In general, an address that is valid (status=”V”) according to nCode is one which already has all of the important address elements. This means nothing important is missing or incorrect. A valid address might need some standardization to fix superficial issues like abbreviating keywords or removing punctuation, but the address elements themselves are complete and correct. A valid address is considered deliverable according to Canada Post.

Any address that can be recognized and matched by nCode (whether it is valid or correctable) will have a valid alternative. An alternative is a matching record in the Canada Post reference data. nCode uses the valid matching alternative to output your standardized matching address. In general, all valid and correctable addresses have exactly one valid alternative. However, there is an exception to this rule.

It’s possible for nCode to classify an address as valid without finding any matching alternatives. How can this be? This is a result of Canada Post rules. Canada Post defines a category of addresses called “Declared Valid Addresses”. There are two kinds of declared valid addresses, rural and Large Volume Receiver (LVR). When an address is declared valid, instead of being truly valid, nCode will give you a status code of V (for valid) and zero matching alternatives.

To be declared valid, an address must have a valid rural postal code or LVR postal code. The rest of the address will not match the Canada Post reference data very well, or at all. However, since Canada Post knows where the mail should go based on the postal code, they forgive the inaccuracies in the rest of the address. While declared valid addresses suit Canada Post’s needs just fine, they may not suit your business needs.

What Should You Do With A Declared Valid Address?

The answer to this depends on your business needs. If you are just sending a mailing, you don’t need to do anything. Canada Post considers declared valid addresses deliverable and there is no penalty for having a declared valid address as opposed to a truly valid address as far as your accuracy score is concerned.

However, if you are concerned about getting the address right for other business reasons, or just because you’d rather have the data right, then you need to do something about declared valid addresses. For LVR addresses, you have the option of using nCode’s searching feature to find the full, accurate address using the postal code. For rural declared valid addresses, there is no way to fully automate the address correction procedure.

One of the most common causes of declared valid rural addresses is use of street addresses in small towns where the official mailing addresses are not street addresses, but PO Box, route service (RR) or general delivery (GD) addresses. For example, let’s say you have a customer at the following address:

33 Main Street
Wilcox SK S0G 5E0

This address is a real address used by convention in the town of Wilcox, Saskatchewan. The postal code, however, is for the following range: PO BOX 1 – 507 WILCOX SK. nCode would call this street address declared valid. In a case like this, if you wanted to get the official mailing address for your customer at this address, you would have to contact them directly and ask them for their official mailing address. nCode will tell you that what you are looking for is a PO Box address in this case, so you can prompt the customer with a question like “What is your PO Box number?”