Change of Address Checklist UK: Who to Tell, In Order

A change of address checklist for UK households is not really a list of boxes, it is a list of people to tell, and the order you tell them in changes how much work you end up doing. Tell your car insurer before or as you move, because your address is a rating factor from the day you live there. Update your driving licence early, because it is the ID most other organisations ask to see, and your vehicle logbook sits downstream of it. Register to vote at the new address early as well: credit reference agencies can buy the full electoral register, and lenders use those files to confirm where you live, so registering first tends to make later address checks pass without a fuss. Get those few done and the rest of the list lands cleanly the first time.

This post is the notify list. Every government row below links straight to the page you need, so you are not searching for each one in turn.

What order should you change your address in?

Only three orderings actually matter. The rest of the list can be done in any order you like.

Electoral register first. You have to register again at the new address, and the full register is the version credit reference agencies can buy. Doing it on day one means the address checks later in the list pass instead of bouncing back asking for proof.
Car insurance before or on the day you move. Your address is a rating factor, so your insurer needs it from the moment you are living there. Do not hold this back waiting for anything else on the list, and tell them yourself rather than assuming a DVLA update reaches them.
Driving licence, then the V5C logbook. The licence is the ID most other organisations ask to see, and the logbook change follows it.
Everything else after that. Bank, HMRC, GP, subscriptions. None of them depend on each other.

A useful sequencing detail: you can tell TV Licensing up to three months before you move, but you can only report a new UK address to the Pension Service after you have actually moved. So one of these is an early job and one is strictly a late one.

Who do I need to tell when I move house?

Here is the full list, grouped. Not every row applies to you, so treat it as a menu.

Government and legal

Who	Link	Notes
Electoral roll	Register to vote	You have to register again at the new address, it does not follow you. Do this first.
DVLA driving licence	Change address on your driving licence	Free. GOV.UK states you can be fined up to £1,000 if you do not tell DVLA when your address changes.
DVLA V5C logbook	Change your address on your vehicle log book	Usually free, and the same up to £1,000 fine applies. Chase DVLA if the new logbook has not arrived within four weeks.
Vehicle tax Direct Debit, private plates, trailers	Tell DVLA you've changed address: step by step	The DVLA records people forget. Worth a quick skim.
HMRC	Tell HMRC about a change to your personal details	Updates your PAYE, Self Assessment and National Insurance records. Tax credits ended on 5 April 2025, so there is nothing to update there.
DWP benefits	Report a change in your circumstances	Moving house is a reportable change. GOV.UK warns you may have to repay an overpayment and could face a £50 penalty.
State Pension	Report changes to the Pension Service	Only tell them after you have moved, not before.
Council tax	Find your local council	Close the account at the old address as well as opening the new one, otherwise you get billed for both.
Passport	Change your personal details on your passport	You do not need a new passport for an address change. HM Passport Office says so directly. Skip this row and save yourself the fee.
TV Licence	Moving house, let TV Licensing know	Your licence does not move automatically, you have to tell them, though your licence number stays the same. You can do it up to three months ahead.

Money and insurance

Current account and any joint account
Credit cards and store cards
Mortgage lender, or landlord and letting agent
Car insurance (before or on the day you move, per the order above)
Home or contents insurance, including the new property's cover start date
Life insurance, pensions and any workplace pension provider
Investment and savings platforms, including ISAs
Your employer's HR and payroll system
Any loan, car finance or buy-now-pay-later account
Breakdown cover

Home and utilities

These are billing-address updates for accounts you are keeping. Transferring supply on moving day, with the meter readings, is a different job and it sits on the moving house checklist.

Electricity and gas supplier at both properties
Water company
Broadband and landline
Mobile provider (billing address, which is often different from the account address)
Boiler cover or home emergency policy
Any solar, EV charger or smart meter account tied to the property

Health and education

GP surgery. If you are staying with the same practice, tell them your new address. If you have moved out of their catchment, register with a new GP surgery
Dentist and optician
Any hospital or clinic with an open referral, so appointment letters do not go to the old house
Vet, plus your pet's microchip database
Schools, nurseries and any childcare provider
Student Finance, if anyone in the household has a live loan

Subscriptions and everyday

Amazon, and any other shopping account with a saved default address
Food delivery and supermarket accounts
Anything on a physical delivery schedule: veg boxes, pet food, contact lenses, prescriptions
Streaming and box subscriptions that post something
Gym, clubs and memberships
Charities you give to by direct debit
Loyalty schemes
Royal Mail Redirection, which forwards post from the old address for a fixed period. It is a paid service and it is the safety net for whatever you miss on this list, not a replacement for working through it.

What about the move itself, the boxes and the meter readings?

Different job, different list. The moving timeline lives in our moving house checklist: booking removals, packing, transferring utilities on the right date, meter photos, the essentials box, the first hour in the new place. The notify list lives here.

Keeping them apart is deliberate. The timeline is date-driven and it ends on moving day. The notify list is not date-driven at all, and a good chunk of it can only be done once you have actually moved. Trying to run both as one list is why people finish the move exhausted and then find a renewal letter at the old address in November.

How do you split the change of address list between two people?

Two adults, a long list of organisations to work through, and no shared view of who has done what. That is where it goes wrong. One of you rings the council, neither of you rings the water company, and you both assume the other did the bank.

OneHaus is a shared brain for a household, so the list above becomes real assigned tasks rather than a screenshot in the family chat. Activate the Moving House pack and each item lands as something you can:

Assign to one person by name, so "tell the DVLA" belongs to whoever owns the car and nobody guesses.
See in one shared list, so the second the electoral roll registration is ticked off, both of you know.
Put a reminder on, which matters for the rows you can only do after the move, like the Pension Service.
Schedule for later, so a reminder to sweep up stray accounts, the ones that only surface on a quarterly or annual billing cycle, is already in the calendar rather than a good intention.

It works on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Android, and you can connect your AI assistant to your household and just say "add council tax and the water company to the move list" instead of tapping through. More on how packs are built is in the Task Packs docs and the Task Packs launch post.

If one of you also changed name recently, the two lists overlap heavily and are best run together. Our name change after marriage checklist covers that side.

Frequently asked questions

What is the first thing to do when changing your address?

Register to vote at the new address, then update your driving licence. The electoral register feeds credit reference files that banks and insurers check, and the driving licence is the ID most other organisations want to see. Doing those two first means the rest of the list goes through without being questioned.

Do I need to change the address on my passport when I move?

No. HM Passport Office is explicit that you do not need a new passport if you change your address or contact details. A new passport is only needed for changes such as your name or appearance.

How much is the fine for not telling DVLA you moved?

GOV.UK states you can be fined up to £1,000 if you do not tell DVLA when your address changes. This applies to both your driving licence and your V5C vehicle logbook, and updating either is free.

Does Royal Mail Redirection mean I can skip the checklist?

No. Redirection is a paid, time-limited forwarding service. It catches what you forget while you work through the list, and it stops. Anything still pointing at your old address when it lapses simply goes missing.

Where does the change of address list fit around the actual move?

The moving house checklist handles the countdown to moving day, the removals, the packing and the meter readings. This page handles who to notify, most of which happens in the fortnight either side of the move. Run them as two separate lists.

Can my partner and I work through the checklist together?

Yes. In OneHaus the Moving House pack is shared across your household, so both of you see the same list, tasks can be assigned by name, and anything ticked off updates for everyone. That is the point of running it as a household list rather than a note on one phone. Start a 30 day free trial and activate the pack.