As well as moving to and from the country, most expats end up moving house within Germany at least once. We give you some tips on what is sure to be a very moving experience.

Packing the boxes is the easy part

Like death and taxes, moving house is one of life's necessary evils. Expats, by their very nature, are particularly prone to the curse of the cardboard box. If you move to and from Germany at the start and end of your expat adventure, that's already two moves, and you'll probably end up moving at least once while you're here.

And while the process of transporting a collection of objects from one location to another is pretty much the same the world over, there are certain specifics to moving house in Germany which you should probably know about. Which is where your friends at Expatica come in. So find an upturned beer crate to sit on, plonk your laptop down on a packing crate, and enjoy our guide to moving house in Germany.


Plan ahead

As with many things in life, the key to a painless move is successful planning. The golden rule here is that it is never too early to start planning your move. Ideally you should set a date and start making arrangements at least a month beforehand, otherwise you may find that all the hire vans are already reserved (see below) and your friends who would otherwise help carry stuff have all decided to go to New Zealand for six months.

The first and most obvious decision is whether you want to do everything yourself, or outsource part or all of the backbreaking work. The answer to that one will be obvious if you are lucky enough to have your company pay for the move, otherwise you might be tempted to do everything yourself to save money.

Certainly getting a removal company to handle everything from start to finish will set you back a few hundred (or even thousand) euros. But, as is often the case in life, the middle way may prove to be the best for you: for example, you might want to hire a van with a driver to do the driving, or hire a couple of students to do the heavy lifting (see below), so that someone else is taking care of the most back-breaking work.


Moving on up

If you do want to get a moving company involved, either to handle the whole job or to provide a van and a driver, then your next decision will be which firm to use. At the top end of the scale are companies such as Zapf Umzüge (www.zapf.de), which is one of Germany's better known moving firms and has offices in 11 cities. Big names like Zapf give you the peace of mind that comes with knowing they will do a professional job, but they will probably be the most expensive.

At the other end of the scale are fly-by-night companies whose workers are perhaps not all as documented as they might be. These companies tend to advertise with flyers stuck in your letter box and the like. This is probably your cheapest option but you might be wary of using such shifty operators unless you have a recommendation from someone who has used them before.

In-between are small local companies. Check your local Gelbe Seiten (Yellow Pages) to find a selection--you might find these local players work out best in terms of price and reliability.

As a rough idea of costs, one small removals company in Berlin has prices ranging from EUR 180 for the services of three men with a truck for three hours, to EUR 960 for six men with a truck for a whole day.

Often moving companies do not have fixed prices but will prepare a quotation (Angebot) for you. If you want to get a rough idea of what they charge, ask for a 'Pi-mal-Daumen' (ballpark) price--there's no point in getting them to examine your flat and produce a quotation if their price is going to be three times what you can afford. The website www.umzugsboerse-online.com lets you compare quotations from over 300 moving firms.

Even if you don't want to engage a moving company to handle the whole move, you might consider hiring a van with a driver from them (with you and your friends being responsible for carrying the stuff). This can be a handy option if you don't have a drivers licence which is valid for Germany, or you don't feel comfortable driving a truck. Plus you do not have to worry about liability should there be an accident.

You should be able to find a company willing to provide this service for under EUR 100 (depending how far and how much you are moving, of course). Small companies are probably more likely to be interested in this kind of business than big fish like Zapf, and they will probably prefer that you hire the van at an off-peak time i.e. not a weekend.


Getting mobile

If you are going to do everything yourself, you will need to find a van or truck and some willing friends. Unless you are lucky enough to have a friend with a van (and if you do meet such a person, make sure to cultivate that relationship for just such an eventuality), this will involve hiring a vehicle.

Again, there is a huge range of companies to choose from, from big players such as Sixt (www.e-sixt.de) down to some bloke with a dodgy Ford Transit. Ask around to find out which company people use in your town or city. In Berlin, the rental company Robben und Wientjes (www.robben-wientjes.de) is practically synonymous with moving house.

