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The list nobody gives you when you move
A German move is a sequence of small obligations, and the cost of missing one is usually a letter from an institution that thinks you have vanished. The list is short and worth keeping. Register the new address within two weeks, as lesson 66 set out. Deregistration is only needed if you are leaving Germany altogether or giving up a second residence — moving within the country, the new Anmeldung does the work. Set up a Nachsendeauftrag with Deutsche Post: six or twelve months, for a modest fee, and it catches exactly the letters you had forgotten to expect. Then the contracts. Electricity and internet have to be moved or re-signed, and the internet in particular is worth starting weeks early, because an activation date in a new flat can be slow. The Rundfunkbeitrag, the broadcasting fee, is charged per household and not per person, so a move that merges two households means one of the accounts should be closed — people routinely pay twice for years without noticing. Tell your Krankenkasse, your employer's payroll, your bank and the tax office; the last happens automatically through the registration, but the others do not. On the day, two practicalities. If a van needs to stand outside, apply to the city for a Halteverbotszone a couple of weeks in advance — it is cheap, and without it a parked car can add hours. And do the Wohnungsübergabeprotokoll at both ends, photographed and signed, which is the single thing that decides whether your deposit comes back. Two things that soften the cost. Moving expenses are sometimes deductible against tax when the move is work-related, which is a good reason to keep the receipts lesson 71 talked about. And bulky waste is collected free or cheaply by most municipalities on request — Sperrmüll — so the furniture that will not fit does not need a van of its own. Lesson 75 deals with the rest of the rubbish, which in Germany is a subject in itself.