Don’t forget to let friends and family know you're moving

In the excitement and anticipation of getting ready to relocate to your new Renaissance Retirement home, letting your family, friends and business contacts know your new address sometimes gets put aside.

It is important to keep in touch - and telling your bank, credit card company, broadband provider, medical organisations and the DVLA, among others, that you are on the move is essential - so don’t overlook this task.      

Thanks to the internet and email, these days it is easy to let people know you are changing address and it won’t cost a fortune in stamps or phone calls.

Make sure you find time to work through your contacts before you leave for your new home. Don’t forget, you can always share the workload to ease the worry by asking for help from family or friends. 

Here’s a checklist to get you started:

Post and deliveries 

Redirect your mail to your new address. It will make your life easier and give you time to contact the necessary people and organisations with your new address. It also means if you do forget to change your address somewhere, you aren’t missing your mail. It’s really simple to do, simply pop into your local Post Office to arrange a redirection for a small charge.

Do you have have regular deliveries? For example, you may have a monthly magazine subscription, a weekly paper, or you may have signed up to food delivery services. Think of whoever delivers to you regularly and make sure you inform them of your new address.

Personal

Inform your doctor, dentist, any hospital departments or clinics that you will have a new address from a certain date. If you are moving to a new area, you will need to get registered there first and get your medical files transferred. You may want to look for a new optician in the area and source a local vet if you have a pet too. If your pet is microchipped, make sure the address on the microchip is updated as well.

Home cover

Does your home insurance protect you up to the point of moving? And have you considered what impact moving home will have on your future premium? Talk to your home insurance provider to ensure you’re covered, inform them of your new address and get an idea of the effect this will have on the overall cost of your insurance policy. It’s a good idea to get a few quotes to make sure you are getting the best deal. 

Financial

It’s important to inform anyone who looks after your personal financial affairs of your new circumstances. For example, contact your bank or building a society, local council and HMRC, even your pension or other investment services. Inform them of your moving date and your change of address. There is a change of address services online that offer to let all your business contacts know in one go but do check that these are secure sites regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Cars

If you’re a car owner, there are a few organisations and companies that you need to inform of your new address:

• DVLA: Update the address on your driving licence and your car ownership certificate. To change the address on your license you can apply by post or online at: www.gov.uk. To update car ownership certificate, simply update your logbook (V5C) with your new address and send this to DVLA.
• Car Insurance: Inform your car insurance provider of your new address. Note that a change of address may impact the cost of your premium, so be prepared for a potential increase in price (or decrease, if you’re lucky). You may have to pay a small admin fee for the changes, but if the changes aren’t made this could invalidate your insurance. Make sure you have any necessary details for the parking offering at your new Renaissance Retirement home.
• Breakdown: Contact the breakdown service of your new address, as your membership will require knowledge of an updated home address should you need to use their service.
• Car finance company: If you are leasing your vehicle or on a PCP agreement, you need to update your car finance company (if applicable) of your new address.

Utilities 

• Water, gas and electric: When informing utility companies of your change of address, you will need to provide them with a final meter reading. Make sure you do this so that you don't pay for anything used after you have moved out. 
• Phone, broadband, and TV: Your provider will allow you to take your existing package when you move, if they cover your area. Simply get in touch with them to find out more information. Also, don’t forget to let your mobile phone provider know your new address. 

If you’re not tied to a fixed deal for any of your utilities, use this as an opportunity to find cheaper providers –  you can always ask friends and family to help you with this. It’s also a good idea to check with your dedicated sales manager if there are any broadband lines already installed in your new Renaissance Retirement apartment, as well as which providers cover your new area. They will also be able to tell you which utilities you need to take care of, as this can vary between developments.

TV license

In order to watch TV in your new home you will need to notify the TV licensing company of your move here. Senior citizens aged over 75 can get their TV licence for free. Find out more information here.

Electoral Roll

Without changing your details on the electoral roll, you’ll be unable to vote in local and national elections. Ensure you update the register when you move. You can do this here.  

SmoothMove with Renaissance Retirement

Whilst this checklist is a great point of reference, we understand how busy the time around your move can be. For ease and peace of mind, let us help you notify people and organisations of your change of address. We offer a fully inclusive removals package called SmoothMove for anyone purchasing an apartment with us*. Click here to find out more. 

*SmoothMove is not available on rentals.