After the move
You have the keys. Now the two weeks that matter.
Berlin gives you fourteen days to register, and everything else — tax ID, bank account, residence permit — hangs off the certificate you get when you do. The paperwork is easy. Getting the appointment is not.
Book the Bürgeramt appointment on the day you sign the contract, before you have the Wohnungsgeberbestätigung, before you have moved a box. Slots in Berlin routinely run three to six weeks out, and the fourteen-day deadline does not care. You can rebook; you cannot conjure a slot.
The checklist
- 01 Get the Wohnungsgeberbestätigung from your landlord required
The landlord’s written confirmation that you have moved in. You cannot register without it and they are obliged to provide it. Ask at contract signing.
BMG §19 · official page within 14 days - 02 Register your address at a Bürgeramt (Anmeldung) required
Compulsory within 14 days. Book the appointment the day you sign: the deadline is easy, the appointment is not. Everything else — tax ID, bank account, residence permit, car registration — hangs off the Meldebescheinigung you get here.
BMG §17 · official page within 14 days - 03 Register for the Rundfunkbeitrag required
The broadcasting fee is per dwelling, not per person, and is payable whether or not you own a television. If someone in the flat already pays it, register as a co-resident and give their payer number instead of starting a second account.
Rundfunkbeitragsstaatsvertrag §2 · official page within 30 days - 04 Set up an electricity contract required
Take a meter reading on the day you get the keys and photograph it. If you do nothing you fall into the local default supplier’s Grundversorgung tariff, which is lawful but usually the most expensive option, and you can switch at any time. within 14 days - 05 Order internet optional
Order as early as you can. Installation in Berlin routinely takes two to six weeks, and in older buildings an engineer visit may be needed. no deadline - 06 Set up mail forwarding optional
Deutsche Post will forward post from your old address for six or twelve months. Worth it for the official letters that will still be sent to the old flat. no deadline - 07 Consider contents and liability insurance optional
Private liability insurance (Privathaftpflicht) is not compulsory but is near universal in Germany and many landlords ask whether you have it. Contents insurance is optional. no deadline - 08 Insist on a written handover protocol optional
Record every existing defect and all meter readings in a Wohnungsübergabeprotokoll signed by both sides, with photographs. This single document decides most deposit disputes years later, and it is the cheapest insurance in the process. at handover
What the law actually requires
You must register your address within 14 days of moving in
Anmeldung is compulsory and the statutory deadline is two weeks from moving in. Late registration is an administrative offence and can be fined. You need the landlord’s Wohnungsgeberbestätigung, your ID or passport and the filled-in form. Berlin’s appointment slots are the real constraint, not the paperwork: book the Bürgeramt slot the day you sign the contract.
BMG §17, §54 · source
Your landlord must give you a Wohnungsgeberbestätigung
The landlord is legally obliged to confirm your move-in in writing within two weeks, and you cannot register without it. A landlord who refuses or delays is committing an administrative offence. Ask for it at signing rather than after moving, which removes the most common cause of a late Anmeldung.
BMG §19 · source
The one that saves you money years later
Insist on a written Wohnungsübergabeprotokoll at handover: every existing defect, every meter reading, photographs, signed by both sides. It costs ten minutes and it decides most deposit disputes two or three years afterwards, when nobody remembers whether the scratch on the floor was already there.
Each step above is a database row with its statute and a review date. If something here has gone stale, that is a bug and the review queue is meant to catch it.