Credit file and multiple address changes

alreeve27

Hi there

I will soon be completing on the chain free sale of our house. I don’t have anything lined up yet other than a few stays with friends and a hotel stay to tide me over for a few weeks whilst looking for a rental property.

later in the year I would like to buy a property again but nothing suitable right now.

Conscious that I need to change my address in many places, including a royal mail redirection and electoral roll, but also that I may need to change it again very soon when I find somewhere to rent. I was going to change it everywhere to my parents’ address where I last lived in 2013.

are there negative consequences (re lenders later in the year) to me doing this and then having to change them all again to a new rental address within a month or so? Or should I do nothing for a few weeks now? Or perhaps just jump at a rental place now in order to have a more permanent address straight away?

thanks

Brie

Any reason you can't get the buyers of the house to forward the mail to your parent's while you get the rental sorted?  Obviously ensuring that they will only need to do this for, what? 6 weeks perhaps??  Good for them to have a forwarding address for you in any case as they're bound to get various bits for you for a couple of years at least.

london21

Can you set a year redirection with Royal mail.

alreeve27

Thanks - yes can set a long redirection. Just wasn’t sure how it looks to a lender if I do this and move my bank account addresses etc for only a matter of weeks. Things aren’t going to sync up date-wise, so will need to change car insurance address etc whilst still not having a rental property sorted.

K_S

@alreeve27 Generally speaking, it is preferable to not have multiple recent address changes on the credit report, but that's more to do with the lender systems getting confused (leading to DIP declines, etc) rather than the lenders themselves frowning upon it. I hope that makes sense.

During the pandemic, I did quite a few mortgages for clients who were in temporary accommodation (parents, friends, short rentals, etc) between home moves due to a variety of reasons (newly wfh clients moving out of cities, home movers completing on their sale even if the purchase had fallen through, etc). None of them ever failed to get a mortgage or had to pay a significantly higher rate simply because of that.

Plus, plenty of FTBs who move around regularly while renting aren't as meticulous about changing addresses as MSE forumites are, their credit reports quite often have a couple of accounts with an old address, etc. None of that on its own is usually fatal to your mortgage chances.  

Keep an eye on your credit report, try make sure all your addresses are updated and register on the electoral roll at the address from which you'll be applying for a mortgage. You should be fine.