Updating the electoral roll when you move house

Here's the assumption that trips people up: that registering with the new council for council tax also updates the electoral roll, because both go to the same building. They're separate registers, run separately, and paying one tells the other nothing. If you don't re-register to vote, you can still be paying council tax at an address where you aren't on the roll.

There's no change-of-address form — you apply again

This is the second thing people get wrong: they look for a way to update an existing entry, the way you'd update a delivery address on a shopping account. There isn't one. Moving house means submitting a new application to register, at the new address, and — separately — your old entry gets removed once the new one is confirmed.

The application itself is quick: gov.uk/register-to-vote takes about five minutes. Because it's an application rather than a notification, it asks for more than your name and address — have your date of birth, nationality and National Insurance number ready. You can still register without an NI number; the form has a way to explain why.

Why it matters beyond the next election

• Credit reference agencies use the electoral roll to confirm where you live. Being absent from it at your current address can hold up a mortgage, a loan, or even a mobile contract — regardless of whether you plan to vote.
• It's checked at your *current* address specifically, so an old entry that's still sitting at your previous house doesn't help you here.
• If you're registered to vote by post or by proxy, that arrangement doesn't move with you either — it has to be set up again at the new address.

If you'd rather do it by post than online

The online form is the fastest route, but a printable paper form exists at the same gov.uk page, and Northern Ireland uses a different one, returned to the Electoral Office for Northern Ireland (EONI) rather than the council. Whichever version you use, the Electoral Registration Officer needs the same core facts to process it: name, new address, previous address, date of birth, nationality and National Insurance number. Leaving any of those out is the single most common reason an application bounces back asking for more information.

MovePlan drafts this one as a letter alongside the other twelve in your pack, addressed to your local Electoral Registration Office with those fields laid out ready to fill in and sign — for anyone who'd rather post it than fill in the online form. The who-to-notify page covers where this sits against everything else you need to tell.

1. 1

   Register once you have the new address confirmed

   You don't need to have moved yet — the form accepts a future move date. Doing it early means you're not chasing it during the busiest week.

2. 2

   Have your National Insurance number ready

   It's the detail most likely to stall an application if you go looking for it halfway through the form.

3. 3

   Check you've come off the old address

   Confirmation usually follows within a couple of weeks. If a household member is still shown at the old address after that, it's worth a follow-up call to the council.