We recently moved within Berlin and as it had been over 7 years since I had moved within the city and at that time I received a lot of help from a friend, I was pretty clueless as to what I needed to do! For that reason, I thought I would write a guide to moving within the city, based on our own experiences with our move.
Moving is complicated, moving with children adds even more complications of course, so I am breaking down this post in to specific categories to try and make it easier to find the information that you may need at a particular moment and perhaps some useful tips that you didn't realise you may need!
Notifying your Landlord
Depending on the process of your move, if you have a contact with a landlord /Housing company (Hausverwaltung) for your old home, you will need to notify him that you are leaving and ending your contract, in German this is a called a 'Kündigung.' I recommend that you review your rental contact and inform yourself about what period of notice you need to give your landlord when leaving your apartment (some will be flexible on this notice, others won't be). Below is a template of the letter you send to your landlord or the Hausverwaltung who is looking after the building to say you wish to end your contract:
Your Name
Your Street
PLZ Berlin
Landlord or Company
Their Street
PLZ Berlin Berlin, den TT.MM.JJJJ (date)
Betreff: Kündigung
Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,
ich kündige hiermit fristgemäß meinen Mietvertrag für die Wohnung in der YOUR ADDRESS.
Laut Mietvertrag beträgt die Kündigungsfrist XXXX Monate, das Mietverhältnis endet demnach am TT.MM.JJJJ. (enter the period of months for the notice period mentioned in the contact and then what would be the according end date.)
Bitte senden Sie mir eine Bestätigung der Kündigung mit Angabe des Vertragsendes. Vielen Dank im Voraus. (asking for a confirmation of receiving the Kündigung)
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Your Name
End
Make sure to get a confirmation that the letter has been received and that the contract will end at that time. You will then need to discuss any possible renovations that will need doing and any other possible clauses in your contract. The finer details of issues surrounding this are best discussed with those who know more than I do on these matters!
Your Name
Your Street
PLZ Berlin
Landlord or Company
Their Street
PLZ Berlin Berlin, den TT.MM.JJJJ (date)
Betreff: Kündigung
Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,
ich kündige hiermit fristgemäß meinen Mietvertrag für die Wohnung in der YOUR ADDRESS.
Laut Mietvertrag beträgt die Kündigungsfrist XXXX Monate, das Mietverhältnis endet demnach am TT.MM.JJJJ. (enter the period of months for the notice period mentioned in the contact and then what would be the according end date.)
Bitte senden Sie mir eine Bestätigung der Kündigung mit Angabe des Vertragsendes. Vielen Dank im Voraus. (asking for a confirmation of receiving the Kündigung)
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Your Name
End
Make sure to get a confirmation that the letter has been received and that the contract will end at that time. You will then need to discuss any possible renovations that will need doing and any other possible clauses in your contract. The finer details of issues surrounding this are best discussed with those who know more than I do on these matters!
Moving Companies
We rather stupidly decided to move everything ourselves (rather stupid because we moved to a fifth floor apartment!!!) so I haven't got any recommendations based on my own experience, but here are the moving companies in Berlin that were recommended to me by other families who had used their services:
Hertling
Synanon Umzüge
Trans BWG
Zapf
Dynamik Umzüge
If you are looking to move everything yourself, you can rent a van to do so. For those of you who have European driving licenses, I recommend Robben & Wientjes, who we hired our vans from as it is simple to order one of their vans at a super cheap rate (weekday bookings don't usually need to booked in advance, they recommended booking at least 4 days ahead for weekend rentals). Alternatively, SIXT offer vans but be aware, there is an unlimited excess on liability when renting so make sure to pay the extra to bring this down.
The moving companies will organise reserving a space in front of your buildings to keep their truck during removal and delivery but if you are doing the move yourself, you need to organise this, should it be necessary. I personally didn't have any time to deal with all the bureaucracy so I paid for someone to do it all for me and used their 'Haltverbotservice' where you pay to have them apply for having the space reserved for your truck/van for a set period of time. They will apply at the Amt and then deliver the necessary signs and pick them up once it's all over. The service costs roughly €35.