Naturally van rentals tend to be cheaper during the week than at the weekend: with Robben und Wientjes, for example, you can rent the van by the hour during the week but at the weekend you have to pay for the whole day. However you should haven't to pay more than EUR 50 to hire a van, even for a day.

Sorting your wheels out

Vans tend to get booked up for weekends quite far in advance so make sure you get your van reserved as soon as you've set a date for the move. Again, if you don't have a drivers licence which is valid in Germany, you will need to find a friend who can drive the van.

Check carefully what your maximum liability would be if you have an accident--it might be a good idea to take out any insurance package they offer, to avoid being landed with a hefty repair bill if anything goes wrong. And don't forget to check the dimensions of your stuff and of the van: you don't want to find out on the day that your king-size bed won't fit in.

When you go to collect the van you will have to show a valid driving licence and ID (for most expats, your passport) and pay a deposit. You might also have to pay for the van rental in advance, so make sure you have plenty of cash with you.

You may also want to rent a hand truck (Sackkarre) from the van company, especially if you are moving heavy objects like a washing machine or if your building doesn't have an elevator. With a hand truck, you can slide a washing machine up or down stairs relatively painlessly, which certainly beats lifting it.

Boxing clever

Before you pack, you will have to get some boxes to put things in (obviously). In Germany there is a standard kind of moving house box called an Umzugskarton. You buy these flat and then fold them together (a skill in itself but one which is quickly learned). These are recommended because they are a good size and shape to carry.

You can buy Umzugskartons either new or second hand from your local moving company. This is one time in your life when second hand will do absolutely fine--you're only going to use them once, after all. Typical prices are around EUR 2 for a new box and EUR 1.50 for a second-hand one. The company may even buy them back from you later (see below) so take this into consideration when shopping around.

And I know this is obvious, but when you're packing make sure that the boxes are not too heavy to carry — it's very easy to fill an Umzugskarton with books and then find it is impossible to pick up (your helpers will not appreciate this, believe me). If you are going to put books in an Umzugskarton, put in a layer of books at the bottom and then fill the rest of the space with duvets and your feather collection.

Staying connected

Before you move, it's a good idea to make arrangements to have your telephone number and internet connection transferred or to get a new line (if necessary) as this will probably take a couple of weeks to be done.

You should also arrange to have your post sent on (Nachsendung) with Deutsche Post. At the time of writing, six months of this service costs EUR 14.80 and one year costs EUR 24.80. Note that if you want parcels and packages to be sent on, you will have to pay for each delivery. They will also kindly give you little stickers with your new address on and change of address postcards to send.

Strangely, Deutsche Post appears to take it on itself to tell certain companies that you have changed address so you may find that your magazine subscriptions are coming to the right place after your move without your having bothered to tell them your new address (see below).

A time to make friends

A couple of weeks before the move, or earlier, email all your friends and ask them if they can help. This may seem like asking a lot, but the implicit contract you are entering into is that you will help them in return when it comes to their move, in a phenomenon I dub Umzugskarma. This is one case where the more really is the merrier--you cannot have too many people helping out. At the very least, make sure you have at least three or four people who are capable of carrying heavy stuff.

If you want to spare your friends work, or if your friends are all seven-stone weaklings, you may want to hire a couple of sturdy men to help out with the washing machines and Oma's solid oak wardrobe. It's quite likely that your local university will have some kind of job exchange set up, where you phone up and they find students to do your work: in Berlin the service is called Heinzelmännchen (http://www.studentenwerk-berlin.de/jobs/).

These services may stipulate a fixed hourly rate which will probably be in the region of EUR 10 (these services are completely above board, by the way--students have to pay tax and deductions on this money). The money you spend on this will be amply repaid by the gratitude of your friends when they see someone else carrying the washing machine.

Be on time

You should probably remind your helper elves a couple of days before that they have agreed to help you. Make it clear what time they should come and what level of punctuality you are expecting--you will not be very popular if half the people turn up after a few punctual friends have already moved everything. This is especially important if you have hired students to help--you don't want them hanging around twiddling their thumbs if you're paying them by the hour.

