The Bermuda Post Office is allowing a "grace period" on the enforcement of new Post Office regulations.

Michael Scott, Minister of Energy, Telecommunications and E-Commerce announced the move in a statement to the the House of Assembly last Friday.

According to the statement, the grace period has been implemented to allow businesses and residents to complete their re-addressing notifications and to ease the strain on the Post Office during the busy holiday season.

"The Bermuda Post Office will provide a one-off and final grace period that will allow all mail to be delivered where the address can be best determined by the postal staff," said Mr. Scott.

"Following the grace period ending on February 28, 2010, resumption of strict enforcement of the regulations will be the order of the day."

Mr. Scott added the grace period, which began yesterday will apply to premises that have already complied with the new regulations, but to which incoming mail is still incorrectly addressed.

The grace period relates to the amendments to the Post Office Regulation Act 1933, that took effect on August 31, 2009.

The amendments require houses and buildings to have a visible address number displayed, a mailbox located close to the property's boundary and for businesses and condominiums to install cluster mail boxes.

Additionally, all letters must be properly addressed or they will be sent back to the sender.

According to Mr. Scott, after February 28, 2010, non compliance with these regulations will result in non delivery of mail.

According to Mr. Scott, 81 percent of homes have complied with new regulations. Approximately 14 percent have mailboxes but have not yet properly installed them and five percent have no mailboxes.