When Complications Ensue . . .

Lots of people buy things online. The packages are sent to the property managers or landlords who then ask the tenants to pick up their packages. An article I've been reading seems to imply that landlords and rental managers no longer will accept tenant packages in their management offices because each package received costs them about 10 minutes of productivity. How would you landlords deal with something like this especially if you don't have storage facilities?

 

I really don't think this is something that landlords and letting agents should have to concern themselves with. Deliveries should be a tenant's responsibility. Involving a third party only increases the chances of a loss or a missed delivery.

 

Apparently it's such a huge issue that it made it to the news:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/package...deliveries-after-deluge-of-parcels-1445333401
The biggest landlords in the U.S. are being crushed under a mountain of packages, leading one large apartment operator to stop accepting deliveries and others to experiment with ways to minimize the clutter . . . the moves are at the center of two colliding trends: an increase in apartment living and a surge in online shopping. The result is a rising tide of packages with no good place to go . . . the onslaught has turned management offices of apartment buildings into de facto receiving centers as landlords grapple with recording packages, tracking tenants down to pick them up and finding places to store the parcels.

 

To be honest until I read the story I wasn't aware that there would have been any issues, and certainly none that would involve the landlord.

I was under the impression that it would be up to the tenant and the delivery company to sort out, and it makes me wonder why landlords would have to get involved in the first place.

 

I can imagine that if a building has a concierge or guard, there may well be a temptation to think "Oh, they'll just leave it at reception". I suppose that this is where click & collect and dropbox schemes really come into their own. A more unscrupulous letting agent might even want to take advantage of this new phenomena and increase service charges in exchange for providing this service.

 

I never would have thought of this happening. I live in an apartment building and the parcels I order come directly to my apartment. If I am not home to accept them then they leave a card and I have to go pick it up at whatever company that is delivering it. My landlord would not have anything to do with it nor would I expect or want him to. All they have to do is refuse to sign for the parcels. It is not their responsibility to accept or distribute this parcels. If they choose to become involved then that is their problem to deal with but it simple as not accepting the parcels in the first place.

 

As a property manager we no longer accept packages on behalf of the residents. The reason has nothing to do with productivity. It has to do with liability. Years ago we had a woman that was send a package that was alleged to be delivered to the office. It was a package that was signed for but not by us, and as one could expect the package never got to the intended recipient. Immediately the allegations flew that someone must have stolen the package, someone from the office. That was the end of that

I have mixed feelings on the practice, on one had you want to be nice and help people get the things they order. on the other hand I don't want the responsibility. I know it is hard when the mailman leaves the package out and your not there to get it, but the services, and I do mean all of them, are systems that are flawed. tracking a package is not a perfect science. I have ordered things just to see that they have reached the destination and I did not have them yet. I feel bad for the folks that live here, but I don't want to be the one that gets the blame if it is broke or missing.

 

This is exactly the problem of my nephew in Hongkong. We had been there this weekend and I saw some of his cabinets in the storage area of the building - his condo unit is on the 60th floor. The big cabinet he bought wouldn't fit in the door so it went straight to the stock room. Now he is being charged for storage fees. And to end his misery, he was forced to move to another building to rent a condo unit where his newly-bought cabinet would fit in. It was really a bad decision by my nephew but it's already there so there's no other solution.

 

I can understand the liability issues so if people order things, they should be in to sign for them or have them delivered to work. That's what happened in my old office, I had things delivered there, but it wasn't a huge office and it was something everyone did. Basically it should be a paid service, and a one off is fine, but where do you draw the line? My property management company agreed to accept delivery of a new bed because it was for the tenants, but as a rule I can see why liability is more of an issue and it's better to hand responsibility back to the whoever ordered the package and not the person who signed for it.

 

There is one solution, if the tenant doesn't pick up the package quickly I would stop receiving them or charging for storage, seems the most logical thing to do.