How do I update my Electoral Roll details during the annual canvass?

The annual canvass starts from July onwards, but this can vary between councils. Local authorities will then usually publish their annual canvass information on 1 December. The credit reference agencies purchase that information from your council.

So if you’ve recently registered on the Electoral Roll, it’s likely that your listing will have been included in the canvass data. The agencies will not accept any manual updates to your Electoral Roll details during this period, so all you can really do is wait.  

Lenders are aware of these delays at this time of year so will typically check to see if you have historically been on the Electoral Roll when they check your application. If they need to validate your current address, they can look at information held by other lenders on your credit report.  

It normally takes a month or so before any updates to your Electoral Roll information are reflected on the agency databases. But this will happen automatically, so you don’t need to do anything else.  

You can check that your Electoral Roll details show correctly on any new Checkmyfile report once the annual canvass has finished.