Edinburgh flat address nightmares

TartanSaver

I live in Edinburgh. Flats in Edinburgh have the most bizarre address formats I have ever seen. They work as follows:

Building Number/Flat Number

But they ALSO often use
"Building number"
"Number on floor" f "which floor"

So for example in building 5, the 10th flat (which is the first on on the third floor landing) will be:

5/10 Placeholder Street
Edinburgh

AND

10, 1f3 Placeholder Street
Edinburgh

As a result of this nonsense, callcredit (noddle) are claiming I'm not on the electoral roll. Since I actually VOTED in September, I know with absolute certainty that I am. Despite my attempts to give all banks etc the same address format, they seem to pick and choose at random. Most use the "1f3" type format, but not all. When I do an "address lookup" with postcode only addresses of type "5/10" are on offer. Has anyone else experienced this lunacy, and how did you deal with it? All advice/ideas welcome.

meer53

I do credit checks for lending purposes and these addresses are a bit of a nightmare ! As i'm doing manual and not electronic checks, i can usually find the information i need.

As Noddle aren't lending money, i wouldn't worry about it. Most lenders will be aware of the issue with these addresses.

Pixie5740

Yes I have experienced this in Aberdeen. One flat I rented, even though they were all purpose built flats shared a house number and one letter box, there were no flat numbers or even positions which made it a PITA when dealing with utility companies.

Same problem when I lived in a house that had been converted into 3 flats. When I tried to move my home phone and broadband from my previous home my supplier kept telling me there was an active line at the property, there wasn't, not in my flat. So my supplier disconnected a line, I suspect it belonged to one of my neighbours, and then I had to wait 3 months until my supplier could arrange for a BT Openreach engineer to come out.

My credit files has some weird and wonderful addresses for the exact same properties.

phona

For me, Edinburgh City Council use the 10/5 approach, nearly everyone else uses Flat 5, 10 Lala Lane. I've never seen the f notation you refer to. At my previous address it was 10E, 10/5 or 10/3R (right hand door on the third floor) randomly interchangeably - how post got to the right people is a mystery!

I've been lucky that all my accounts found their way to my credit file and the electoral roll data is there too.

Probably the best starting point is to contact Noddle and I suppose Experian and Equifax too. Otherwise you might have to try to get the Council to sort it - in which case God help you

boatman

For me, the word 'flat' was enough to throw the credit check on Experian, showed I was not the electoral roll, but Equifax was fine.

TartanSaver

So I'm updating this to say it's been causing me considerable difficulty. I managed to convince all of the credit reference agencies that I am indeed registered to vote, but that's far from the end of it. Royal mail database uses the 10/1 format. So when I fill in a form online where it demands a postcode and then gives me a drop down list, I MUST use this format (there is often no option to manually enter an address.)

The Council and ERO use the "10, 1f3" notation. This means that every time I open a bank account (which, like many on here, I do fairly often) they decide I'm not on the electoral roll because the bank computer tries to compare apples with oranges in terms of address formats and decides I don't exist. Meaning I have to go into branch with id, every time, despite being registered to vote here.

It also has the implication that lenders see me as a risk because I'm not registered to vote in their eyes, even though I am. Very frustrating stuff.

Voyager2002

TartanSaver wrote: »

I
As a result of this nonsense, callcredit (noddle) are claiming I'm not on the electoral roll. Since I actually VOTED in September, I know with absolute certainty that I am.

Remember that the electoral registration system changed late last year, so unless you have re-registered since you last voted you are not in fact on the electoral roll.

caevans

I remember the days of living in Edinburgh and the quirky 3f3 etc addresses! I think the way I got round it was to always go with the building number followed by the flat number as you described above, so sadly I can't be of much help

TartanSaver

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Remember that the electoral registration system changed late last year, so unless you have re-registered since you last voted you are not in fact on the electoral roll.

I got a letter from ERO saying I did not need to re-register. I also have a recent letter confirming that I am registered to vote, which I used to prove to the credit reference agencies that I am registered to vote. All 3 of them have accepted this. This does not help when companies search for the wrong address though!

onetwothreefourfive

Yes- I had exactly the same problem and in each case I had to write to the credit reference agency more than once before it was fixed.
I really think they need to take steps to make sure their system is better able to cope with this - as otherwise they are providing inaccurate information about 1000s of people- if I get a minute I might write them a complaint...

In order to apply for a mortgage I had to go into branch and the advisor had to manually change my address into a different format than the one my accounts were registered in (my accounts were registered in the same format as the Royal Mail) and the system can't cope with "/".
The advisor said the same thing happens all the time...

I haven't had any problems applying for other bank products - but then I think recently I have only applied at the building society I already have accounts.

custardy

TartanSaver wrote: »

I live in Edinburgh. Flats in Edinburgh have the most bizarre address formats I have ever seen. They work as follows:

Building Number/Flat Number

But they ALSO often use
"Building number"
"Number on floor" f "which floor"

So for example in building 5, the 10th flat (which is the first on on the third floor landing) will be:

5/10 Placeholder Street
Edinburgh

AND

10, 1f3 Placeholder Street
Edinburgh

As a result of this nonsense, callcredit (noddle) are claiming I'm not on the electoral roll. Since I actually VOTED in September, I know with absolute certainty that I am. Despite my attempts to give all banks etc the same address format, they seem to pick and choose at random. Most use the "1f3" type format, but not all. When I do an "address lookup" with postcode only addresses of type "5/10" are on offer. Has anyone else experienced this lunacy, and how did you deal with it? All advice/ideas welcome.

I think you mean 3F1
3rd floor,flat 1