Moving house is a stressful time, even if you’re excited to leave one property and go to the next. If you add emotions into the situation – sometimes it can be hard to say goodbye to somewhere – then it becomes even harder. This is a well-known fact, and the stress should only last for a couple of days leading up to the move, and maybe a few days afterwards when you’re making your new home feel like yours.
Really, you’ll want to minimize this stress as much as possible and being prepared is an important element in this. Here are some of things you’ll need to do before you move house to reduce your stress levels as much as you can.
1. Forward Your Mail
When you move house, you’ll need to tell people your new address. However, taking the time to work out exactly who needs to know and then completing all the forms or writing the letters and emails, or even making phone calls, is time-consuming, especially when you have so many other things to do. Yet it must be done.
There is a way around this, however. You can set up a mail forward service to your new address. This means anything address to you at your old address will be sent to the new place instead. When you receive a forwarded piece of mail, you can then get in touch with whoever sent it and pass on your new address. You won’t miss any important mail, and you can change your address gradually over time. It’s less stressful and very convenient.
2. Homeowner’s Insurance
If you’re taking out a mortgage to buy a new property, one of the prerequisites is often to have homeowners’ insurance. The lender wants to know that the asset – the property – will be protected. In many cases, this is something that will be organized well before the moving day itself.
However, if you are paying cash for a property or you are switching your mortgage from one place to another, you’ll need to make sure the insurance is in place – it’s easy to forget. However, if you don’t have insurance (or you have insurance, but it relates to the wrong property), this can cause a lot of problems should something go wrong once you’ve moved. Make this a priority even if your lender hasn’t asked you to, and you will feel much more at ease.
3. Check Your Meter Readings
In the majority of cases, once you leave your old home and take possessions of the new one, you won’t be able to return – someone else will now own it and will more than likely be moving in. This is why it can be such a rush on moving day, as you need to leave before they arrive, but the people in your new home have to leave before you arrive; it’s a logistical issue that someone works itself out in most cases.
However, in all the rushing about, you might forget to take the final meter readings in your old house. This means gas, electric, and sometimes water. You’ll need these to give to your utility company to receive a final bill for payment, even if you are sticking with the same company in your new home. If you forget, you may not be able to go back, and this could lead to an estimated bill or a delay.
