Can I give my forwarding address as present address?

am.jovial

I got stuck abroad and vacated the UK rented flat. Now, I am not living in my present UK address. All my posts are redirected to a friends place in same city in the UK. 
I have not YET updated the banks about this and not sure if I can provide my forwarding address as the NEW address. I plan to return to UK once covid is sorted but it may take an year or two !
Please could experts here guide me on what to do with this address issue. Thank you.   

DCFC79

I dont see why not.

Where is your post from the bank sent to now ?

Grumpy_chap

If your friend is agreeable to receiving your post and then forwarding to you abroad, you an update to that as your contact address.  You should only see that as a temporary measure though, as it is not really your address plus it is a bit unfair on your friend.  If you are going to be abroad for a couple of years, you should arrange forwarding to the address where you are actually living and make other arrangements (tax, healthcare, etc) based upon a long term residency overseas.

am.jovial

DCFC79 said:

I dont see why not.

Where is your post from the bank sent to now ?

To my friends place. 

am.jovial

Grumpy_chap said:

If your friend is agreeable to receiving your post and then forwarding to you abroad, you an update to that as your contact address.  You should only see that as a temporary measure though, as it is not really your address plus it is a bit unfair on your friend.  If you are going to be abroad for a couple of years, you should arrange forwarding to the address where you are actually living and make other arrangements (tax, healthcare, etc) based upon a long term residency overseas.

My friend is kind of happy to help me here. He has done lot more for me already (vacated my flat, sold my car and other stuff, and few other stuff). He understands my situation so he is ok with the letters. We are not sure how long we will be stuck abroad and if and when we want to return back to the UK. 

We can update the address to friends place but then I may have to keep the forwarding on to prevent any important letters going to old address - may be for an year. I don't want to be in a situation of having to set up 2 forwards ( in case I happen move back to the UK but to some other city ).  We have 2 separate surnames to forward so for 2 addresses it will be 4 forwards !!) 
Other doubt I have is, will it be an issue for banks, HRMC, and Councils  etc. if I update my friends address as my address also ?

HeidyD

Why not, you can do it, I don't see a problem here.

Fire_Fox

Royal Mail forwarding very occasionally misses an item, so please do not leave your old address on the bank system or for anything else important any longer.

You will need to check the terms and conditions/ policy of your bank to find out whether they are happy to use your overseas address. If not you will either need to close the bank account, OR use your friend's address as a 'care of' address.

As long as you clearly list the new address as your 'care of' (written as c/o) it should not cause your friend any problems. Like this

Mr. A.M. Jovial
c/o Flat 6, Moneysaving House
Stratford, London, E15