In Belgium, the address held in the National Register drives almost everything: your taxes, your health insurance fund, your home insurance, your car registration, even your polling station. Only one step is compulsory, registering with the commune, but it sets many others in motion.
1. Registering with the commune: eight working days
You must declare your new address to the municipal administration of your new home, within eight working days of actually moving in. Not the commune you are leaving: the one you are arriving in. It will inform the other.
The declaration is made at the Population desk or, in most communes, online. Bring:
- your identity card (and that of every household member moving with you);
- the household composition arriving at the new address;
- for minors, the declaration made by the parent or guardian.
Mind the date you declare: it is the date you actually moved in, not the date you signed the lease.
2. The neighbourhood officer's visit
After the declaration, the neighbourhood police officer calls to check that you really live there. They do not always announce themselves. If you are out, they leave a card: call back quickly, because the file stays blocked until the visit has taken place.
Two details that save time: your name must be on the doorbell and on the letterbox.
3. Updating your identity card
Once the check has cleared, the commune invites you to have the address changed on the chip of your identity card. Bring your PIN code: without it the update cannot be done, and you will have to request new codes: allow several weeks.
That step officially closes the change of address.
4. Who you must tell yourself
The National Register automatically informs some public bodies, but no private ones. Yours to do:
Before or on moving day
- Electricity and gas suppliers: meter readings on the day, energy handover document signed with the next occupant or the owner.
- Water: same principle, with the meter reading.
- Internet, television, telephone: connection has the longest lead time, so give several weeks' notice.
In the following days
- Health insurance fund and family doctor
- Bank and credit providers
- Insurers: home insurance must cover the new property from the day you move in, and your car insurance address also affects the premium
- Employer, child benefit fund, trade union, unemployment fund, depending on your situation
- School, childcare, clubs, subscriptions
- Mail forwarding: bpost's paid service, to be set up before you leave
For the car: the new address is in principle passed on automatically to the DIV via the National Register, and a new registration certificate is sent to you. Check that it arrives, and tell your car insurer yourself.
5. What the new home also requires
- An incoming inventory of fixtures: do it, even if it is not asked for. Without one you are deemed to have received the property in perfect condition, and your rental guarantee depends on it when you leave.
- Registration of the lease: for residential property it is the landlord's job to register the lease, free of charge. Check it has been done: it protects you if the property is sold.
- Rental guarantee: follow up the release of the one on your old home, as it is easily forgotten once you have settled in.
If you are moving in together or separating
A change of address alters the household composition, and therefore possibly your child benefit, your health insurance status and your taxation. Give the exact situation at the desk rather than simplifying it: a retroactive correction is always more painful than a correct declaration up front.
Keep a copy of everything: declaration receipt, meter photos, inventory of fixtures, parking permit. Six months later, that file is what settles a dispute.
