Change of Address Checklist

Everyone you need to notify when moving home

Moving Home Checklist

Moving home is exciting.

And if you are moving your best friend is a really good change of address checklist.

When we change address there are typically over 20 companies we need to update our address with as well as lots of other ‘to-do’s.

We’ve pulled together this incredibly easy-to-use guide so you know who to inform when you are moving home.

We will cover everything you need to know. And thanks to new technology, we’ll also show you how you can actually update your address online (for free) across all of your accounts at the same time.

The quickest way to update your address across all of your accounts is with SlothMove’s moving home platform. You can let both your previous and new Council & Water providers know you’re moving. You can also update your address across companies & institutions such as DVLA, NHS, Boots, Tesco, Chartities, Postcode Lottery etc…

Let’s jump straight in.

SlothMove will help you update your address and set you up in your new home automatically in just a few minutes. And if any of your accounts require any further actions we’ll let you know by email. On average people save around 7 hours of time using our free moving home platform.

This will cover most of your moving home admin in one place.

Let’s covering the comprehensive list of everyone you need to inform when moving home.

Inform Your Local Authorities

At the top of our change of address checklist is informing the local authorities that we’re moving home. Specifically, we need to inform our water, sewerage and local council.

This is required for both your previous property and your new one.

You will need to let them know that you’re moving even if it will be the same institution providing your new home (in other words, you’re within the same catchment area). If your providers are the same in your new home you won’t need to make any changes to your DD. However, if they are a new provider you will of course need to set-up payment arrangements with them.

What’s more, your water and sewerage supplier could be different. You can find out who supplies the water and manages the sewerage with Water UK’s online finder.

We appreciate that updating your address with both your previous and new council & water providers can be time consuming.

You can use our free online change of address service. SlothMove will actually update your address with both your previous and new institutions for you. SlothMove will complete the address update automatically for you.

You can click below to get started.

Good to know: You only need to update your address with a council, water or sewerage company if you were registered at that address. The Council needs to keep an accurate record of who lives at the property, so even if you weren’t the bill payer they need to know.

Update Your Insurance

When you change address you must inform all of your insurance providers. These could be across;

– Health insurance
– Travel insurance
– Pet insurance
– Home insurance
– Life insurance
– Car insurance

When you complete a change of address it’s important to understand that your insurance premiums might change. That is to say, you may be paying more than you did previously.

The reason for this is that your insurance quote is partially based on your geography and where you live. If we take car & home insurance for example, some areas are statistically more likely to have car thefts and home robberies. To reflect this, insurance companies will increase the amount on your policy to hedge against those costs.

The reverse is also true.

Your premiums may decrease when you move home as your area is slightly less at risk than your previous one.

In any case, you must update your address on your insurance. If you don’t the consequences could be unpleasant. For instance, if your car insurance is registered at a different property and you try to claim your insurance company could indemnify you. This means they would refuse to pay-out.

Bottom line, keep your insurance companies up-to-date on your address.

Inform Your Job, Friends & Family

This one sounds really obvious, but you will be surprised by the amount of people who forget to let their friends, family & workplaces know that they have moved home. Here’s a checklist of people you may wish to update:

– Parents
– Siblings
– Close friends
– Employer
– Gardener
– Nanny
– Cleaner

The best practice when it comes to updating your address with friends and family is to jot-down a quick list of everyone you want to tell. It might be the case there are some people you don’t want to inform and that’s perfectly normal too.

By letting these people know you’re moving you won’t end-up losing Christmas & Birthday cards. Also, when it comes to your employer you may receive key communications to your home address. If you’re not there to receive it not only will you not be aware there is also a small risk of mail fraud.

Consider how many people’s mail you get at your current property.

You may also consider setting-up a Royal Mail Redirection. We can help you do that in our home moving platform or you can set it up here.

Update TV Licence & Subscriptions

Your TV licence can be updated automatically using our free moving home service. You can also sign-into the TV Licencing website and follow the online instructions there also. If you plan to have two properties you will need two separate TV licences.

You will also want to update your address with all of your subscriptions. Thankfully, some digital subscriptions such as Netflix don’t require it. Here’s a list of some subscriptions/services you may need to update:

Subscription boxes
Magazines
Newspapers

The last thing you want is your subscription services going to your previous home when you complete a change of address.

Top tip: You can also log into your online shopping sites (such as Amazon, ebay, topshop etc…) and change your delivery address there. Lots of people forget to do this and end-up having all of their items go to their old address

Update Your Vehicles

One of the most important addresses to update if you’re a car owner is with the DVLA. If you are moving home you must complete your address change with the DVLA – even if you’re moving around the corner. In terms of your vehicle you need to update the following:

Driving licence
Log book (V5C)
Direct Debt details for car tax (if applicable)
Customised plates (if applicable)
Car insurance

We have a full and comprehensive guide on how to update your address with the DVLA which you can find here.

If you fail to update your address with the DVLA you actually be fined up to £1,000. Furthermore, if you need to place a claim on your car insurance and you are living at a different address than the one to which you’re registered you can be indemnified. As we said earlier, this means you will be liable to pay any costs yourself as it invalidates your car insurance.

Remember to update the address across your cars, vans, caravans, motorbike and all vehicles.

Complete Your Meter Reads

Incomplete meter readings are the bane of the water and energy industry.

They honestly hate them.

Energy & water companies really want your meter readings as it allows them to settle your account. They want to be able to say with clarity ‘Occupier 1 used X & Occupier 2 used Y’. This means that they are paid the correct amount for what’s been used.

