diff --git a/modoboa/admin/models/mailbox.py b/modoboa/admin/models/mailbox.py
index e09825a93..cbea1a775 100644
--- a/modoboa/admin/models/mailbox.py
+++ b/modoboa/admin/models/mailbox.py
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ from django.contrib.contenttypes.models import ContentType
 from django.db import models
 from django.db.models import Q
 from django.db.models.manager import Manager
-from django.utils.encoding import python_2_unicode_compatible, smart_text
+from django.utils.encoding import smart_text, force_text
 from django.utils.translation import ugettext as _, ugettext_lazy
 
 from modoboa.core.models import User
@@ -164,7 +164,7 @@ class Mailbox(mixins.MessageLimitMixin, AdminObject):
             if code:
                 raise lib_exceptions.InternalError(
                     _("Failed to retrieve mailbox location (%s)") % output)
-            self.__mail_home = output.strip()
+            self.__mail_home = force_text(output.strip())
         return self.__mail_home
 
     @property
@@ -357,7 +357,6 @@ class Mailbox(mixins.MessageLimitMixin, AdminObject):
 reversion.register(Mailbox)
 
 
-@python_2_unicode_compatible
 class SenderAddress(models.Model):
     """Extra sender address for Mailbox."""
 
diff --git a/modoboa/lib/email_utils.py b/modoboa/lib/email_utils.py
index 8e0d3c544..7bca3e92a 100644
--- a/modoboa/lib/email_utils.py
+++ b/modoboa/lib/email_utils.py
@@ -11,11 +11,13 @@ import lxml.html
 from lxml.html import defs
 from lxml.html.clean import Cleaner
 
+from django.core.mail import EmailMessage
 from django.template.loader import render_to_string
 from django.utils.encoding import smart_str, smart_text
 from django.utils.html import conditional_escape, escape
 from django.utils.translation import ugettext as _
 
+from modoboa.core import models as core_models
 from modoboa.lib import u2u_decode
 from modoboa.lib.exceptions import InternalError
 
@@ -467,3 +469,16 @@ To: %s
     fp.close()
 
     return _sendmail(sender, rcpt, content)
+
+
+def send_notification(recipient, subject, tpl, sender=None, **kwargs):
+    """Send notification by email."""
+    if not sender:
+        local_config = (
+            core_models.LocalConfig.objects.select_related("site").first())
+        sender = local_config.parameters.get_value("sender_address")
+    content = render_to_string(tpl, kwargs)
+    msg = EmailMessage(
+        subject, content.strip(), sender, [recipient],
+    )
+    msg.send()