Re-Directing Mail

Postal articles may be re-directed to the same addressee at another address either by an officer of the Post Office or by an agent of the addressed after delivery under the following rules: -

  1. Letters, letter cards, postcards, printed matter open packets, and newspapers are retransmitted by post without additional charge provided that in case of re-direction by the addressee’s agent the correspondence must be re-posted not later than the day after delivery (Sundays and public holidays not being counted) and must not, previous to re-direction, be opened or tampered with. If an adhesive label be used for the purpose of indicating the new address, the name of the original addressee must not be obscured. If the name is obscured, the article will be liable to surcharge as unpaid.
  2. Any re-directed postal article which is reposted later than is required by the foregoing paragraph (1) of this rule, or whirl appears to have been opened or tampered with before being reposted shall be charged fresh postage at the rate applicable to its class.
  3. Whenever it may be thought necessary, a receipt may be required from the addressee of a re-directed postal article at the second address.
  4. Parcels are, when re-directed, liable to additional postage amounting to half the prepaid rate for each re-direction, except whet both the original address and the substituted address are either served from the same delivery office or are within the same town delivery area, and where re-direction of such parcels i made within the period of free re-direction allowed for letter., A parcel re-issued either to the sender or addressee from the Returned Letter Office is similarly liable to additional postage amounting to half the prepaid rate.
  5. No parcel which has been re-directed and on which charges are, due may be again re-directed unless the charges already incurred have been paid.
  6. Registered correspondence, on being re-directed, may not b dropped into a letter box, but must be taken to a Post Office t be dealt with as registered. No additional registration fee will be charged if the correspondence is presented for re-registration not later than the day after delivery; but if it is presented after that time, it will be treated as freshly posted, and fresh registration fees will be payable. As regards postage, the rules give above apply.
  7. If any registered packet when re-directed, instead of being given back to the Post Office to be dealt with as registered, is dropped into a letter box, it is treated in all respects as a letter intended for registration, but irregularly posted (see Rule 134).

Official Re-direction

  1. Notices of removal and applications for re-direction must be signed by the persons to whom the articles to be re-directed are addressed. Printed forms can be obtained from the local Post Office and when filled up and signed, should be sent to the local delivery office. The instructions should be clear and precise, and must not be conditional.
  2. Separate notices must be filed up if it is desired that telegrams should be re-directed. In Colombo separate notices are also required in respect of parcels. For the conditions under which telegrams are re­directed, see Rule 528. In Colombo, instructions regarding re-direction of mail matter should be addressed to the Chief Postmaster and those in respect of telegrams to the Chief Telegraph Master.

Period for which Instructions are valid

Separate written instructions are required for every change of address and instructions will not ordinarily be attended to for a longer period than three months, unless renewed within that time, except in the case of per­sons leaving Sri Lanka, when a longer period may be specified if desired.

  • At Colombo, Kandy, Galle, Jaffna, and Nuwara Eliya, the Post Office does not undertake the re-direction of letters, etc, to persons residing within a Postman’s delivery area, when they can be re-directed at the place of address.
  • Re-direction at the above-mentioned offices is not undertaken in the case of correspondence addressed:
    • to a person leaving home temporarily unless the house be altogether closed
    • to hotels, clubs, boarding houses; to the care of business firms and public institutions or to flats where delivery is effected to a caretaker or to a common agent or through the medium of a common letter box;
    • to a private box, unless the box be temporarily or permanentl3 closed;
  • to a private bag, unless the use of the bag be temporarily of permanently discontinued.

At other Post-offices re-direction is undertaken only when the addressee has actually changed the address or moved to other premises.