Street naming and numbering

Correct address records help emergency services find properties easily.

Fees

Please complete the appropriate form listed below. Please note that if you do not pay when prompted to do so your request will not be submitted to us and no work will be completed.

Popular property names and themes to avoid include: 

• Barn
• Coach House
• Stables
• New House or New Bungalow
• Orchard
• tree related names

If your address has a street number, you can add or remove a property name from it. Please be aware in this case that:

• the street number will remain as the primary address
• you must always refer to the street number when stating your address
• you can use the property name with the street number but never on its own
• not all databases will display the property name, some are designed to only display street numbers

We provide and maintain one street name plate at each end of a street, except for private streets. Street name plates are made from recycled material and we will replace damaged or faded plates as soon as possible.

Please note that the Local Authority allocates addresses and Royal Mail then allocates postcodes to these. Royal Mail are unlikely to allocate a postcode and deliver mail to non-residential units that do not have an office which is occupied during normal working hours. Agricultural buildings usually fall into this category.  

If this applies to you, you can still apply for a new address. However, if it is likely that Royal Mail will not deliver mail there then only a non-postal address will be allocated. A non-postal address is an address without a postcode which is not registered with Royal Mail. 

Other points to note:

• private garages and sheds are not allocated addresses at all so please do not apply for addresses for these
• please be aware of the guidance above before you apply as no refunds are possible
• if you would like confirmation of an official address, you can find this using the Find My Address service
• if you require a formal letter confirming an address, you will need to complete the 'Property related requests' form below and pay the required fee

What happens next

Once a new postal address or postal address change has been mutually agreed, the following organisations will be notified: 

• Royal Mail
• Valuation Office
• National Grid
• Bristol Water
• Land Registry
• ambulance, fire, police
• council departments

The property owner will be responsible for updating all personal contacts and paperwork, for example, driving licence and legal documents.

Please note that the Land Registry will only update the correspondence address for the property. The legal owner will also need to contact the Land Registry in order to update the address of the Legal Title. The Land Registry's contact details are supplied at the end of the address allocation/update process.

Royal Mail

If a property has a letterbox and is ready to receive mail, Royal Mail will be asked to update their live address database with the new address or address change.  

Once Royal Mail have actioned this request, any changes will begin to be picked up by other databases which use Royal Mail’s data. This will happen as and when other companies refresh their information.

Unfortunately, neither Royal Mail nor the council have any control over this, and new information can take many months to update on all third-party databases.

Any changes to property names of addresses which also have a street number will take up to six weeks to update on Royal Mail’s database. 

Please note that not all third-party databases display property names of addresses which also have a street number, some databases are designed to only display street numbers.

It will take 10 weeks to create new addresses or change existing addresses which do not require a new street name. The allocation of new street names will take longer.