Practically every homeowner has gone through this at least once. Snow comes and the plows are doing their jobs. Unfortunately, your mailbox gets caught in the crossfire. If your snowbox is damaged along the way, who ends up having to pay for it?
The short answer to who is responsible is that it depends
Unfortunately, there’s actually no short answer here. Not every single case is going to be the same. There are a lot of different situations. Mostly it depends on how it happened, and where you live.
Mailboxes are just a courtesy for homeowners
Did you know that mailboxes are often considered to be obstructions? Many homeowners don’t realize that their property does not go all the way up to the asphalt. It actually ends a couple of feet before the shoulder of the road, and that piece of land where your mailbox sits belongs to the municipality where you live.
Municipalities allow mailboxes as a courtesy to the homeowners to make it easier to deliver the mail to them. But legally, they’re considered “highway obstructions” (Section 319 of New York State’s Highway Law).
“According to New York State’s Highway Law, when the necessities of keeping the highway open conflict with the reception of mail, the latter must stand aside.”
“How” the mailbox was destroyed matters too
It makes a difference if the mailbox was actually struck by the plow or if it was destroyed from the mounds of snow coming from the plow. Many towns and municipalities will only replace mailboxes if they’re hit by the plow itself and will not replace them if they’re destroyed by the weight of the snow.
Don’t expect them to replace your expensive mailbox with another expensive mailbox
If a municipality does offer to replace or repair your mailbox, chances are, it will be a basic replacement or repair. They will not replace custom or ornamental mailboxes with an exact replacement. Normally they will place a standard 4X4 post with a basic mailbox on it. I had someone repair a mailbox once and it was just wrapped back up with duct tape to keep it on the pole…