House and road renaming

Information for developers and residents on how to rename a house or road.

The address of a property is very important, with emergency services and postal services needing an efficient means of locating properties. When new addresses or amendments to an existing address are needed, it is essential we’re contacted as early as possible as Royal Mail’s current turnaround time is 4-6 weeks to respond to applications.

We advise you to read our Street Naming and Numbering Guidelines before applying.

Developers

New developments

If you’re developing single, small or large scale developments, you’ll need to complete our Street Naming and Numbering Application Form, returning it with the relevant:

  • location plan
  • site layout plans
  • apartment floor plans

These need to be returned at least 15 weeks prior to properties being occupied.

Naming of a new road as part of a development

Approval for new road names is required from Ward members and, if relevant, the local Parish council. We ask that as part of your application form to suggest three road names that will be checked by the SNN team for suitability in regard to road names we already have within the district and to provide the following information:

  • location plan
  • site layout plan
  • apartment floor plans

 

Street Naming and Numbering Application Form 

You will then be advised by the SNN team to contact the Parish council and Ward members for their approval on the chosen road names.

If the road is not within a Parish approval from Ward members is required.

Residents

House naming

House names are not registered as part of the official address where a system of property numbers is in place. In the absence of numbers, a house name will be formally registered in its place.

If your official address, as held by Royal Mail, currently includes a property number you may use an informal house name. However, you must use the remainder of the official address in all correspondence and you must display the property number; for example:

‘My House’ (not part of the official address)
1 My Road (official address)
Local Area (official address)
Town (official address)
Postcode (official address)

If your official address currently includes a house name, you can apply to change it. Simply complete our Street Naming and Numbering Application Form, return it with the location plan of your property, and we’ll check for suitability.

Renaming/renumbering an existing road

Sometimes it’s necessary to rename or renumber a road. This is usually done only as a last resort when:

  • there’s confusion over a road name or the numbering for that road
  • residents are unhappy with their road name
  • new properties are built and there’s a need for existing properties to be renumbered
  • there are too many properties with names instead of numbers which is causing confusion for visitors, postal deliveries or the emergency services

If you think you have a street naming issue please contact us by email.

Fees

All applications are subject to the following fees.

The minimum fee where an application is required to make a change to any property address is £383 (non-refundable).

  • addressing of a 1 property/unit/plot - £383 (non-refundable)
  • addressing of each additional property/unit/plot - £87 per property/unit/plot
  • revising an address after notification of your postal address - £87 per property/unit/plot
  • confirmation of postal address to solicitors, commercial organisations etc - £87 per property/unit/plot
  • fees can be paid online or by cheque payable to Solihull MBC