Hello everyone, I have a question which I can't seem to find an answer too and that is am I allowed to name addresses of other people houses in my story? Let's say I am basing my story in a different city and to make it realistic I want to be able to name different real areas including where the characters live, like a non-fiction book (even though mine will have fiction in it). Am I allowed to do that or will I have to make up the characters homes?
. This site will allow you to create realistic details for people and places. I don't know why you shouldn't be able to use real locations in a book, but real names and addresses may be beyond the bounds of coincidence (unless referring to public buildings/institutions as so many do.) I'd certainly keep away from private names/addresses.
. Why not create a property? Likely only the locals and taxi drivers would know any different, but so what? Or, if you took a road name that you wished to use in a setting e.g. Overgang Road/Street/Crescent, and created a similarly named Overgang Lane (which doesn't exist in reality), then that may solve your issue. Could that help you out?
You can use any address you want, as long as it doesn't point to a specific person in the context it is used. For example if you have a grumpy neighbor named Mr.Andrews who lives at 296 4th str, and you write in your book about a Mr.Andrews who lives at 296 4th str and is of similar character to the real person, you may have problems. Addresses on themselves are not unique to a city or a country for that matter. There more than 100.000 2nd Str in the US alone.
the seasoned writer's rule of thumb you should follow when using a real city/town is to use a real street name, but to number the house either lower or higher than the real numbers go on that street, so you won't be targeting someone who lives on that street and is unlucky enough to have the same house number as your character...
I used a real address. But I slightly changed the numbers. The apartments in the real life block are all 4N or 5H, I simply dropped the letters, so my characters lives at 901/6 street name.
