Moving in lifts you up and wears you out at the same time. You want to unpack the kettle, line up the books, and have breakfast in your own kitchen. Before the radio goes on, though, run through a few checks. They save money and headaches in the early weeks when small problems turn expensive.
Here are four areas worth a couple of focused days before the boxes pile up.
Setting Up Your Utilities and Updating Addresses
Sort the bills and the post early. On move-in morning, take gas and electricity meter readings and note the date. That protects you from inheriting someone else’s debt. Then ring whoever currently supplies the property. You can stay or switch later if the tariff doesn’t suit.
Don’t forget council tax. Tell the old council you’re leaving and register with the new. Moving across a local authority line usually means two bills: a final one at the old address and a fresh one at the new. Find the right council by postcode on gov.uk.
Update your address with the DVLA (both driving licence and V5C), HMRC, your GP, employer, banks, and any insurance policies. A service like SlothMove sends those notifications in one go, beating ten separate phone calls. Set up Royal Mail Redirection at least five working days ahead of the move. It catches the post you forgot.
Inspecting the Plumbing and Heating Systems
The first thing to learn in a new home is where the stopcock lives. It’s usually under the kitchen sink, sometimes in the hallway, under the stairs, or tucked into the airing cupboard. Turn it and make sure it works. If it’s seized, you want to know now, not at three in the morning with water everywhere.
Next, the boiler. Note the make and model, and ask the seller for the last service record. If nothing’s been done in over a year, book a Gas Safe registered engineer. An annual service typically runs £60 to £100 and shows you the state of the unit.
Switch the heating on and walk past every radiator. Cold tops, gurgling, or banging usually mean trapped air, and a quick bleed sorts it. Check the boiler pressure too: on a cold system, around 1 to 1.5 bar. If you’re topping it up more than once every couple of months, there’s a leak and it’s worth calling someone.
Take a torch to the pipework under sinks, behind toilets, and around the washing machine. Stains or swollen chipboard point to older issues. If you need essentials straight away, like a radiator key, washers, a flexi for the kitchen tap, or a replacement stopcock, www.monsterplumb.co.uk ships most orders within one to two working days.
Security First: Changing Locks and Checking Alarms
Think about how many spare keys to your new home are floating around: previous owners, their friends, cleaners and the gardener. Nobody really knows. The first sensible move once you’re in is changing the cylinders or the locks on every external door.
Check the locks against your insurer’s expectations as well. Most UK home insurance policies want a BS 3621 lock on external doors: a five-lever mortice deadlock with anti-pick and anti-drill features. Anything weaker, and a forced-entry claim could be refused.
Window locks deserve a look too, particularly on ground-floor frames and anything reachable from a flat-roofed extension.
Smoke alarms should sit on every storey used as living accommodation, and a CO alarm belongs in any room with a gas or solid-fuel appliance. That’s a legal requirement for landlords under the 2022 regulations, but for owner-occupiers it’s still common sense. Press the test button, swap dead batteries, and ask the seller for any alarm-system codes and maintenance contact.
Deep Cleaning Before Unpacking
The most thankless mistake at any move is unpacking into an unwashed house, then spending two months shuffling boxes to reach the corners. A couple of days with a mop before the furniture arrives repays itself many times over.
Start in the kitchen: behind the cooker, under the sink, the oven, and the extractor filters. In the bathroom, focus on limescale on the taps and showerhead (most of the UK has hard water), the grout between tiles, and the silicone around the bath.
Carpets are worth a steam or a professional clean, particularly if the previous owners had pets. Windows and frames collect dust in places nobody usually thinks about. Defrost and wipe any fridge that’s been left behind. Give the drains a quick going-over with a screwdriver or a brush, so a slow-moving sink doesn’t become next week’s problem.
The list takes a couple of weekends, but it cuts the moving-in surprises in half and lets you settle into the house properly, rather than living around it.
Last Updated on Wednesday, August 26, 2026 by Lavania Oluban