New homeowner but not moving in straight away.

bramblyhedge304195

First time buyer and finally secured new home, however it needs a lot of refurbsihment before I physically move in so am still living in parents home (and never lived anywhere else) which could be for 3-6 months at least. So far done home insurance and in process of switching energy  suppliers under my name. i know there is council tax, water authroties and telephone/broadband but what else do I do? Since i'm not living at new address currently and wont be moving in for a while, do I have to change my address with bank, on driving licence etc. I'll be living at family home and occasionally going into new home during day whilst its being renovated.
Have I missed anything that I need to do in the interim? Also want counts as my home address now? Any advice appreciated thanks!

RAS

Make sure your insurers know you are not sleeping there overnight and are refurbishing. They may require things like heating on at 12 degrees, or water turned off and drained down. I'd suggest some lighting on timers. 

Have you changed the locks? Spoken to neighbours re your plans and exchanged contact details?

Make sure that your car insurers are happy about you being listed at your parents' home not the one you are insuring? 

Try and get some curtains or blinds up to make it look more lived in?

DullGreyGuy

bramblyhedge304195 said:

First time buyer and finally secured new home, however it needs a lot of refurbsihment before I physically move in so am still living in parents home (and never lived anywhere else) which could be for 3-6 months at least. So far done home insurance and in process of switching energy  suppliers under my name. i know there is council tax, water authroties and telephone/broadband but what else do I do? Since i'm not living at new address currently and wont be moving in for a while, do I have to change my address with bank, on driving licence etc. I'll be living at family home and occasionally going into new home during day whilst its being renovated.
Have I missed anything that I need to do in the interim? Also want counts as my home address now? Any advice appreciated thanks!

Make sure you have the right kind of home insurance given its vacant and has works going on... depending on the extent of the works you may need a specialist policy for works.

I'd say your parents address is still your home until you move. For many of the things you've mentioned however they simply need a correspondence address that you can be contacted at

theartfullodger

Suggest you stay overnight the majority of the time & start changing all your mail & contract addresses over soon.  Your contracts probably require you to tell them & especially insurance would be v v expensive if not living there,,,

horsewithnoname

theartfullodger said:

Suggest you stay overnight the majority of the time & start changing all your mail & contract addresses over soon.  Your contracts probably require you to tell them & especially insurance would be v v expensive if not living there,,,

I don’t know if it’s equivalent, but when selling my former childhood home I just had to visit at least once a week to keep the insurance happy. 

I was in a similar situation to the OP when I first bought a home, I don’t recall that the insurance was expensive, but things in general seemed cheaper nigh on 40 years ago!

TroubledTarts

theartfullodger said:

Suggest you stay overnight the majority of the time & start changing all your mail & contract addresses over soon.  Your contracts probably require you to tell them & especially insurance would be v v expensive if not living there,,,

For the OP as well as yourself.

I did a quote for unoccupied and the difference was £150 for 3 months, £225 for 6 months and £400 for the year.

That's is not v.v. expensive imo just in case that gives some clarity to the OP and their decision to stay living at their parents.

jennifernil

Regarding council tax……..some councils give a reduction for a certain period when a property is empty, so worth looking into. It would be Ok to take a chair there to rest on occasionally if required, but otherwise no furniture and no overnight stays.  

In our area, at present, we are allowed up to 6 months without paying anything, but be careful as some councils now charge double for an empty property.

Jude57

jennifernil said:

Regarding council tax……..some councils give a reduction for a certain period when a property is empty, so worth looking into. It would be Ok to take a chair there to rest on occasionally if required, but otherwise no furniture and no overnight stays.  

In our area, at present, we are allowed up to 6 months without paying anything, but be careful as some councils now charge double for an empty property.

Be aware though that the unoccupied property discount applies from the day the property became unoccupied and does not 'reset' when the property is sold, so if the house was unoccupied for a time before OP bought it, such a discount may have already run out. Definitely worth asking the Council Tax team, though.