What Happens to the Mailbox Key?

When a house sells, what happens to the Mailbox Key? Do Mailbox Keys Convey? If you don’t have a mailbox on your property, you might get mail from a cluster box: a centralized unit of individually locked compartments. When your clients move, what happens to the key? Does the mailbox key convey to the next owner? Yes, according to Paragraph 2C of the One to Four Family Residential Contract (Resale) (TXR 1601, TREC 20-14). That paragraph lists mailbox keys as accessories that convey to the buyer. If the box is privately owned, your seller clients simply give the keys to the new owners. However, if the U.S. Postal Service owns the box, the Postal Service would like the keys back. According to the Postal Service, sellers should return old mailbox keys when they move. Sellers who don’t want to do so should make sure those keys are listed as an exclusion under Paragraph 2D of the One to Four Family Residential Contract (Resale) to make sure that the keys don’t convey with the property. After the Postal Service receives the keys, they change the lock and issue three new keys to the new postal customer. If the new owners receive keys from the sellers, they should return those keys to the Postal Service and get new ones. New residents can request keys at your local post office with closing papers along with a government-issued ID. No key deposits are required, but there is a $25 fee to replace lost keys. How do you know if your cluster box is privately owned or owned by the Postal Service? There is no easy way to tell, but in most cases, apartment complexes and multi-housing properties manage their own privately owned boxes. Subdivision cluster boxes could be managed by the Postal Service or an HOA, depending on the agreement with the developer at the time of installation. —— Contact us for a FREE strategy session if you are interested in real estate in Bryan, College Station, Navasota, Caldwell, Hearne…. ANYWHERE near Texas A&M University! — — — — 979-764-2100 info@century21bcs.com century21bcs.com — — — — https://www.instagram.com/century21bcs/ https://www.facebook.com/Century21CollegeStation https://twitter.com/CENTURY21Beal https://www.linkedin.com/company/century-21-beal https://www.tiktok.com/@susanhastenhilton DON’T FORGET TO FOLLOW ME: https://www.instagram.com/susanhilton/ https://www.facebook.com/susan.hilton https://twitter.com/SusanHilton/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanhilton01/