Dear LPG,

I retired about five years ago, and I lived alone, as all my little ones had flown the nest.  My mum also lived alone, and we decided that we would solve the two problems at the same time when she moved to my house, so that we could keep each other company. 

That does not seem half as daunting as the big move to a completely new property, but you would be surprised at how many things were involved in spite of the fact that there was no hurry or no house buying chain involved.  The downsizing was always going to be a challenge, as we tried to work out what was going to move with us and what had to go. I had to downsize to make room too.  Over the years our often useless memorabilia really mounts up and is hard to part with.

Then there is the paperwork.   Cancelling the utility bills and telling agencies such as the council tax office and the pensions department about a change of address can get missed if you are not careful. But there is one more thing to remember…

Can I remind readers that if they find themselves in such a situation, there is something that we often forget to add to the list and that is to change at least one of your bills, so that it shows your parent as officially living at your property?  Even though who pays the bill is never going to change, when I asked, I found that my telephone company started asking about my mum’s credit rating, even after I told them the reason that I wanted the bill to show two names.  But I did find that council tax and utility service providers will usually accommodate such a request with a little less challenge. 

Successfully applying for such a change, could still take a little while to produce that all-important letter with the proof needed, because it will take up to three months (depending on how often that service provider expects payment from you) but eventually you will actually get a newly addressed bill through your front door.  You may well ask why…

Arranging  this simple change to one of the bills which is regularly posted to your house can make a real difference, and if you forget you could find your mum or dad with not unsolvable but very immediate problems as a result. 

Before some agencies will allow or grant some of the most routine things to happen ( you may want to register your parent with a more local GP or update the address on  a freedom pass) you are still likely  to be asked to prove where they live by providing a recent bill which includes a name and address.  Getting a quarterly bill addressed to both of you will ensure that Mum or Dad is able to provide that evidence if they need to.

  JA, Lewisham