It’s also great for you as a home mover that you provide accurate meter readings. For you, it means that you won’t pay any more than you have actually used. Here’s a helpful guide on how to read your gas & electricity meters.

You will only need to provide water readings if you have a water meter. If you don’t have one of those then you don’t need to worry about it. The added benefit of providing meter readings is that you can settle your account quicker. That means if you are owed a refund you can get that processed much more quickly. And conversely, you can also settle any outstanding bills.

So, when should you submit readings? Well, the best time to take meter readings in on the day you move out. This means you will have accurate billing information right-up until you left the property. It’s good practice to take a photo of the reading too.

Update Your Utilities

As you know well, no change of address checklist would be worth its salt unless it talks about utilities. When we discuss utilities we mean:

Electricity
Gas
Broadband
Water

Let’s start with electricity. As we’ve explored, you need to provide meter readings. This can be done to either your previous or new energy supplier. You don’t have to take your energy supplier with you to your new address. Often, your current energy supplier will try to keep with you when you move home.

Moving home is actually the best opportunity to reduce the costs of your bills across energy (broadband too). Most people are placed on what are called ‘standard variable tariffs’ when they move into a new property. They are notoriously expensive. To save you the hassle, SlothMove can help you inform your previous energy supplier you’re moving home and help you get everything set-up in your new property. Even if you don’t explore that through us, be sure to do your research and be informed on what you’re paying.

With broadband, there may be cancellation fees and that depends on which broadband provider you are with. Don’t be put off by cancellation fees. In quite a lot of circumstances it is actually cheaper to move home, pay the fee and switch providers. This is not to mention the fact that broadband deals are excellent for home movers as most companies will try to acquire customers at that point.

You can also find-out who your new/previous water supplier are as well as updating them with our online change of address service below.

Inform Electoral Roll & HMRC

As we know, the Electoral Roll is a centrally held database which is used to issue voting cards for elections and the like. Therefore, if we’d like to continue to vote when we move home we definitely need to update our address with the Electoral Roll. This can be done online by completing the relevant form. SlothMove can also help you with updating them too.

HMRC also needs to know that you’ve changed address. HMRC covers lots of separate governmental institutions such as the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP), ESA, PIP etc…

When you update your address with your employer, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it has been updated with HMRC as well. You can get started updating HMRC with our platform or via the Governments Online Gateway. You need to provide your unique number, password and follow the online instructions.

This will then update your address across all of HMRC automatically. The only exception is any job-centre related benefits. In those instances you would need to call them directly.

Update Your Banks

According to the Financial Times, one out four people have more than one bank account. And the number is growing. With the advent of account switching, digital banks and new market entrants we have more banks per person now than we ever did.

This also means we have more work to do when changing address in the UK to make sure each bank has our accurate and current address. The process is different for each bank. Most will only enable you to update your address via post or in branch. Our online moving home platform contains full details for each bank and how to get the address updated.

It’s important to keep an accurate address with your bank for a few reasons. Firstly, it’s the fundamental piece of verifiable information used in almost every interaction you will have with your bank. Secondly, and most importantly, your bank(s) will send key communications to your home address. Some of these may be offers, but some will certainly include highly private and potentially sensitive information. If this information got into the wrong hands then it could potentially lead to fraudulent activity.

With all of that in mind, keep your banks updated with the address details for your new home.

Update Your NHS Address

When moving home you need to check if you need to update your address with the NHS. The NHS is modular and has separate institutions that don’t all link-up. It’s better to think of the NHS as:

Your GP
Your local hospital

You only need to update your hospital if you are currently receiving care from that hospital. Your GP will need to know you’ve moved home – even if they will continue to be your GP as you’re not moving out of the catchment area.

You will also need to update your address with your dentist. Some dental surgery’s will inform you of new appointments via text, but some still send letters so it’s a good idea to keep them updated with your new move.

Update your loyalty cards

When moving home you need to change address on all of your loyalty cards. The three most popular loyalty cards in the UK are:

Tesco’s Clubcard
Nectar Card
Boots Advantage Card

How many loyalty cards do you have? Naturally there are lots more. You can update your address with the above with our moving home platform.

You should update loyalty cards as you can receive offers, gifts and key communications through the post. The last thing you want is someone else receiving 3 months worth of Clubcard vouchers!

Frequently Asked Questions

Who to notify when changing address - do you have a moving house checklist?

It is tough to know who to tell when moving home because there are so many companies to tell. The best way to approach it is with a moving house checklist. We have searched the web to inspire what we hope to be the most comprehensive guide on who to tell when moving home. All you need to do is to follow this moving house checklist to know everything you need to do.

When should you change address when moving

If you’re asking when moving, who do I notify and when do I notify them you’re not alone. Some people need to be told 28 days prior, some a week before and some whenever you want. Some companies might even charge you for closing down accounts and attempt to demand that your relationship continues, even if you have left their geography. We have listed when you should change address when moving on our change of address checklist above.

Do you have a printable checklist for moving house?

We have pulled together a printable checklist for moving house to make your life easier. Our change of address checklist printable is helpful; simply print it off and cross them off as you go. You can download our change of address checklist printable below.

Change of address DVLA

If you need to change of address with the DVLA, you can do so by using the above form. It’s important to take a moment to familiarise yourself with the requirements as there are certain circumstances in which you could be fined up to £1,000. It’s important to keep your address up to date with the DVLA.

Update your address online

STEP 1

About you

Enter your previous address, new address and the date you moved home

STEP 2

Update your address

Select who needs to know you're moving, DVLA, Tesco, Boots, etc...

STEP 3

Submit

Click submit and we'll take care of the rest, sharing any next steps by email