Multifamily home addresses

[Sam Leon]

About six months ago I bought a duplex.  The address, for the purpose of this discussion, is of the form:

351-355 NE 4 STREET...

This is how it appears on the county tax appraiser's web site.

So there is a unique street number for each door.  One unit is 351, the other unit is 355.  There is no 353.  Two mail boxes, one for 351, one for 355.  Same for electric meters etc.

I don't know how it got to be this way, instead of the typical:

351 NE 4 STREET unit 1,2,3 or unit A,B,C...

The problem is it appears some companies does not know how to deal with a "hyphen" in the street number, and yet when referring to the entire property, a hyphen is used in the official address.

When I went to the city to turn water on, it's the water for the whole building, and their property database needed a pure numeric number, and they just randomly put in 351.

Recently I contacted FEMA to filed change of map amendment to get it reclassified it's flood zone so I can reduce the flood insurance, FEMA told me they can't process my application because the street number contains a hyphen. They asked if they can do 351 only...I asked them, if I get 351 reclassified, can I use the letter of determination for 351 to apply for an insurance reduction for the entire property which is "351-355"? They said no...now I am stuck, they can't process my application.

There are a bunch of other duplexes on the same street, and they all have one single street number, with unit 1, unit 2...

I wonder if the current format of the address is a pro or a con.  Thoughts?  Should I attempt to change it to the more conventional designations?

Another related subject...I recently purchased a triplex, and on the county it's:

123 SE 4 STREET, 1-3...

Yet, the tenants told me it's units A, B, C not 1, 2, 3.  Comcast, Florida Power and Light, USPS have all been using A, B, C.  Signs on the doors says A, B, C, mail boxes says A, B, C.  Yet county says 1-3. this one I might contact the county to see if they can change it to be consistent.