Coming to a foreign country and settling there can be an exhausting process. There are too many aspects you need to pay attention to:
- Where and how to register
- How to find a housing (which options exist and what are the rules?)
- What about insurances (medical, retirement, any others)? Are there any mandatory insurance policies? Any recommended one (even though not mandatory)?
- What about taxes?
- Schooling? Language courses?
- Public transportation and cars?
- Rules about freelancing, moonlighting, becoming entrepreneur as a side job?
The list is not exhaustive.
Surely, if you move to Germany as an expat working for a big international company, your employer will have internal advisors assisting you in certain matters, at least at the beginning. But later on, usually from the second year onwards, you need to find your own ways of handling different aspects of your life in the new country. If you relocate on your own, for example, as a director of your own small business, in most cases you would need to find out the answers to all the questions by yourself.
In this article, we’ll focus on the registration process as well as finding a housing in Germany.
Talking about the registration process, we touch the standard registration in the country, assuming that you have already your work permit and the appropriate visa.
Registration usually happens at a city office (Bürgerbüro) of the city where you have your living address. It implies that you have already housing, even if it would be just a temporary one at the beginning. Therefore, the first step, before registration, is finding a suitable apartment.
There are different rental platforms on the internet to find an apartment (or a house). The most popular one in Germany is immobilienscout24.de.
Once you’ll have your rental agreement signed and the landlord will handover the keys, ask him also about a landlord certificate (Wohnungsgeberbestätigung) confirming that you moved in the apartment with a given address at a certain date. This certificate will be required for your registration at the city office.
The rental agreement in Germany can be signed without a fixed termination date or with it. If you sign the contract without a fixed termination date, the contract runs as long as either you or your landlord terminate it in written. The termination notice is usually 3 months. In this case, you do not need to worry about any extension requests. You just terminate the contract with the required notice period. If at the contract signature you know that after a certain period of time you would need to move out, you can agree directly on the termination date and fix it in the contract. In this case, you will not need to keep an eye on the notice period, the contract will terminate automatically. Just if your plans change and you would need to stay longer in the apartment, it’s up to you to notify your landlord in time in order to extend the rental contract.
Yet before the handover of the apartment keys, the landlord will also ask you for a payment of a security deposit – Mietkaution (on top of your first rental payment). The security deposit equals usually to three months rental amount. There is also an option to replace the payment of the security deposit with security deposit insurance (Mietkautionsversicherung). You can compare the available insurances on the comparison portals, like check24.de. Keep in mind that landlords may not accept the insurance and can still insist on paying the security deposit. Just check this point with your future landlord upfront to avoid bad surprises.
The insurance offers you an advantage that you do not need to block a big amount of money at once. However, the insurance fees are not reimbursable, while the deposit itself can be returned in full at the end of the rental, if you did not cause any damage.
Talking about damages: it is not mandatory, but advisable to have personal liability insurance (it costs from about 30 Euro per year for a single) which would also include the liability for lost keys. Not all personal liability insurances include the risk of losing keys, you would need to be attentive to the insurance offer. The point is: in many buildings, the key system is done in such a way that one and the same key can open multiple doors, like the building door, the door to the cellar with waste bins, your apartment door etc. If you lose such a key, for security reasons the whole key system in the building will need to be replaced at your cost. And this can easily go into 4-digits amounts (depending on the building and used system). We’ll talk about insurances in Germany deeper in a separate article.
The apartments in Germany are usually rented out empty. The rental consists of two parts: the net rental and the consumption. The consumption includes water, heating, fees for waste removal in the building, the building administration costs (Hausverwaltung) and similar. However, in most cases, you would need to register separately on your own for the electricity. The cheapest options for electricity delivery can be found on the comparison portals, like check24.de.
The Internet is usually not included and not provided by the landlord at all and would require another contract with one of the internet companies which you would need to sign on top and on your own. The most common providers in Germany are Deutsche Telekom or Vodafone. Also here, the comparison portals provide you different options with the most recent conditions.
If you rent empty apartments, you would need to find all necessary furniture, the kitchen, and all the equipment for the apartment on your own and at your own costs. The surprise will come at the end: when you will move out of the apartment, you will need to hand over the apartment back to the landlord in the same status as you rented it at the beginning – fully empty. Removal of the furniture will happen as well at your costs. Unless you can find someone, who would be ready to take over your furniture when renting the apartment after you. This person needs to be accepted by the landlord as your successor.
At the end, your total costs for the housing will consist not only of the rental but of
- One-off rental security deposit
- Monthly rentals including the net rental amount plus consumption and servicing fees
- Separate electricity contract (you sign it directly with the electricity company)
- Separate internet contract (you sign it directly with the internet provider)
- Costs of furniture and equipment for the apartment
- Costs of the removal of your furniture and equipment upon the end of your rental contract
There are other options of housing, like furnished apartments. Be careful when renting a “furnished” apartment and check upfront what is included. Sometimes, a “furnished” apartment has just kitchen furniture (empty, without any tableware, cutlery etc.) and some few pieces of furniture like a couch and a bed with a mattress. Really furnished apartments can provide you with everything you need, from a fully equipped kitchen to ready-to-use bedrooms and living area, and the rental can include everything up to internet access. The range can strongly fluctuate between both extreems.
The only thing, which cannot be taken over by your landlord and you would need to register and to pay directly, independently, whether you rent an empty or a fully equipped apartment, is the TV license fee (Rundfunkbeitrag). The agency collecting the TV license fee will get the information about your registration at your address from the city office and will send you directly a form for registration to the TV license. You cannot avoid paying the TV license fee, even if you do not have a TV. This fee is imposed by the German government to all households. At the moment when this article is being prepared, the quarterly fee for one household is at 55,08 euro.
The rental for fully furnished and equipped apartments can be double as high compared to the rental of empty apartments. But if you consider that the rental contains all other costs, which are mentioned in the list above, in the end you can benefit from the lower total costs of living by choosing this option.
Especially for younger people, seeking an easier option to have some contacts in the new environment, shared apartments can be as well an option to consider. Shared apartments are widely used in Germany by students, young professionals, commuters, and usually offer cheaper rental costs combined with full equipment of your individual room and the common areas, like kitchen, balcony, a community room etc. Here as well, you need to pay attention whether you have to furnish your room on your own or the room is equipped with everything you need and ready-to-use.
Another advantage of the shared apartment: you also can share the TV license fee. As this is considered as one household, as soon as one of your flat mates is registered, you can advise the TV license agency about this fact, mentioning the registration number of your registered flat mate.
Singabiz provides expats consultations on different topics, and our experts will be glad to assist you as well. Feel free to book a consultation with us.
