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I have purchased some property on county land in Utah, United States.

The postal service doesn't service the area despite there being a decent number of people living permanently around my property. So I do not have a physical address. My neighbors get there mail "general delivery". Which I believe (and I can be mistaken) means they get it delivered to the nearest post office and they pick it up in person.

But I am wondering how other legal things will work without an address such as driver's license, bank accounts, taxes, credit cards, vehicle registration, etc. I don't believe a PO box works for those, am I wrong?

The property has a lot and parcel number that I could maybe use? But I feel like a lot of the things I mentioned above wouldn't accept something like that.

(Sorry I couldn't really find any other tags that made sense to me)

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    Have you asked your neighbours to see how they do it?
    – user35069
    Feb 2, 2021 at 15:24
  • @RockApe I haven't had the opportunity yet
    – Mr. Spock
    Feb 2, 2021 at 16:06
  • In some states only "valid residential addresses" can be used on driver's licenses and some other official documents. There was a question about this on Law.SE a year or two ago. I don't know if Utah has such restrictions.
    – David Siegel
    Feb 2, 2021 at 16:14
  • You are right about how general delivery mail service works, although it is used primarily by the homeless with P.O. Boxes used by those who are better off.
    – ohwilleke
    Feb 3, 2021 at 0:28
  • See law.stackexchange.com/questions/41620
    – David Siegel
    Feb 3, 2021 at 1:00

1 Answer 1

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Throughout the United States, the federal government has provided funds to state and local government to set up enhanced 911. These programs improve response to emergency calls in several ways, including improvements in addressing.

I'm an emergency medical technician, and have been involved with e911 for decades. Before e911, the post office and the local government each did their own thing, and the same house might have one address for the post office, and a different address for emergency response.

Now, that is mostly resolved, and the post office and local government are required to have a unified addressing scheme. Now, even houses that don't have postal delivery get addresses. Things that are of interest to emergency responders, but that don't receive mail, such as fire hydrants, get addresses.

Look at https://911.utah.gov/

If that doesn't answer your question, contact the fire or police department in your town. They will probably have an e911 atlas that shows your home. If not, they may assign a new address to your home.

However, if you just have a piece of land with no home on it (neither a permanent building, nor a mobile home), that land may not be eligible for an address.

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  • If you are involved with the people that manage that website, you may want to tell them that the certificate is for *.cloudaccess.net not 911.utah.gov and gives a security error.
    – Dave
    Feb 2, 2021 at 15:48
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    The property currently does not have a home on it but I will be putting one on it. Once it is built it sounds like they would assign an address and I could use that one even if I don't get mail to it?
    – Mr. Spock
    Feb 2, 2021 at 16:09
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    Being addressable for 911 purposes may not make an address valid of official ID documents.
    – David Siegel
    Feb 2, 2021 at 16:15
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    @DavidSiegel With regard to official documents there are two questions. You can receive mail related to official matters at P.O. Boxes and can provide mailing addresses in most contexts. A physical address for these purposes for purposes like voting and residency and letting someone know where you can be served with process don't have to be served by mail. Also people often use a "postal drop" such as the United Parcel Service store or Mailboxes, etc. which provide a paid street address for P.O. Box customers.
    – ohwilleke
    Feb 3, 2021 at 0:32
  • @oh See law.stackexchange.com/questions/41620 where it is said "DMV does not accept hotels as legal residences" and "DMV does not allow PO boxes" That was for VA but said also for other states. Not sure about Utah. See also law.stackexchange.com/questions/585 and law.stackexchange.com/questions/6626 for related issues
    – David Siegel
    Feb 3, 2021 at 0:59

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