Q: We are the purchasers of a newly built home and upon inspection of the property and the house before we moved in, we were confronted with a “super mailbox” on the corner of our property. Not only is it ugly, it will result in a dramatic increase in traffic with the suburb’s residents stopping by to get their mail. Also, this will decrease the value of our home if we list it for sale. What can we do?
A: This is yet another instance where you should have had this potential issue pointed out to you if you had your Agreement of purchase and sale reviewed by your lawyer in the cooling off period.
Contained in virtually every agreement is a provision warning and allowing the new purchaser that their property may be subject to a variety of different structures ranging from cable and phone boxes to mail boxes.
Obviously, the most infringing of these structures are the relatively new super mail boxes.
Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done about this at this time. If it was a grave concern to you, it could have been raised during the cooling off period but now that the house is built and the mail box is installed, you have to live with it.
