Move Informant
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Tips on Moving House in the UK

There are several websites that offer checklists for moving house, but having moved recently myself and encountered a few gotchas along the way, I found the following tips to be the most significant for me and I think they might be useful for you too if you are moving house soon or have very recently moved.

  1. If you intend to use a removal company, have you booked one yet? I found a service called Moving Monkey that lets you compare the cost of local removal firms by simply filling in one form. If you haven't already hired a removal company, do try them out.
  2. If you will be doing your packing yourself (note that this may be the case even if you use a removal service) then you should definitely consider buying a set of packing boxes and accessories from a service like BigBrownBox.co.uk.
  3. Have you notified your utility service providers (Water, Gas, Satellite/Cable etc) of your upcoming house move? As I found to my cost, some - like broadband internet services - can take up to two weeks to complete, so act early. There are a number of services that enable you to notify multiple service providers at once about your move but the only one I know that is free and requires no registration is our very own here at Move Informant. Just click on the One Form link above when you are ready. If you are not ready yet, bookmark it for later.
  4. You will also want to notify your banks and credit card providers of your new address. These tend to take effect pretty much instantly so you may want to leave them until just before your move.
  5. Other key establishments to notify include the DVLA, your local borough, TV Licence authority and your employer.
  6. Have you asked the Royal Mail to redirect your mail? Whilst you may have notified everyone you can think of about your move, you are bound to forget one or two. Royal Mail has an excellent redirection service just for this but note that it may take up to 10 working days for redirection to take effect.
  7. If you intend to buy furniture for your new home, make sure you order early as many retailers have their furniture made to order and this can take several weeks. Before you go to John Lewis, DFS, MFI etc, you may want to try good old Argos. Did you know that you can find especially good bargains on furniture when you buy from the Argos website?

So there you go, our top seven tips for ensuring a smooth move. All the best with your move and enjoy your new home.