Moving house is much more than packing your valuable belongings and moving them to a new location. It is about moving your whole life and depending on who you are this is generally a pretty complex process.
Before you even start to think about packing you can begin making the changes that you need to make. These tips are about financial arrangements and responsibilities associated with moving house. If you don’t take care of these things may literally get lost in the mail or worse.
1. Redirect mail
Everyone needs to know where you are going. Australia Post is pivotal in making sure that there is no interruption to your mail service. Give them a month’s notice if possible and it is generally a good idea to redirect your mail for at least six months.
2. Banks and financial institutions
It may be that you do most of your banking online so you will still have access to your bank statements even if you don’t change your address. However for all other transactions and contracts make sure that the right departments know your new address well in advance – always notify them in writing rather than relying on a phone call.
3. Motor vehicles
There are all sorts of legal requirements attached to the ownership of motor vehicles in Australia and you need to let the appropriate authority in your state of residence that you are moving.
You will also need to change the address on your driver’s license if you have one as it is a legal form of identification and according to law must always have you current address attached to it.
4. Insurance policies
If you are an average Australian you will have at least one insurance policy in your name, probably more. Some of the types of insurance policies that you will need to change your address on are:
- Home and contents – this must start at the new address as soon as you begin moving things;
- Motor vehicle;
- Life.
5. Subscriptions
Are you a regular reader that loves to have your favourite magazines and newspapers delivered to your door? Don’t miss out on a word of your regular reading by changing the address on all of your subscriptions so you don’t miss an issue.
6. Utilities
Don’t get left in the dark when you move to your new house. In the rush of moving and with all of the things that you have to take care of it is very easy to forget about utilities. Companies usually take a few days or sometimes weeks to process your request, so allow time before you move to ensure that you have electricity and water when you take up residence.
If you get these tasks completed before you move it means you will have less to deal with when you need to be organising and packing. We have more tips to help you with this phase of your house move in Moving House: Follow These Tips Before you Start Packing Part 2.
