Inform your creditors when you move

If you are selling your home, it is vitally important to inform all your creditors of your change of address.

Two out of three home sellers forget to tell all their creditors when they are moving to a new home – and this can have serious consequences.

Tony Clarke, managing director of Rawson Properties, says time and again bills continue to be delivered to the seller's old address and when they are not paid this can result in the debtor being blacklisted, sometimes for ludicrously small amounts.

"We had one case in which the final R200 owing on a Telkom account – which had been disconnected – was not paid because the bill was sent to the old address. When the debtor later applied for a mortgage loan, he found that he had been blacklisted on account of this bill which he had never seen."

Obviously, said Clarke, the new owner or tenant should forward post to the seller's or previous tenant's new address – but a surprising number do not do this.

Clarke said that in his experience sellers usually tell certain major accounts about their move but forget the smaller accounts. It's essential, two months ahead of moving, to list all possible organisations that might be billing you - banking and credit card accounts, store accounts, magazines and newspapers, clubs and the like - and to inform about the new address.

He says it is also important to check that they've received and acted on the notification.

Conversely, it is also essential that sellers ensure that any cheques or goods due to them are also redirected. In one case, he said, the mover failed to receive regular annuity and insurance rebates for eight or nine years before noticing that something was wrong.

In another case, a wine club member who forgot to tell his club about his move found that for several months the new owner had quietly been enjoying the wines delivered to the old address – without telling the man who was being debited for the deliveries.

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