Can an HOA/Condo Assoc be notified by USPS of a mass mailing?

My association has been in trouble for a number of years while not being transparent about the issues and recently a resident, or probably a group of residents, has been mailing the community informing the community in what seems like an effort to get people involved. Recently the office made a comment about the USPS notifying them that a mass mailing went out to the community before they had been delivered. Can an HOA ask the Postal Service to inform them of when a mass mailing goes out or try to investigate who's doing it? I'm wondering if the office is illegally setting up Informed Delivery to monitor the mail of the older, non-computer savvy residents to watch them. Also, if an HOA can have the USPS monitor mailings between residents for informing residents of public information that seems scary since it would be another tool to squash residents in abusive associations. I can't see how the USPS could or would do that without some kind of legal motions being taken. Is anyone familiar with this? Thanks.

I don't have any inside USPS, but I've never heard of the Post Office notifying an association of a mass mailing. It's certainly possible that somebody is setting up informed delivery for some of the owners. I have informed delivery but don't remember how much personal info I had to provide to prove I am me.

Maybe someone else with more info will reply, but I don't remember it coming up here before so maybe not.

Informed Delivery notifies you of mail that's being delivered *to you*. Given that it's illegal to open other people's mail, I'd be very surprised if USPS announced deliveries to other people - such a thing would facilitate crime.

USPS also can notify senders if mail has been received, but the sender has to pay for this service. This is appropriate for cases when they need proof of service - for example, in collection actions. Doing so for mass mailings makes no sense unless the material is legally sensitive for some reason. We didn't even do it when we snail mailed the annual meeting notices.

The other thing I thought of is that the person claiming to have received notification is an office employee. They may be friendly with the carrier when the mail gets dropped in the office and the carrier tips them of when mailings are circulated.

People get mass mailing all the time, so I'm sure the post office doesn't have the time to let people know what's heading their way. Besides, if people don't want to read it, they'll simply toss it. The board can't stop that or prevent people from reading it. What can they do- jump the mail carrier like they're looking for checks in the mailbox?

As others have said, the association can't set up informed delivery fir the entire community- in fact, I think you have to have an account with the post office to do that (I have informed delivery). So this may be your imagination running a bit into overdrive.

I am not sure what the issue is exactly. If you put a stamp on it, it can go into a mailbox. It's illegal to put anything in a mailbox without a stamp. So if someone or multiple people want to send out mass mails, then they have to be paying for the postage. The HOA should not be paying for it. If it is, then that is another issue got going on there.

We currently have someone on this board posting about how they want a full mailing list of all the members plus email addresses. (Email addresses typically optional in many states). Their intent sounds similar to what your experiencing with the mass emails to get people to get involved. (Or take their side on an issue).

The facts are you can't control everything. People whom want to get their message out there can afford postage can do it. Why the HOA needs to investigate seems like a "Squirrel" measure. Distracting from the real issues your HOA is having. Wants to point fingers but not at themselves.

We have an office in the clubhouse for the neighborhood that is used by a property manager who is an employee of the association.

The HOA wouldn't be paying for it since it's been exposing issues and raising questions about how the community has declined because of how it's run, so it's definitely a resident or group of residents. Regarding the "Squirrel measure" distraction, that's is for sure going on because the reaction I've heard from them and to some extent have seen is that they are more concerned with accusing people they think are doing it, and mad that the residents are being told all the things they've been hiding. A lot of finger pointing going on.

Phil

Do you have an issue with this mailing?

I thought I was specific about what issue I was questioning, if they could ask the USPS to alert them of mass mailings to the community because of the comment made about being "notified", because I stated in the original post, "if an HOA can have the USPS monitor mailings between residents for informing residents of public information that seems scary since it would be another tool to squash residents in abusive associations."

I don't take issue with people mailing it, some of the stuff I could say I've seen myself and for what I didn't know from the information given I was able to look up online I see there's a lot of concerning things checking out to what's being said. In the past these kind of mass mailings have tipped residents off to issues in the community with older Boards and positive changes have happened. I'd hate to see that go away because the USPS is getting involved.

That was a few years ago - you might not have the same situation today. People may be reluctant to open their doors for a number of reasons, ranging from crime concerns to avoiding religious groups. More people have things like ring doorbells so they can see who's there and decide how to respond.

Board elections can and do create a certain amount of drama, so it can be a challenge to get your message out, but you have to keep going and be creative. You might also need some help - if there are people in the community willing to help you, they may have better access to the people you need to respond and know the best way to contact them. You may not need to contact everyone, just enough who will actually vote. The challenge is in figuring out what that number is.

You'll also have to accept there are some in your community who don't give a damn about any of this and won't respond, no matter what you do.

How can the post office notify you or the HOA of mass mailings in advance? Do you want to know how many junk mailings I get in a week that look official; something
a bill collector, government agency or even your regular bills in a given week????? That SCHNITT should be illegal, but I have to open each letter up to make sure it's not
legit. If the Post Office can't stop those letters, they can't stop and notify you in advance of mass mailings.