Location of letter boxes | Traficom
Transport and Communications Agency

Location of letter boxes

Letter boxes must be located at a place determined by Posti Ltd.

A letter box may be located in a centralised delivery station outside a place of address if the location meets the requirements set in the Postal Act and Traficom's regulation. When a letter box is placed outside a place of address, it must be located within a reasonable distance, which is

  • no more than 50 metres in densely-populated areas;
  • no more than 500 metres in sparsely-populated areas, or in exceptional cases, no more than a kilometre.

Under the Postal Act and Traficom's regulation, the location of a letter box must comply with traffic safety regulations, among others.

Disputes over location of letter boxes

Questions relating to the location of a letter box must be primarily addressed to Posti Ltd. In disputes, the location of a letter box is determined by municipal building supervision authorities. The building supervision authorities take Traficom's regulation on the location of letter boxes into account in their decision.

Collecting post during disputes

If you have failed to reach an agreement with Posti Ltd. on the arrangements for receiving post and no legally binding decision has been issued in the matter, the postal undertaking is entitled to keep your postal items available at its establishment. The specific establishment is determined on the basis of your address.

The regulation concerns placing of mail boxes so that the placing is as equal and uniform as possible in the whole country. The objective is to prevent disputes that the placement causes.

The provisions of the regulation apply to mail boxes in one-family houses as well as placement of mailboxes in densely populated areas, in sparsely populated areas and in the address locations of several mail recipients. In accordance with the regulation, if aged at least 75, must be taken into account in the delivery of post.

Valid from: 01/06/2011

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