Hertling
Synanon Umzüge
Trans BWG
Zapf
Dynamik Umzüge
If you are looking to move everything yourself, you can rent a van to do so. For those of you who have European driving licenses, I recommend Robben & Wientjes, who we hired our vans from as it is simple to order one of their vans at a super cheap rate (weekday bookings don't usually need to booked in advance, they recommended booking at least 4 days ahead for weekend rentals). Alternatively, SIXT offer vans but be aware, there is an unlimited excess on liability when renting so make sure to pay the extra to bring this down.
The moving companies will organise reserving a space in front of your buildings to keep their truck during removal and delivery but if you are doing the move yourself, you need to organise this, should it be necessary. I personally didn't have any time to deal with all the bureaucracy so I paid for someone to do it all for me and used their 'Haltverbotservice' where you pay to have them apply for having the space reserved for your truck/van for a set period of time. They will apply at the Amt and then deliver the necessary signs and pick them up once it's all over. The service costs roughly €35.
Moving Boxes
Finding moving boxes is a totally different deal here to my experiences in London. You can either purchase moving boxes (Karton) through the moving company you are using or at places such as Bauhaus, Hellweg or through Robben & Wientjes. These places also all sell strong tape (Klebeband) that comes in useful with moving! Alternatively, it is often possible to get moving boxes for free from others who have moved. You can ask in a variety of Berlin Facebook groups such as Free Your Stuff Berlin, Free Stuff Berlin and of course the groups I run for Berlin families on Facebook: Expatbabies Berlin and Expatkids Berlin.
Rubbish / Trash / Waste Disposal
As we discovered recently, moving involves large amounts of rubbish / trash and waste. There are a few different ways you can deal with disposing of it all:
Donation
For items that are still useable by others, there are various places across Berlin to donate including some of the Refugee homes and various charitable and voluntary organisations. There is a list of such organisations here on the BSR website which details what items are accepted where (I don't know how up to date this list is).
The Dump
You can find a list of the Recycling Höfe in Berlin where they take a large number of items. You get charged for some items but not for others so it's worth being clear on the costs beforehand. At the link above, click on your nearest recycling centre and then you can find a list of what types of items they accept. Leo or Google Translate will be your friend here for those of you who can't read German.
Waste Collection Service
A company called BSR offers a waste collection service at price. The uncomplicated explanation is that you pay for them to come and collect all your unwanted waste including old furniture, shelves, toxic waste if you have any etc as well as cardboard boxes and the like. Prices start from €50 but, be warned, you have to measure and detail every single item that you wish to dispose of when ordering the service. You can apply either online through their website or by phone.
Moving Companies
Some moving companies additionally offer the service of waste disposal so it's worth asking the companies you are looking in to if this is an option with them.
Donation
For items that are still useable by others, there are various places across Berlin to donate including some of the Refugee homes and various charitable and voluntary organisations. There is a list of such organisations here on the BSR website which details what items are accepted where (I don't know how up to date this list is).
The Dump
You can find a list of the Recycling Höfe in Berlin where they take a large number of items. You get charged for some items but not for others so it's worth being clear on the costs beforehand. At the link above, click on your nearest recycling centre and then you can find a list of what types of items they accept. Leo or Google Translate will be your friend here for those of you who can't read German.
Waste Collection Service
A company called BSR offers a waste collection service at price. The uncomplicated explanation is that you pay for them to come and collect all your unwanted waste including old furniture, shelves, toxic waste if you have any etc as well as cardboard boxes and the like. Prices start from €50 but, be warned, you have to measure and detail every single item that you wish to dispose of when ordering the service. You can apply either online through their website or by phone.
Moving Companies
Some moving companies additionally offer the service of waste disposal so it's worth asking the companies you are looking in to if this is an option with them.