Make sure everyone knows your new and old address, and arrange for how they will travel between the two places if they are helping at both ends--does someone have a car, or can they take public transport?

Obviously the time the move will take will depend on how much stuff you have, how many people are helping, and how far apart your old and new flats are. But as a rough rule-of-thumb, you can allocate an hour to load the van, another hour to unload it, plus driving time and another hour or so for picking up the van and returning it (assuming you are moving within one city).

The big day

On the day itself, try to have parking places reserved outside your old and new buildings. Probably you should inform your local authority to stay within the rules, but in all likelihood no-one will care if you stick out a couple of old chairs with a length of string between them and a sign saying "Reserviert für Umzug am (date)".

You (and your friends) may very well want to get gardening gloves to wear while lifting furniture so you don't get splinters. Make sure you have plenty of bottles of water available--carrying cardboard boxes is thirsty work.

Loading a van with furniture and boxes is a skill in itself. Obviously all the boxes should go in first--after that it's up to your Tetris skills. You'll be surprised how much fits into a Pritschenwagen if you put your mind to it. It's a good idea to take everything in one trip if you can, so it's worth spending time rearranging furniture so that everything will fit in.

Also you should be prepared to feed everyone after the move, so either have something ready or be prepared to go out and get falafel. Etiquette suggests a crate of beer is also expected. Hanging out with your friends after the move is by far the best part and worth looking forward to. It can turn into a spontaneous party, with all those hormones released by the exercise putting people into a good mood.

Post-move tasks

Unfortunately the move is not over even once the boxes are unpacked. You may want to make a list of all the things you need to do post-move so that you don't forget anything.

You will probably have to install light-fittings (German tenants tend to take them with them when they move out), which is pretty straightforward but may be a little intimidating if you find electricity scary. You might want to get one of your technically-minded friends to do this immediately after you finish the move (but ideally before they're drunk too many of those beers you got in).

If you don't want to keep all those Umzugskartons after you've unpacked, then you can generally get the company you bought them from to come and pick them up again. If you bought them new they may even pay you to buy them back, otherwise at least you don't have them cluttering up your house.

Taking care of the technicalities

One of the first things you should do after you move is to ummelden (tell the police you have moved house). This you do at your local Meldestelle (which will probably be different from your old one if you've just moved house). See Expatica's guide to registering with the police for more details. Note that you do not need to specifically abmelden from your old address, the Ummeldung is enough.

Then it's time for all those change of addresses. Here is a non-exhaustive list of the places you will have to tell about your new abode:

- banks and credit card companies
- telephone company
- insurance companies
- newspapers and magazines you subscribe to
- tax office
- university or language schools
- professional organisations you belong to

Many companies will let you change your details on their websites, otherwise you will have to write them a letter.

Note that you do not need to inform the TV and radio licence authorities, the GEZ, that you have moved. The local authorities will let them know after you ummelden. How kind of them.

Check the mail that Deutsche Post forwards to your new address as part of the Nachsendung service--have you told all these companies about your new address?

Now all that is left is to deal with any formalities to do with your old rental contract (such as painting the flat, cleaning, reading the electricity and gas meters, and handing over the keys) and to plan your housewarming party!

Useful vocabulary:
Umzug - move
umziehen - to move house
Angebot - quotation
Pi-mal-Daumen-Preis - ballpark figure
Sackkarre - two-wheeled hand truck
Umzugskarton - packing cardboard box
LKW (Lastkraftwagen) - lorry/truck (also: van)
Kastenwagen - literally 'box van' i.e. small van (truck) with fixed sides like a Ford Transit
Pritschenwagen - flatbed truck (with tarpaulin sides) - the vehicle of choice of many movers
Vollkasko - comprehensive cover (vehicle insurance)
Selbstbeteiligung - (with insurance) excess/deductible i.e. what you have to pay yourself
Nachsendung - sending on your post

13 July 2006

Copyright Expatica 2006

Subject: moving house in Germany, moving home, how to move house