Start with a master list, before the boxes are unpacked

The week after completion is a strange mix of exhaustion and adrenaline. You are surrounded by boxes, the kettle is somewhere in a cardboard tomb, and the last thing you want to think about is admin. But paperwork is far easier to sort while the move is fresh in your mind than three months later, when a council tax demand lands on the doormat addressed to the previous owner and you cannot remember which utility you switched to.

Before you do anything else, open a note on your phone or a single sheet of paper and create a master list of everyone who holds your name and address. Work through it methodically. Tick items off as you go and keep the list somewhere you will find it again — a photo of it saved to your phone works well.

Council tax, electoral roll and local services

Council tax is usually the most urgent one, and it is worth contacting the new local authority within days of moving in. Tell them your completion date, your new address and your previous address so they can close the old account and open the new one. If you are moving between councils, you will need to do this twice — once with each authority. Direct debits do not follow you, so set up a new one rather than assuming the old one will simply roll over.

While you are on the council's website, check the following:

• Electoral roll — re-register at your new address. You can do this individually, and it only takes a few minutes. It matters for credit checks as much as for voting.
• Bin collections — collection days and recycling rules vary enormously between councils, and some charge for garden waste.
• Parking permits — if your new street has controlled parking, apply for a resident permit before the first penalty notice arrives.
• Garden waste and bulky collections — worth knowing about before you abandon a sofa in the front garden.

Utilities, water and broadband

Gas, electricity and water are the classic forgotten items. Take meter readings on the day you move in — photograph the meters, including the serial numbers — and send them to the suppliers so you are not paying for the previous occupier's usage. If you are staying with the same energy supplier, tell them you have moved; if you are switching, it is often simpler to let the new supplier handle the transfer and simply notify the old one that you have left.

Water is easy to overlook because it is not part of the energy market. Contact the water company for your new area to set up an account, and do the same with the one you are leaving if you were on a metered supply.

Broadband deserves its own note. Contracts rarely transfer between addresses, so check whether your provider covers the new property. If they do not, you may be able to leave early without a penalty — but you will usually need to give notice and arrange a new provider, and installation can take a couple of weeks. If you work from home, book this before you move, not after.

Post, banks, insurance and the DVLA

Set up a postal redirection with Royal Mail for at least three months, ideally six. It catches the organisations you forget, and there are always one or two. It also gives you a paper trail if something important goes astray.

Then work through the institutions that hold your money and your identity:

• Banks and building societies — update your address on every account, including savings, credit cards and ISAs.
• DVLA — driving licences and vehicle log books (V5C) must show your current address. There is no charge for updating a licence, and failing to do so can lead to a fine.
• Insurance — home, contents and car insurance are all postcode-sensitive. Tell your insurer before you move, not after a claim.
• Pensions, HMRC and National Insurance — update your address with your pension providers and check your Government Gateway account.
• Employer and payroll — so payslips and P60s reach you.

Healthcare, schools and everyday subscriptions

Register with a new GP surgery as soon as you can, particularly if anyone in the household has ongoing prescriptions. You can usually register online or in person, and it is worth checking catchment areas first. Do the same for a dentist and an optician — waiting lists in some areas are long.

If you have children, contact the new local authority's admissions team about school places, even mid-year. Waiting until term starts rarely helps.

Finally, sweep up the smaller accounts that quietly hold your address: streaming services, online shops, loyalty cards, magazine subscriptions, gyms, pet insurance, mobile phone contracts and any delivery apps. Most take two minutes each, and doing them in one sitting is far less painful than discovering a Christmas present was delivered to your old house.

A simple routine that stops things slipping

Keep every piece of moving paperwork — completion statement, meter readings, redirection confirmation — in one folder, physical or digital. Forward your post, update the big four first (council, energy, water, bank), then work down the rest of your list over the following fortnight. Set a reminder for six weeks' time to check that everything has actually been updated. It is a dull hour or two of admin, but it saves a great deal of explaining later — and it means you can get back to the far more enjoyable business of making the new place feel like home.