Real estate agents in Otumoetai, Bellevue and Matua – listen up! Ross Stewart has a beef with you. And he knows he's not alone.

'Why do you think you have a God-given right to ignore the ‘NO JUNK MAIL' sign and continue to drop your bumf in my letterbox at least three times a week?”

He still gets flyers from kids wanting to wash cars at the weekend. 'That's alright. But it's the unsolicited commercial stuff that gets up my nose,” says the retired Ngatai Rd cabbie. 'And most of it's real estate promotional material.”

It all came to a head this week. 'I wandered out to the letterbox just after one of these guys had dropped a leaflet. He just smiled or sniggered, as if he was entitled to ignore the instruction on the letterbox.”

No, Ross didn't engage, he didn't pick an argument and he didn't complain to the agency. But he did make his point. 'I bundled up all this crap, wrote ‘Junk Mail' on it with an indelible pen and dropped it off at the company's front door.”

And according to Ross it is the real estate agents, and only the real estate agents, who can't or choose not to read the bold, hand-crafted 'No Junk Mail” sign just below the aperture on his letterbox.

'On the other hand, I'm happy to record the contractors who deliver junk mail do take notice of my sign.” Junk mail refers to any printed matter, with the exception of registered newspapers, placed in a letterbox and is not personally addressed to a resident at the address.

The Weekend Sun understands there may be other exemptions for public notices from government bodies, local authorities or NZ Post, communications from local community organisations, charities or charitable institutions or election material beginning two months before polling day and ending the day before polling day.

Regardless, Ross wants the real estate industry to know he's not a lone grumpy voice. 'I have friends elsewhere in the city and they all have the same experience with real estate agents.”

The Weekend Sun took Ross' grumble to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand.

REINZ says it has 'for years being provided members with best practice information around unaddressed mail”. And that includes encouraging members to follow guidelines set out by the New Zealand Marketing Association.

It's a voluntary national code of practice for the distribution of unaddressed mail.

Clauses of the code say brochures, flyers and business cards must not be delivered to letterboxes with a sign requesting non-delivery. That's Ross's letterbox.

Unaddressed mail and free newspapers must not be delivered to letterboxes displaying an ‘Addressed Mail Only'. Other clauses of the association's code say there should be no delivery where there's no mailbox, or letterboxes are unsuitable for receiving or holding material. And unaddressed mail must not be delivered to mailboxes that are full.

Abuses of the code can be reported to the Marketing Association's Mailbox Helpline on 0800 111 081.

REINZ also advises members to check for and follow any applicable local bylaws.

For example in Auckland city: 'No person may deposit, cause, permit or authorise the deposit of any unaddressed mail, advertising material, community newspapers, clothing donation bags, circulars, leaflets, brochures, samples or flyers in any letterbox which is clearly marked ‘addressed mail only'”. It's quite clear.

And if a company continually breaches this bylaw in Auckland, enforcement action can be taken and breaches could result in prosecutions. However, Auckland City Council says its emphasis on working with and educating distribution companies has been effective and there's been no need for legal action.

There are no such bylaws in Tauranga.

However, REINZ advises Ross to take up his grievance with the real estate agency concerned 'so the licensee is aware of the poor practice of the agent concerned”.