Letter address

A postal address is intended for people who do not have a home address (temporarily) due to a special situation, or for people staying in an institution. This could be a care facility, prison, shelter or other shelter.

Are you not staying in aHealth) institution? If so, please contact the Civil Affairs Department by phone to make an appointment. During office hours you can call 040 263 16 31.

Registering at a letter address 

This is possible only if one of the following situations applies to you:

• You do not have a residential address.
  A temporary lodging address or an address at a vacation park is not grounds for a letter address. You should then register at that address with a residential address.
• You are going abroad temporarily and want to keep an address in the Netherlands. This is only possible if you will be away for less than 8 months.
• Sometimes you can also apply for a letter address because it is safer for you. The mayor assesses whether this applies to you.

Requirements and validity

The letter address where you register must meet the following Requirements :

• It must be an existing address in the Basic Registration of Addresses and Buildings (BAG). You can look that up here.
• It must be a physical address. A postbus (for example, from NL) cannot.
• It must be a residential address. Not a business address. Exception: you can use the office address of a shelter as your postal address. This is only possible if the office is at a different address than the shelter.
• Someone must live at the address and be registered there. Thus, it must not be an empty house.
• A maximum of 2 people may have a letter address at the same address. Unless it is a family. A family counts as 1 person.
• You can apply for the letter address up to 4 weeks in advance.
• You are registered as a housing seeker with a housing association.