Leslie

I would call the post office or ask your mailman if you see him.

Years ago, a drunk driver, trying to escape the police, took out my mailbox and damaged part of a fence. The police knocked on my door and told me what happened, gave me a phone number to call for the police report etc. The mailbox was fixed within a week, I never even called anybody. Either the police notified the post office or my mailman created a work order, I have no idea. The fence was my problem to deal with though.

thinbrit

I highly doubt this was installed by USPS. The builder normally installs these. USPS provide and maintain the larger all steel mailboxes. Check with your local post office, but I suspect what you have is a privately owned and shared mailbox.

Rete

If it were me, I would just go to the main Post Office on Monday morning and report the mailbox has fallen over because it appears the wooden post is rotted. Would not claim responsibility for its damage as it was clearly due to fall over soon.

Ours is a group of three individually posted mailboxes next to each other inset into the ground without benefit of cement.

Let them handle it.

thinbrit

https://www.gao.gov/archive/1997/gg97085.pdf

...although mailboxes are privately owned, the postal customer implicitly agrees to abide by statutory and regulatory restrictions that apply to the mailbox in exchange for the Service agreeing to deliver and pick up mail in it.

thinbrit

Lets hope the neighbors don't relay the OPs previous statement that their son knocked it over

Nutmegger

I think the PO will say, "So? Then you'd better fix it." It isn't the PO's responsibility to provide mailboxes or posts. And the only time when the town will fix it is if their plough took the post and box out after a snow storm.

scrubbedexpat099

Plow took out the telephone box, 2 years ago, still sitting there with the wires hanging out and door missing.

Nutmegger

When our mailbox was flattened by a town plough last year, the town had a new box and post installed the day after we reported it. When the box was vandalized, we got a notice from the PO telling us to either fix the box or come and get our mail from the PO.

scrubbedexpat099

When a friend locally had a mega go at Road and Bridge a few years back it ended up with the Director offering him a job, he does know what he is doing.

But he was not that desperate, he was working for Denver Water Board, still has the jacket but has to be careful where he wears it, they are not well liked.

Pulaski

That sounds like an expansion bolt - I have some and have used them myself. Looking at the picture, it looks like they have used a surface-mount anchor fitting for the base of the post. I am not sure who told it "should" be 1-2ft into the hole, unless you are talking about USPS guidance, which is far from universally followed. With "should" being the operative word - there are all sort of reasons why the utilities might not be at regulation depth - such as passing over tree roots, rocks, other utilities, etc. It sounds like you are out of your depth then, except perhaps temporarily placing the post in a bucket of sand or gravel pending the repair.

If I were you I would coordinate with the home owners, and arrange for a local contractor to reanchor the mailbox, and foot the bill for it. You may or may not want to involve your home insurers - be aware that a small claim might disproportionately affect your future premiums, AND in any case the cost may well be less than your policy deductible. ..... Mailboxes are NOT federal property, and the regulations are primarily related to tampering with someone else's mail. A homeowner can "mess with" a mailbox all they like, including repairing and replacing it, so long as it's positioning (height and curb set-back) meets USPS guidelines, there's no issue. .... Opening the mailbox door and removing or inserting anything can cause a whole world of issues though!

GeoffM

Went out to have a look in daylight and one neighbour was already on to it. It turns out this was already a repaired post, but to fix properly required digging out the rotted former post (ie not the one that fell over yesterday). Dug down, I can barely lit my arms from chipping it out , so now off to get some new bits. It looks like the bolts originally set into the concrete weren't more than an inch deep so it's no wonder one pulled out so easily, taking the surface concrete with it, and the newer post wasn't in the hole at all: its base was at pavement level.

Pulaski

I would guess that was a result of the police report, and because the damage resulted from the police chase. I have never seen or otherwise heard of the USPS repairing mailboxes, and there are plenty near me that are broken, bent, damaged, or otherwise decrepit.

A neighbor has one that is sort of tied together with ropes and straps after the post was broken several years ago. The box leans, and it is a bit low too; I doubt it meets the USPS guidelines.

scrubbedexpat099

Sounds like the original post was haunched in concrete, rotted off and was repaired with a metal bracket bolted into the concrete, just not very well.

Remove concrete, attach new post, treated, set in hole compact with dirt, wait for spring, dig hole set in hole pour new concrete.

Pulaski

It's already spring in Temecula - in fact I think they skip straight from autumn to spring.

GeoffM

Exactly.

We did have winter once. I think it was in 1856.

I thought the temperature range was large in our former abode in the desert, but even here we're currently waking up to around 5c and by lunchtime it's 25c.

I can't find a hollow sleeve in Lowes (store) or HD (online). I could attach the existing solid floor flange to the two remaining bolts, and set a 3rd in concrete. Maybe chip away at the 4th hole to get deep enough to set another bolt. But I can't imagine it would be solid.