Change of address checklist

The reason changing your address is tedious isn't that any single one is hard. It's that there are around forty of them, each wants the same four facts typed into a slightly different form, and a few have deadlines that nothing draws your attention to.

Two things make it dramatically faster: doing them in the right order, and writing the letter once. Both below.

Write this once, then reuse it

Almost every organisation on the list wants exactly the same information. Draft this once and paste it into every form and email rather than composing it forty times.

Dear Sir/Madam,

Please update my address on file with effect from 13 November 2026.

Name: Sarah Whitfield
Previous address: 14 Alder Road, Leeds, LS6 2QT
New address: 8 Cranmer Avenue, Harrogate, HG2 8LP

Please confirm once this has been updated.

Kind regards,
Sarah Whitfield

Week one — the ones with a legal duty

Before the move — money and cover

Insurance is the one to be careful with. Cover attaches to the address, and there is frequently a gap on moving day itself when your belongings are in a van. Ask your insurer about the day specifically, not just about the new address.

• Bank and building society accounts — all of them, including dormant ones
• Credit cards, store cards and any finance agreements
• Mortgage lender, or landlord and letting agent
• Home and contents insurance — ask about moving-day cover explicitly
• Car insurance — where the car parks overnight affects the premium
• Life insurance, income protection, and any critical illness cover
• Pension providers, including old workplace schemes
• Savings, investments and Premium Bonds

Before the move — utilities

Book broadband first. It has by far the longest lead time — routinely two to four weeks — and it's the one that most affects your first week actually living there.

• Broadband and landline — book this earliest of anything on this page
• Electricity and gas — final readings at the old address, opening readings at the new
• Water — usually a transfer rather than a switch, as most areas have no choice of supplier
• Mobile provider, for the billing address
• Boiler cover or home emergency policies
• Royal Mail redirection — a safety net for what you forget, not a replacement for this list

After the move — health, work and everything else

• GP surgery, dentist and optician
• Any hospital with an open referral, so appointment letters follow you
• Your employer's HR or payroll team
• HMRC, especially if self-employed
• DWP, if you receive any benefits or the State Pension
• Schools, and the new local authority if changing
• Online shopping accounts with a saved default address — the usual cause of a parcel going to the old house
• Breakdown cover, gym memberships, professional bodies, unions
• Charity direct debits and subscriptions
• Your solicitor, and anyone holding a will or power of attorney

Keeping track of it

This list is spread over about six weeks and interleaved with packing, completion dates and a removal firm. Anything you're holding in your head during that period will be dropped — that's not a character flaw, it's just how moving works.

MovePlan turns this into a dated plan built from your actual move date, so each task appears in the week it needs doing, and generates six of these letters already filled in with your name, both addresses and your date. You tick things off as you go and it saves.