackman]

It's possible to hire a PO Box and collect your post from it, both from the Royal Mail themselves and commercial enterprises like Mail Boxes Etc., though I am not immediately sure this would be cost-effective.

Not cheap PO Boxes, about £40 a month

 

[randyrippley]

From memory..........legal documents sent to a PO Box aren't regarded as "served" so cannot be treated as a legal notification

 

[some bloke]

The Criminal Procedure Rules say,

"4.4...(2) The address for service under this rule on —
(a) an individual is an address where it is reasonably believed that he or she will receive it"

"4.6.— (1) This rule applies where —
(a) the person to be served —
(i) has given an electronic address and has not refused to accept service at that address ...
(2) A document may be served —
(a) by sending it by electronic means to the address which the recipient has given"

The Criminal Procedure Rules 2020

The Criminal Procedure Rules 2020:consolidate the Criminal Procedure Rules 2015, S.I. 2015/1490, with the amendments made by S.I. 2016/120, 2016/705, 2017/144, 2017/282, 2017/755, 2017/915, 2018/132, 2018/847, 2019/143, 2019/1119 and 2020/32; andinclude the further amendments listed beneath.

www.legislation.gov.uk

 

[AY1975]

Gosh, I never knew that this facility still existed.

The Post Office website doesn't appear to say how much Poste Restante costs.

 

[Haywain]

The Criminal Procedure Rules say,

"4.4...(2) The address for service under this rule on —
(a) an individual is an address where it is reasonably believed that he or she will receive it"

"4.6.— (1) This rule applies where —
(a) the person to be served —
(i) has given an electronic address and has not refused to accept service at that address ...
(2) A document may be served —
(a) by sending it by electronic means to the address which the recipient has given"

That's very interesting. However, I don't think that would compel a train operator to accept an email address and nothing else. I also doubt whether providing an email address or PO Box would satisfy providing a name and address when requested.

 

[MotCO]

That's very interesting. However, I don't think that would compel a train operator to accept an email address and nothing else. I also doubt whether providing an email address or PO Box would satisfy providing a name and address when requested.

But is that because in 1889, when the RORA was drafted, emails had not been been envisaged?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

The Post Office website doesn't appear to say how much Poste Restante costs.

Might possibly still be free of charge / non-chargeable.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Gosh, I never knew that this facility still existed.

The Post Office website doesn't appear to say how much Poste Restante costs.

From the top paragraph of https://www.postoffice.co.uk/mail/poste-restante

Pick up your post whilst in the UK​

Imagine being able to pick up your post when you're travelling around the UK or abroad. Well now you can – thanks to Poste Restante. Poste Restante is s service designed for travellers, who do not have a permanent address in the location where they wish to receive mail, enabling them to collect their mail free of charge at any participating Post Office Branch in the UK.

(my bold)

 

[Kilopylae]

But is that because in 1889, when the RORA was drafted, emails had not been been envisaged?

Be that as it may, it's what the law says. No court is going to declare that giving an e-mail address is the same as giving your place of residence.

 

[AlterEgo]

Be that as it may, it's what the law says. No court is going to declare that giving an e-mail address is the same as giving your place of residence.

The important thing about giving a physical address is it gives the authorities a starting place to find you, of course, and is why courts require it.

 

[AY1975]

From the top paragraph of https://www.postoffice.co.uk/mail/poste-restante


(my bold)

Thanks, I can't have read it properly.

However, whilst it doesn't cost anything to set up a Poste Restante account, I would presume that if you want to have mail redirected from a physical address to a Poste Restante address, it would cost the same as setting up a redirection from one physical address to another.

I'm not sure whether the Royal Mail will allow you to have mail redirected to a Poste Restante address, though. It doesn't appear to say whether this is possible, either there or anywhere else on the Post Office or Royal Mail website, although as the maximum period for a Poste Restante account is three months, which is also the shortest period for a redirect, I would suspect not.

In some circumstances it would be useful to be able to have mail redirected to a Poste Restante address, for example if you live alone, so there isn't anyone else at your home address who can forward your mail for you, and you are going away on a training course or work placement lasting several weeks or up to three months. I suppose all you can do in that case is lend a friend a key to your home and ask them to go and collect your mail from time to time.

 

[43096]

When I saw the title of this thread, my first thought was it was the name of one of the “Res” theme Rail express systems Duffs!