Post / Mail
Once you have the keys to your new apartment, you will need to organise getting all of your post/mail sent to the new address and stop it being delivered to the old one.
Post / Mail Forwarding
The German post office offers a service, called Nachsendeservice, with which you can pay to have your post/mail forward by them for select periods of time. To set this up follow the following instructions:
Change of Address Letter
Once moved, you need to notify the companies, officials etc of your new address. You can used the template below for sending the details of your new address to these organisations (the wording in bold is what you need to include in the letter and make sure to change the generic details to fit your particular address, signature etc):
Your Name
Your Street
PLZ Berlin
Landlord or Company
Their Street
PLZ Berlin Berlin, den TT.MM.JJJJ (date)
Betreff: Adressänderung wegen Umzug (address change due to move)
Kundennummer: (if you have a customer number, include it here)
Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,
hiermit teile ich Ihnen folgende Änderung meiner Kontaktdaten mit.
Die Änderung ist gültig seit/ab: XXXX (write the date from which the address is / will be changed)
Neue Anschrift:
Neuestraße 35 (write new address here & new contact number if applicable)
12345 Neuort
Tel.: XXXX XXXXXX
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Your Signature
Your Name
Date, Berlin
END
I recommend you calling each of the important companies, organisations etc a couple of weeks after sending the change of address, just to confirm they received it and have your new details on file, just in case.
Post / Mail Forwarding
The German post office offers a service, called Nachsendeservice, with which you can pay to have your post/mail forward by them for select periods of time. To set this up follow the following instructions:
- Go to the website for post / mail forwarding
- Move down the page to the yellow strip about 3/4 down, where it says 'Nachsenderservice' and Click on the circle next to the word 'Privat',
- A box will then appear below which gives you different options.
- Under 'Grund der Nachsendung' select 'Umzug'
- Under 'Termin und Dauer' select the date from which you wish the post / mail forwarding to begin (usually there is a delay of roughly 6 days so make sure to organise this ahead of time)
- Then select the period of time you wish post/mail forwarding to last. Your options are 6, 12 and 24 months (Monate)
- You than have an option of 'Zusatzleistung' which includes items such as parcels / packages which come with an extra charge per package and only applies for packages within Germany.
- Under 'Auftraggeber/in' enter the name of the individual ordering the service and then you have the option of adding 'Weitere Personnel' who also live at your address and need to have their post/mail forwarded.
- Under 'Bisherige Adresse' enter your old address details and then fill in the new address in the 'Neue Adresse' fields.
- You then go through to the payment details and can pay via Paypal, credit card, bank transfer etc.
Change of Address Letter
Once moved, you need to notify the companies, officials etc of your new address. You can used the template below for sending the details of your new address to these organisations (the wording in bold is what you need to include in the letter and make sure to change the generic details to fit your particular address, signature etc):
Your Name
Your Street
PLZ Berlin
Landlord or Company
Their Street
PLZ Berlin Berlin, den TT.MM.JJJJ (date)
Betreff: Adressänderung wegen Umzug (address change due to move)
Kundennummer: (if you have a customer number, include it here)
Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,
hiermit teile ich Ihnen folgende Änderung meiner Kontaktdaten mit.
Die Änderung ist gültig seit/ab: XXXX (write the date from which the address is / will be changed)
Neue Anschrift:
Neuestraße 35 (write new address here & new contact number if applicable)
12345 Neuort
Tel.: XXXX XXXXXX
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Your Signature
Your Name
Date, Berlin
END
I recommend you calling each of the important companies, organisations etc a couple of weeks after sending the change of address, just to confirm they received it and have your new details on file, just in case.
Officially Registering Your New Address
Once you've moved, you are legally required to register your change of address with the Burgeramt. Here is a list of the different Burgerämte in Berlin. Some areas have ones that specifically deal with 'An-, Ab- and Ummeldung' so look out for those words at your local one.
and last but not least, enjoy your new home!
and last but not least, enjoy your new home!
