Moving in & Registration

Once you have found an apartment and signed a leasing contract, there is a lot of stuff and paperwork to do. Here, you find information about what not to forget when moving in.

Contents on this page

Apartment handover

When you receive the keys to an apartment, record all meter readings (electricity, water, heating) with the landlord or landlady. Also check if there is anything broken in the apartment. Everything is recorded in a protocol to be signed by both contracting parties.

Registration at the townhall

Once you moved in, you must register all persons living in the apartment at the townhall (Rathaus). In order to do this, you need a confirmation from your landlord or landlady stating that you have moved into the apartment. You can find the document here:

Confirmation of the Landlord

Electricity registration

When moving in, you must register with an electricity provider. For this, you need the date, the meter number and the meter reading. Write this information down during the handover of the apartment. From now on you will have to pay for the electricity used in the apartment. You can either sign up with Stadtwerke Bamberg (the city’s own provider) or compare prices from other providers and choose a different provider.

Each month you pay a fixed price in advance. After living in the apartment for a year, you will receive a bill: If you have used more electricity than you have payed for, you will have to pay something in addition. If you have used less, you get money back.

Here you can register with Stadtwerke Bamberg

Furniture

Welfare recipients can apply for money to furnish their first apartment. This is called “initial equipment” (Erstausstattung).

Here you can apply for the equipment you need:

Application Initial Equipment

In second-hand stores (like Kolping) you can find used and cheap furniture in good quality. You can also find cheap (or sometimes even free) furniture on Ebay Kleinanzeigen and in some Facebook groups. Usually, these items need to be picked up quickly.

Moving

For the transport of your furniture you have several options. You can rent a van or a van with a driver. Freund statt fremd can help you in the search for a van.

Schützenstraße 2a
96052 Bamberg
0951 / 29 75 – 122
wohnungen@freundstattfremd.de
https://freundstattfremd.de/

Report your new address

Once you moved in, you must notify all other contractors of your new address. These are, for example: Jobcenter, Familienkasse, your bank and your health insurance.

At the post office you can submit a forwarding request (Nachsendeantrag). Thus, any mail sent to your old address will automatically be transferred to the new address for 6 or 12 months. This service has to be payed for. You can apply for it at a post office or online:

Mail Forwarding Request

Insurance

Any insurance has to be payed for, so you should think carefully about what you really need. Personal liability insurance (Privathaftpflichtversicherung) is very important. It will pay if you have unintentionally caused material damage to another person. Here, you can also insure damage you did to an apartment or to windows and glass.

Some damage to an apartment can be very expensive, so this kind of insurance is a good protection. In many cases, the leasing contract also demands that a liability insurance must be taken out.

For families, such an insurance costs far less than 100 € per year, and it will refund you if you accidentally break or damage someone else’s belongings.