Although we knew change was coming we’ve just had a slight shock arrive via our post box.
When we bought our place in 2002 it was addressed as…
La Sxxxxxxx
14xxx Saint Gxxxxxx de Txxxxxxxxx
Several years ago, due to becoming part of a Communuaté de Communes, it became…
La Sxxxxxxx
14xxx Vxxx Nxxxxxxxx
However, to this day many address databases still expect to see the old commune name, & some have always misspelt the hameau/lieu dit.
As of now we are no longer a hameau or lieu dit, but are…
1191 Impasse de la Gxxxxxxxx
14xxx Vxxx Nxxxxxxxx
We are at the far end of an impasse - the road name is obtained from the name of the first lieu dit where one turns off the main road. There are 8 dwellings reached by that impasse; the number is the distance each one is from the turning, which is, I suppose, logical.
We are now looking forward to months (maybe years!) of chaos as the various services adjust to all this & the chances of getting deliveries to arrive easily have probably reduced.
Ours all went very smoothly. There was an interim stage when our facteur was happy to deal with either version of our address. Several companies were really easy to deal with via changes on their websites (Amazon, Zooplus, etc etc). After a while (2 years I think) we began to get notes in our letterbox reminding us to change. We then got some distressed communications from pensions cos and the like who had had their correspondence to us returned. That was when we realised we needed to take all of this seriously.
In fact it is a good idea. We loved the quaintness of just having a LD name but (as was pointed out to us) it does make the lives of the rescue services easier and certainly we no longer have delivery companies phoning and saying “where are you?”
Exactly - our “neighbour” with the same LD is two fields away and a not-inconsiderable about-turn drive if the fire engine goes to the wrong one. I’d rather they came straight to us!
I hope that will be the case but certain delivery companies are downright lazy when it comes to rural locations. However, a big fat number might help, but they won’t see that until they are at the post box which has our names clearly marked anyway. Hopefully there will be signs at the end of the road saying that numbers X through Z are this way
I’m not against the change as lieu dits can be confusing, as others have said. However, there is no standard numbering system in place. I quite like the system they’ve used for us, but it’s not universal.
Some friends in a neighbouring commune live in a very similar location to us i.e. at the far end of a long impasse. It’s not in our CdC, or department. Their new address just tells you that they are the 29th house on the named main road ( a ‘Route de x’) between two communes. There’s no reason for someone with that as a delivery address to venture down their road &, as yet, there are no signs out at the main road to say that is where several house numbers are located
Of course, if everyone just used What3Words, all would be well.
Three times in the last couple of years I’ve received letters to the same person who does not live at my address and does not share my surname. We do have three things in common, we are both British, we both live at number 7 and we both live in the same commune. I don’t know him and he lives over 5km from my house. Every time my address has been written handwritten on the envelope under the correct address. The first time I received a letter addressed to him I found out where he lived. I think I know why La Poste has trouble. The first time I typed his address into Google it wasn’t found. I then tried Apple Maps and my Garmin satnav without any luck. Then for some reason I tried the address without the postcode and a match came up only 5km away but in a different commune and to complicate things it is in a different department. I looked closely and found the problem. The man lives in my commune and in the same department but the road he lives in is a road in a small village in the neighbouring department. As the road radiates out of the village it crosses the departmental and communal boundary. Two or three houses are actually in the neighbouring commune and neighbouring department to the rest. La Post had obviously found no road with that name in my commune and for some reason decided that I’m the closest that they can find. I have explained the problem but the odd letter still arrives. If I was him I would try giving my address using the name and postcode where his road is even if it’s not correct. Most official data bases have my address wrong. I live in a Rue du name ending with an s. For vehicle registration and several other official things I tried entering Rue du name but the computer tells me that Rue des names is the only option for my location. I pointed it out at the prefecture once when my Carte Grise showed the error but they said not to worry about it.
We’re still waiting for a new address. I think we have a wise commune. It’s bound to be a nightmare when it happens. Just when all the delivery guys know where we are, we’ll likely have to start all over again.
It seems that if you used to use an LD that it’s disappeared, superseded by the new route/impasse/rue etc. It’s certainly happened to our old LD, & that of others that I’ve checked up on.
Hi Stella. Something I didn’t know… Given that we have far less than 2000 habitants, our commune needs to do nothing about changing addresses. Phew!
Dans le cadre de son pouvoir de police, le Maire est compétent pour la gestion de la numérotation des habitations. À l’inverse, la dénomination des voies publiques relève de la compétence du conseil municipal.
Numéroter les habitations est obligatoire dans certaines zones. Cela concerne les communes de plus de 2000 habitants. En effet dans ces municipalités, le Maire a pour obligation d’établir et de transmettre au CDIF (centre des impôts fonciers) ainsi qu’au bureau du cadastre, la liste de l’ensemble des voies publiques et privées situées sur son territoire. Il doit également leur communiquer la numérotation des habitations et immeubles.
Les communes de moins de 2000 habitants ne sont, quant à elles, pas soumises à cette obligation de numéroter les logements. Les maires ont la possibilité d’imposer ou non cette numérotation. S’ils décident de l’instaurer, il est toutefois indispensable que les rues aient été préalablement dénommées par les conseils municipaux.
Well, if your commune has made its decision… who am I to query it
L’obligation d’adressage pour les communes de moins de 2.000 habitants entre en vigueur ce samedi 1er juin 2024 en France . Cette mesure, votée il y a déjà deux ans dans la loi 3DS, va obliger les maires à donner des noms aux voies (rues, allées, chemins…) qui n’en ont pas.
Jusqu’ici, dans les communes de moins de 2.000 habitants, on pouvait retrouver des lieux-dits, des rues sans nom, des “maisons derrière la fontaine après le carrefour”… peu pratique pour La Poste ou le livreur de pizzas.
À partir de ce samedi, chaque habitation doit être clairement localisée, avec un nom de rue et un numéro. 1.800.000 Français vont ainsi changer d’adresse.
“C’est un changement important pour les livraisons, les secours, les pompiers”, explique Anthony Guérout, maire de Saint-Aubin-Routot (Seine-Maritime). L’édile est responsable du dossier adressage au sein de l’association des maires de France. Il était l’invité de RTL Bonsoir ce vendredi 31 mai.
Il manque encore environ 15.000 communes qui n’ont pas fait la démarche d’adressage sur les 35.000 communes françaises. Pour le moment, il n’y a aucune sanction prévue pour les mairies qui ne respecteraient pas la règle. “On sait que c’est un travail de longue haleine car la concertation prend du temps pour qu’elle soit efficace”, explique Anthony Guérout.
The BAN is what all the various services use to establish where you are. So La Poste, the pompiers, energy suppliers etc. Apparently it’s also what online mapping & delivery services are supposed to be using too.
Ah, so it’s not wildly out. I though you were implying that you had newish signs up for, say, a lieu dit whereas your address in BAN had become, say, 234 Chemin de xxxx.
I checked up on another friend whose address changed & there is a slight discrepancy between the new sign (Renaudière) & the BAN entry (Renauderie).
I keep the LD as an extra line in the address. Seems to work.
I put the LD back in that way after 2 delivery drivers complained when I used the new address, that they’d tried to deliver at a similar address several km’s away and that if I’d have put the LD address ttey’d have known instantly it was me
