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Who to Notify When Moving Home

Moving to a new home can be a rather stressful affair and it’s easy to forget things with all the hustle and bustle of packing and unpacking. You’ve not only got to get your belongings from A to B on moving day, but you will probably have your hands full with fractious children and pets too.

One thing you will need to do is notify important people and organisations about your change of address. Regardless of whether you intend to take their services with you or need to cancel them they will all need to be informed of your new abode. It’s best to do this as soon as you can, bear in mind many suppliers will have a notice period in place if you are cancelling their services or if you want to take services with you, they usually book supply appointments sometimes weeks in advance, so the sooner you contact everyone the better!

Here’s our checklist of those you need to contact to inform of a change of address:

Utilities:

  • Gas
  • Electric
  • Water

All these companies will need to be informed that you are moving and that you will no longer be paying the bills at the current address. You will also need to provide final meter readings on your last day of occupation, so schedule this to make sure you don’t forget. Remember to take pictures of the readings too just in case there is a dispute.  The good news is that you can do this by phone or online. If you have Smart Meters installed for your gas and electricity supply, then you may not need to provide a final reading as, once notified, the supplier(s) will be able to take this for you on your moving date.

Telecoms:

  • Landline Telephone
  • Internet
  • TV/Satellite
  • TV Licensing
  • Mobile Phone

You will need to disconnect your TV and satellite service (if you have one) and transfer it to your new home. Your landline telephone will be automatically billed according to your usage, but your supplier needs to know where to send the bill. If you want to keep your landline number this may be possible, talk to your provider when you call about transferring it. Similarly, your mobile phone service provider will need to know you are moving home. Whilst this may have no bearing on your bill it will prevent communications with your personal details on going to the old address.

One thing, people often forget is to change the address on their TV license. This is easy to do online.

Finances:

  • Banks and building societies
  • Insurance companies (car, home, life etc)
  • Paypal and other online payment services
  • Credit card companies
  • Council tax
  • Savings and pensions
  • Your employer
  • Inland revenue if you are self-employed

You’ll be surprised how many different parts of your financial life need to be addressed when moving home. Sit down and make a list of all people or businesses that you have financial transactions with and go online to find out how you change your address. If you want to avoid statements and your financial details going to your old address, you should do this as soon as possible. One of the first to be addressed will be your home insurance, for contents insurance it is useful to understand if your belongings are covered during the move and buildings insurance will be required for your mortgage provider.

Health:

  • Doctor
  • Dentist
  • Optician

These are the big three but you may have others that you need to contact. Include your vet if you have pets, as their records will also need to be transferred, or if you are staying in the local area your address will need to be changed.

Other Contacts:

  • Friends and family
  • Clubs and community groups
  • Library
  • School or college
  • DVLA for your licence and car log book
  • Breakdown company
  • Subscription companies
  • Online stores such as Amazon and eBay if you use them

As you can see there’s a pretty varied number of contacts here. Our advice is to sit down and make a checklist of everyone you need to contact and work through this gradually. Notifying your change of address can end up being a time-consuming business and our advice is to do it in bite-size chunks. One good way is to break your list down into sectors like in this article and tackle the most important first.

When it comes to friends and family it’s easy to leave someone out but it’s not as costly as forgetting, for example, to tell your utility company that you are moving. Focus on businesses, organisation and institutions first.

Avoiding Identity Theft

An important consideration when moving home is your post. Bills and communications from suppliers often contain sensitive information. To avoid opportunists getting hold of this personal data, it is strongly recommended you apply to the post office for a post redirection service, that way should you forget to inform a company of your move the postal communications will be redirected to you. A postal redirection service can be set up online.