How Do I Access My Wife’s PO Box if I Don’t Have the Key???

Dear Mr. Miller:

My wife died.  She handled all the bills.  She received those bills at her post office mail box.   I can’t find the key and the mail box vendor refuses to talk to me because I am not on the account.  The bills are going to go unpaid, our credit will be ruined, and services will be cut off.

I  have searched everywhere for the key.  What do I do?

Distraught Husband

Safe Deposit Box Analogy
Acquiring a Post Office Box
Safe Deposit Box on Death
Mail Box on Death
The Affidavit Procedure
Probate Procedure
Avoiding the Problem
Call Us For a Solution

Dear Distraught:

Safe Deposit Box Analogy:  This may be easy and may not–it will depend on the facts.  Most people are familiar with safe deposit boxes.  You sign up for it at your bank, they give/rent you a box, give you a key, and register the box to you.  The box itself has no value but what is in it may.  Some people keep important papers like birth certificates, etc. in it.  Those would have no extrinsic value.  Others keep gold bullion and diamonds in there.  That would have significant value.

Acquiring a Post Office Box:  For our other readers let’s review how post office boxes are acquired.  You can rent them at the post office or private mail box vendors.  Many UPS stores, Mail Boxes, etc., Postal Annex, to name a few, offer these services. At some you can not only receive US mail but also deliveries of packages from private carriers such as Fed Ex and UPS.  The ones offered at locations other than USPS are called Private Mail Boxes.

Safe Deposit Box on Death:  Let’s continue the analogy.  What happens with a safe deposit box when you die.  If that occurs, someone, maybe your souse, will come into the bank with the key.  The box is not registered to that person and the bank won’t give that person access without court documents or other appropriate paperwork.

Mail Box on Death:  The mail box is similar except for access.  The mail box also has no significant extrinsic value but the mail received there may have enormous value.  The key difference is that no one checks on who is accessing it. If you have the key, you are typically good to go.  But if you do not, it is going to be just like a safe deposit box.  In other words, before the vendor makes you a new key or deals with you in any way (such as terminating the box and having mail forwarded), you are going to have to be a registered owner (or possibly an authorized user) or have the appropriate paperwork.  And note, because this is important; once you forward your address to a private mail box the USPS will not forward your mail when you terminate that box.  You need to keep it open for several months as you communicate your new address to your vendors.  So simply giving the death certificate to the USPS and requesting mail forwarding may not work.

The Affidavit Procedure:  Since mail boxes and safe deposit boxes have no extrinsic value, assuming the value for the rest of the estate is less than a magic number, a simple affidavit (basically a sworn-in-front-of-a-notary-public-letter) is all that is necessary in California and many other states.  This is called the Small Estates Procedures Act.  That number in 2025 is almost $209,000.  But what if the value of the estate is over that limit.  Before you panic, there are a lot of assets that are ignored for this value limit.  For example, the joint tenancy bank accounts or real estate, financial accounts with a named beneficiary, or assets titled in your Living Trust.  So one can be quite wealthy but still have an estate for purposes of this procedure well below the magic number.

Probate Procedure:  But again, what if the value is over that magic number even ignoring certain assets?  Now, a Probate proceeding will be required.  A full Probate proceeding in California generally takes at least 10-14 months to complete.   Often times you can get access to the assets well before that but you are still going to be dealing with the court for at least that length of time.  So most people want to avoid Probate and since we never know how much a person is going to be worth when they die, it is usually prudent to take steps to allow your loved ones to avoid Probate.

Avoiding the Problem:  Since we just moved out of our office of 42 years, I had to obtain a post office box.  I selected the private mail box option so I could receive non-USPS packages.  Two days after I rented the box, this entire problem popped into my head (yes, that’s the type of things I think about in my off hours), and I did some research.

Ok, so how do you make it so that a loved one can get access to that private mail box (or safe deposit box) even if a full Probate proceeding is necessary?  Simply have your spouse registered as an owner (not just an authorized user) with the mail box vendor.  It really isn’t complicated.  Proof of identity (a driver’s license) and proof of residence (a property tax bill) is all that is necessary.

Call Us For a Solution:  Please give us a call at 760-436-8832 so we can assist you to get you access to your mail quickly and get you out of this mess.