Summer is moving season. August is the single most popular month to move in the UK, accounting for around 12% of moves, with July and September close behind on 10% each — roughly a third of all house moves happen between late summer and early autumn. (2025 broke the pattern slightly, with October pipping the summer months, but the warm-weather rush is still very much a thing.)
That rush has a cost. Removal firms can charge up to 20% more during peak months, and 85% of them say delays are more likely on the busiest days. So if you're moving in the next few weeks, you've probably already sorted the obvious stuff: removals quote booked, boxes ordered, a rough plan for getting the sofa through the door.
Here's the problem. The boxes are the easy part. What catches people out is the admin — the dull, easy-to-forget jobs that don't feel urgent until a final bill lands at the wrong address or you realise you've been paying council tax on a house you no longer live in. None of it is hard. It just needs doing, and most of it needs doing at a specific moment, not whenever you get round to it.
Here's the list worth actually working through.
On Completion Day: Read Your Meters
This is the one that costs real money if you skip it, and it takes 30 seconds.
Take a reading from every meter — gas, electricity, and water if you're metered — at both properties on the day you move. Read the old place as you leave and the new place as you arrive. Take a photo of each, with the serial number visible if you can manage it. That photo is your evidence if a final bill turns up looking wrong.
Without a completion-day reading, your supplier estimates. Estimates have a habit of running high, and disputing one weeks later without your own figure is a losing battle. Five minutes of phone-camera work saves a tedious argument.
Give your current energy supplier at least 48 hours' notice that you're leaving, and ask for the final bill to go to your new address. For the new place, the supplier details should be on the TA6 property information form — contact them once you've got the completion date so they know when you take over.
Water is the exception to the "do it quickly" rule: water companies want more notice than energy suppliers, so flag your move to them as soon as the completion date is confirmed. For the current cost picture once you're in, see our round-up of every bill that went up in April 2026.
Council Tax: Tell Two Councils, Not One
People remember to cancel council tax at the old place and forget to register at the new one — or the other way round. You need to do both, and if you're moving between local authority areas, that's two separate councils to contact.
Give each one your move-out and move-in dates. That's what stops you overpaying on a property you've left or getting a backdated bill on the one you've moved into. Most councils handle it online in a few minutes. If you're moving to a smaller household, this is also the moment to claim the 25% single-person discount if it now applies.
Council tax was one of the April 2026 rises, with most English councils increasing by the maximum 5% and some higher. Check your new band before you move so the first bill isn't a surprise — our April 2026 bills guide has the full numbers and what you can do about them.
Buildings Insurance: From Exchange, Not Completion
This one genuinely surprises people, and getting it wrong can be financially brutal.
If you're buying, your buildings insurance needs to be live from the day you exchange contracts — not the day you complete and pick up the keys. Most residential sales in England and Wales run on the Law Society's Standard Conditions of Sale, and under those, the risk passes to the buyer at exchange. From that moment you're legally committed to the purchase, and you're responsible for the building, even though you don't yet own it or live in it.
The nightmare scenario: contracts exchange, a storm takes the roof off the week before completion, and because you weren't insured, you still have to buy the house and pay for the repairs yourself. It's also why most mortgage lenders insist on cover from the exchange date as a condition of the loan.
Set it up the moment you're ready to exchange, not the night before you move in. If you're unsure about the exact date, check with your conveyancer — this is the single most expensive moving admin mistake to make.
DVLA: Two Separate Jobs, Both Free
Your driving licence and your vehicle logbook (the V5C) are two different DVLA records. Updating one does not update the other. Both are free to change online, and both need doing when you move.
Update your driving licence at gov.uk/change-address-driving-licence and your V5C at gov.uk/change-address-v5c. The new logbook should arrive within about five working days. While you're at it, tell your car insurer — your premium is based partly on where the car is parked overnight, so your new postcode matters.
Don't let this one drift. Failing to update the address on your driving licence can land you a fine of up to £1,000.
Redirect Your Post — and Time It Right
You will forget to tell someone. Everyone does. Royal Mail's Redirection service is the safety net that catches the bank statement, the dentist reminder, and the random bit of post from an account you'd completely forgotten about.
As of the April 2026 prices, redirection for one person costs £45 for three months, £66.50 for six months, or £95 for a full year. Each adult at the address needs their own redirection. If you or someone in the household receives Universal Credit or Pension Credit, the concession rate starts from £22.50.
Worth doing for at least six months — a year if you've lived somewhere a long time and the trail of accounts is deep. Set it up before you move so there's no gap.
The Five-Minute Jobs People Put Off
A handful of small ones that take minutes each and only become a problem if you ignore them:
- Electoral roll. Re-register at your new address at gov.uk/register-to-vote. It takes about five minutes and you'll need your National Insurance number. Registering at the new place automatically cancels the old one. Beyond voting, being on the electoral roll helps your credit score — useful if you've got a mortgage to think about.
- TV Licence. It doesn't move with you automatically. Update your address through your online account (you'll need your 17-digit licence number) — you can do it up to three months before the move. Watching live TV or BBC iPlayer unlicensed risks a fine of up to £1,000.
- Address changes everywhere else. Bank, GP, dentist, employer, pension, insurers, breakdown cover, subscriptions, the lot. This is the genuinely tedious bit, and it's where most people lose track. Make a list as things arrive in the post over your last few weeks at the old place — anything addressed to you is something that needs updating.
The Point
Moving is stressful enough without a fortnight of cleanup afterwards. Almost none of this is difficult. It's just scattered across a dozen different organisations, each with its own login and its own deadline, and it's easy to lose the thread when you're knee-deep in boxes.
That's exactly the kind of admin The Home Concierge is built to keep on top of — the jobs that aren't hard, just easy to forget. Work through the list above before you move rather than after, and you'll have sorted the bits that actually bite while everyone else is still hunting for the box marked "kettle".
The boxes are the easy part. Meter readings, council tax, DVLA, insurance from exchange, and post redirection are the jobs that cost money if you forget them. Get them done before completion day and you'll move into your new home with the admin already handled.