Mortgage change of address when you move house

"Tell your mortgage lender you're moving" sits on nearly every change-of-address checklist, right next to the bank and the insurer, as if it's the same kind of task. For most people it isn't a task at all. If you're selling your current home and buying the new one with a mortgage — whether that's the same lender or a new one — your conveyancer's completion process is what tells the lender your new address, because the new address is the property the mortgage is secured against. There's no separate letter to write.

Where this page actually matters is the cases that one-line checklist advice doesn't distinguish: keeping your old mortgaged property rather than selling it, a correspondence address that differs from the property itself, and a completely separate record at HM Land Registry that moving house does nothing to update on its own.

If you're keeping the old property and letting it out

This is the case where telling your lender isn't optional admin — it's a condition of the mortgage. A residential mortgage is normally conditional on you living in the property; letting it out instead, even to move somewhere else yourself, usually needs your lender's permission first (often called "consent to let"), and a lender's conditions can tie an address change to it directly. One lender's current conditions (Better HomeOwnership's) put it under the buy-to-let section specifically: "you tell us about any changes to your address - we will send documents about your mortgage to the last address you gave us." That's a duty on buy-to-let borrowers in this lender's own document, not a universal rule for every mortgage — check your own offer and conditions rather than assuming the wording is identical, but treat "ask before you let it" as the safe default regardless of lender.

If your correspondence address isn't the mortgaged property

This covers moving in with family while you sell or renovate, living somewhere different from a buy-to-let you still own, or moving abroad. Here the real risk isn't a broken rule — it's how lenders are allowed to treat post you never update. The same lender's general conditions, covering every borrower rather than just buy-to-let, say: "If we need to contact you, we will write to you by post or email to the address that you have given us for this purpose. We will assume you have received it: within two working days after posting it." An annual mortgage statement, a rate-change notice, or a product-transfer deadline sent to an address you've left is still treated as delivered. The lender doesn't need to prove you read it.

The separate record most people have never heard of

Your mortgage lender isn't the only one with an address on file for your property. HM Land Registry holds its own "address for service" on the title register — a address it writes to directly, independent of your mortgage, your conveyancer, or Royal Mail redirection. Its own practice guide is direct about why it matters: "If we need to write to, or send a formal notice to a proprietor, chargee or other party who has an interest noted in the register, we will write to them at their address(es) shown in the register." Moving house, remortgaging, or redirecting your post does not update this address on its own.

• Up to three addresses can be registered against a property, and at least one must be a postal address — the others can be an email address or an address abroad.
• It's free. Land Registry's own guidance: "There is no fee payable for changing, removing or adding an address."
• If you handle it yourself rather than through a conveyancer, the form is COG1, downloadable from GOV.UK.
• The consequence of leaving it wrong is stated plainly: "it may mean that the person to whom we are writing does not receive important correspondence and they may suffer loss as a result."

This is also why a free Land Registry Property Alert is worth knowing about separately — it emails you if an official search or application is made against a property you've registered for monitoring, which matters most for a property you own but no longer live in, such as one you're letting out or a parent's home. It's a notification service, not a substitute for keeping the address for service itself correct.

What to actually do, in order

1. 1

   Selling and buying normally? Do nothing extra here

   Your conveyancer's completion process registers the new mortgage against the new property and settles the old one. The admin that matters for this move is everything else on who to notify, not a separate letter to the lender.

2. 2

   Keeping the old property to let it? Contact your lender before you let it

   Ask about consent to let and tell them the new address at the same time — this is usually one conversation, not two.

3. 3

   Correspondence address different from the mortgaged property? Update it directly

   Check whether your lender does this online, by phone or only in branch, and get confirmation in writing.

4. 4

   Update the Land Registry address for service separately

   Form COG1, free, by post to HM Land Registry — or ask your conveyancer to include it if you're already using one for the move.

If you're renting rather than buying, none of the mortgage-specific sections above apply — see the end of tenancy checklist instead. For everyday accounts rather than the mortgage itself, changing your address with your bank and telling your insurer cover the rest of the money-and-insurance list on who to notify.