Registering your move with the municipality: a guide
Why registration is legally required
In the Netherlands everyone is required to be registered at the address where they actually live. This obligation follows from the Personal Records Database Act (BRP). When you move, you must report this within five days of the move date to the municipality where you will live. If you don't, the municipality can impose a fine that may run into several hundred euros. But the importance goes far beyond a fine. Virtually all government services use the BRP address as a starting point: the tax office for your declaration and benefits, the Social Insurance Bank for benefits, the CAK for healthcare costs, the road authority for your driving licence, the municipality for waste passes, parking permits and property tax. Voting rights, passport applications and receiving mail from semi-government bodies all depend on it. If you're registered at the wrong address, you risk missed mail, refused benefits or even problems in major life events such as marriage, birth or death. In short: the move registration is a small action with large consequences.
How to file the registration: step by step
How you file the move registration depends on your municipality, but in nearly all cases it can now be done digitally via DigiD. Go to your new municipality's website and search for "verhuizing doorgeven". You log in with DigiD, enter your new address, give the move date and confirm whom the registration covers. If you're moving with your family, one family member can file for the whole household, provided there's a registered marriage, partnership or formal relationship. For adult co-residents without such a tie, each must file individually. When moving to a new address with unknown residents, such as a shared student house, the municipality can ask for a rental contract or statement from the main resident. Without DigiD, you can register in person at the counter or send the registration in writing. The municipality usually processes the registration within a few working days, after which you receive a confirmation letter at your new address. Keep this confirmation, it's often needed elsewhere as proof of your new address.
Special cases: temporary addresses, abroad and shared homes
Not every move fits the standard pattern. If you move abroad for a short period, for example a placement or assignment of four months or longer, you must deregister from the Netherlands and register in the Non-Residents Records (RNI). For less than four months you may stay registered at your old address. If you move from abroad to the Netherlands, you register in person with the municipality where you'll live, bringing your birth certificate, any marriage certificate and your residence documents. For a temporary address in the Netherlands, for example between two owned homes and staying with family for a few months, you must officially register at the temporary address if you actually live there. Being registered with someone else can affect their benefits, as a co-resident's income is sometimes counted. In shared homes or student rooms it's important that all residents are correctly registered; lodging and host-family situations sometimes have separate rules that vary per municipality.
What changes automatically and what doesn't
A common misconception is that the move registration automatically informs every organisation. That's only partly true. Once the municipality records your new address, it passes the data to the BRP, and from there automatically to the tax office, Social Insurance Bank, UWV, pension register, road authority (RDW), benefits agency and most health insurers connected to the data exchange. What doesn't go automatically: your employer, your bank, your internet provider, your sports clubs, your newsletter subscriptions, your dentist, GP, physio, your insurers for contents and liability, and any private company you have an account with. The Chamber of Commerce if you run your own business, and the trade register must also be updated separately. Extra for expats: your passport and ID card stay valid, but at renewal the new address goes on. Make a list of every organisation that knows your address, check your email archive of the past year, and update them systematically. A spreadsheet with "notified on" and "date" prevents forgotten parties. Registration with the municipality is therefore not the endpoint of your admin, but the start.
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Vermaat Verhuizingen relocates private clients and businesses across the Netherlands. Our articles are written from practical knowledge of the moving trade, from narrow Amsterdam staircases to international moves. More about us →
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