Changing address twice in 5 weeks?

Sedge123

Just wondering what others would do? We are moving in with relatives for 5 weeks before moving into our new house. We have postal redirection setup (to the relatives address) for 12 months.

Is there anything that I "must" change before we move into the new house in 5 weeks? Seems pointless changing everything twice.

jayII

There are lists online of things you need to change when you move (I'm just about to begin the process myself). I'd check some of those lists and look into what 'needs' to be changed because you will be fined if it isn't done. Also what will cause extra expense if not changed.

Off the top of my head, things like driving licenses can incur fines if addresses aren't changed in time. You could also incur extra charges if gas, elec, etc aren't informed that you've moved out of a house.

Good luck in your new house.

agrinnall

I would say that for 5 weeks it won't be worth the bother of changing in most cases, just wait until you're in the final location and do it then. Make sure that you change your redirection once you have moved the second time. The only things I would do immediately are those that would/could cost you money if you don't, such as ensuring the council know you have left the first property (you may well be due a CT refund, I got £194 back from mine) and terminating utilities.

Having now seen jay's post I personally wouldn't worry about driving licence as the chances of you being fined in a 5 week period are very low (although the change is free and my new card came back incredibly quickly), but one other thing you might want to consider changing is your car insurance, although you'll probably incur two sets of admin fees as well as any premium changes.

davidmcn

I doubt anybody officially needs to know about your temporary address. If expecting anything important in the mail you may wish to let them know, as the Royal Mail will occasionally allow things to slip through a redirection.

onlyroz

Definitely wouldn't bother with the driving license. It took us five years to do ours and nobody cared.

G_M

Who now lives at the old address and are they friendly?

RM redirection is about 90% reliable, so a few letters might still go to the old address. If the new tenants/owners are amicable, explain the predicament an ask them to either forward to you, or keep for you to collect.

Then in 5 weeks when you have a permenant address, inform everyone (HMRC, DVLA etc etc) where you now are.

Conversely, if the new tenants/owners where you were are unfriendly/untrusworthy, try the owners where you are moving to. If you give out your new address a few weeks early, will they departing owners keep/leave the post for you??

Propertyauthor

Another option might be to do a shorter redirection to someone you do trust eg family /friend and then extend it, but use your new address.

Sedge123

Thank you all. We've done the redirection to the relatives address which is helpfully in the same road as our new house. I think I'll just sit tight and change after the 5 weeks.

ripplyuk

If you're only staying at the relatives house for 5 weeks, it might be better to collect your mail from the Post Office for that time and then set up a redirect once you're in your new house.

It's not easy to change a redirection. You would have to cancel it, and they don't give a refund, then set up a new one for your new address, and another for the original address. It's a bit complicated and I would imagine there will be more mistakes made. I remember it was listed on the Royal Mail website under redirection FAQ when I was moving house recently.

Sedge123

ripplyuk wrote: »

If you're only staying at the relatives house for 5 weeks, it might be better to collect your mail from the Post Office for that time and then set up a redirect once you're in your new house.

It's not easy to change a redirection. You would have to cancel it, and they don't give a refund, then set up a new one for your new address, and another for the original address. It's a bit complicated and I would imagine there will be more mistakes made. I remember it was listed on the Royal Mail website under redirection FAQ when I was moving house recently.

Thanks but we are not planning on changing it. The redirection can stay to the relatives address and we will just pick up the odd bits of post every couple of days or so. I'm planning on changing the address on everything I can think of as soon as we are in the new house- I'm sure a few things will slip through though!