Just moved house: a money checklist

First week after move-in

Five things to do straight away, mostly via online forms:

1. Tell the new council you have moved in. They will register your Council Tax account and start billing from the move-in date. Doing this in week one makes the backdating, transfers, and discounts cleaner later.
2. Tell the old council you have moved out. Same form, mirror operation. They will refund any prepaid Council Tax for the days after your move-out. Most councils take three to six weeks to process.
3. Tell your energy supplier. Submit the opening meter reads at the new property and the closing reads at the old one. Your old supplier will issue a final bill or refund within six weeks.
4. Set up Royal Mail Redirection. £39.99 for three months, royalmail.com/personal/receiving-mail/redirection. Worth the cost; one missed letter from HMRC, your bank, or a regulator costs more than this.
5. Confirm your new home address with your bank, your employer, your GP, and the DVLA. Each is a five-minute job; the DVLA in particular issues fines if you do not update a driving licence address.

First month after move-in

Three things that need a little more time:

1. Check your deposit is protected. Within 30 days of paying the deposit, your landlord must protect it in one of the three approved schemes. Run the lookup on all three. If you cannot find it, send a section 213(6) request to the landlord. Full guide →
2. Look into Council Tax Single Person Discount if you are now living alone (or only with disregarded adults). 25% off the bill, backdated to your move-in date. Full guide →
3. Check your water bill for surface drainage charges if your home does not connect to a public surface-water sewer. Most companies backdate six years. Full guide →

Within three months

These have longer windows but are easier to do while move details are still fresh:

1. Check your new home's Council Tax band against the neighbours. You have a six-month statutory window from move-in to file a formal challenge if the band looks high. Read the guide first; the band can go up. Full guide →
2. Set up your new home's energy direct debit carefully. The first quarterly bill is the one where suppliers tend to over-estimate. Submit the opening read promptly so the first bill is on actual usage.
3. Confirm your old broadband contract has ended. If you transferred it, keep an eye on the bill for duplicate charging during the transition. If you cancelled, confirm the final bill has zeroed out and any deposit or credit returned.

Things you can still claim from the old property

Even months after moving, the old address can still owe you:

• Council Tax overpayment refund. If you prepaid the year, you are owed the days after your move-out back.
• Energy final-bill credit. If your direct debit overpaid through the year, the final bill closes the gap.
• Water company credit. Same logic; close the account at the old address with the move-out reading.
• Deposit return. The landlord has to return the deposit (less any agreed deductions) within 10 working days of agreement. Disputes go to the deposit scheme's free adjudication service.
• Broadband router refund. If you returned a hire router and were charged for non-return, chase the credit; suppliers regularly mis-process this.

The traps everyone falls into

• Forgetting to update HMRC. Update via your Personal Tax Account. PAYE codes drift if HMRC has the wrong address; correspondence about tax refunds can go to the old place.
• Estimated meter reads on the final bill. Always supply actual reads on the day; estimates are systematically high.
• Missing the deposit window. The 30 days start when the landlord receives the deposit, not when you move in. Worth verifying the date and the protection within the first month.
• Not setting Royal Mail Redirection. One mailed letter from HMRC, the bank, or a regulator going to the wrong place can cause months of admin and sometimes a fine.
• Letting the new council guess the move-in date. Tell them, with a date and an opening Council Tax reading if your home has a separate meter. Don't leave it to the system.

How Untap helps

We do not currently have a single "I just moved" wizard, but Nell can walk you through Council Tax SPD, Wrong Band, Tenancy Deposit Protection, and Water Surface Drainage in sequence. Those are the four money-back items most often triggered by a house move. The rest of this checklist is admin you do once and forget about.

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