New build not assigned address

sparkly_momma

We are due to move into our new rental property in 3 weeks and it's a new build. They are still building houses on the estate and it has been assigned a temporary address using a postcode but called "Plot 4". I've had a quick look on royal mail and tried changing address on one of my accounts but obviously this address isn't listed. The letting agent has advised us that it may take a a few weeks/month or 2 before we get assigned a proper address. It hasn't been sorted for council tax yet (we will put money away for this though).
I just wondered if anyone had any experience with changing addresses or what to do in this situation? I know for most companies they can't manually enter an address. Thanks

Cat2011

I moved into my new build nearly two years ago. You should have an address known by Royal mail for when you move in. So you should have no problems with mail being delivered by the postman, but I'm afraid they're the only people who will know your address!

Supposedly companies update their address databases from the royal mail database every 3 months or so, but I found it was around a year before the majority of companies knew that the new estate existed.

Getting anything delivered to the house will be a !!!!! for months, and I found quite a few companies weren't able to quote for household services as they couldn't find my address in their databases, also makes it very difficult to use online comparisons for e.g. house insurance. Although some companies are able to enter addresses manually.

It's best to make full use of the "info for courier" box if available, demand that they ring you before delivery to receive driving directions, or I found putting "off *nearby road*" into the middle of my address useful as well.

Locals like takeaway and taxi's learnt quickly, it was delivery drivers using sat nav that were the real problem.

Time solved it tho - and now everyone knows where I live

P.S. Best thing to do is just ask the post office to forward your mail for 3mths or a year, rather than trying to change your addresses. It doesn't cost too much money and that way you at least don't lose any mail.

Johnhowell

The creation of new addresses is not the responsibility of the Royal Mail, nor the Post Office, but are consulted. Contact the Street Naming and Numbering Officer at your local borough council and enquire what stage your property creation is at. They create the required information that the gets "uploaded" to the National Street Gazateer and thus distributed to all other users when they update their records.

Some companies do not update their records from the National Street Gazateer often because, obviously, they pay a different level of subscription. If a particular company is problematic you could ask how often they update their address database ;-)

Good luck,
John

sparkly_momma

Thanks both of you- looks like it may be a tricky few months then! It's a persimmon build so I would hope they would forward the info across fairly quickly. I will be giving Sky a ring I think- that is the most important one (according to my OH anyway!)