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The Post Office does not have a spare.
That surprises people every time. For apartment boxes and private cluster units the keys are the building's business, and the Postal Service says so in writing.
What the Postal Service actually requires
The Postal Operations Manual is specific about apartment house receptacles, and three lines of it decide most of what we do.
- Section 632.625: "Masterkeying is not permitted." One key must not open the bank. If a manager has been handed a single key that opens everybody's mail, that arrangement is not allowed.
- Section 632.625 again: each individual receptacle lock is to be clearly numbered on the back, and lost keys are replaced according to those lock numbers. The manager is expected to keep a record of how many keys the manufacturer supplied.
- Section 632.627(a): "Owners or managers of buildings must keep receptacles in good repair."
- Section 632.22, for privately owned cluster box units: "The builder or property owner is responsible for providing lock and key service", and "the Postal Service keeps no duplicate keys".
So the answer to can the Post Office let me into my mailbox is no, and it is no by design rather than by unhelpfulness.
USPS Postal Operations Manual, sections 632.22, 632.625 and 632.627. Quoted fragments are exact.
What we do
- Open it without wrecking it. A cam lock in a mailbox door is small and the door around it is thin aluminum. Forcing one usually means replacing the whole door, which on an older bank can mean a part nobody stocks.
- Replace the cam lock and cut new keys. The ordinary fix, and quick.
- Rekey a bank after a turnover. For managers, between tenants, each box on its own key as the manual requires.
- Deal with a seized lock. Common in the coastal cities. Salt air gets into a cam lock long before it gets into a front door.
If you are a tenant
Your mailbox lock belongs to the building. For a lost key, the right first call is your manager, because section 632.625 expects them to hold the key records and replace by lock number. If they want us to do it, or they have told you to sort it yourself, we need that in writing or on the phone with us.
If you manage the building
Two things worth checking today. Whether your bank is actually master keyed, which it should not be. And whether the lock numbers on the backs of the cams still match whatever record you inherited, because they usually do not.
Words you will hear
The one lock we will never touch
The carrier's access door on a cluster unit or an apartment bank is Postal Service property. We do not open it, we do not replace it, and nobody else should offer to either.
If that lock is the problem, the Post Office handles it. Everything on the tenant side of the unit is ours or your manager's.
Questions
I lost my only mailbox key. What now?
Ask your manager first, because the Postal Service expects them to hold the key records. If they cannot help or they ask you to arrange it, we replace the cam lock and cut you keys.
Can you make a copy from my existing key?
Usually yes, and it is the cheapest outcome. Bring it out to the van and we cut it there.
My manager has a master key for all the boxes. Is that normal?
It is common and it is not permitted. The Postal Operations Manual says masterkeying is not allowed for apartment house receptacles.
The box door itself is bent.
Then it is a door or a whole-bank question rather than a lock question. Send us a photo before we come out and we will tell you honestly which one you are looking at.
Need someone now?
A person answers, at any hour, in English or Spanish. If it is not urgent, we will hold a day and a time for you instead.
Or leave your details and we will call you.