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? Then contact the Civil Affairs Department by phone to make an appointment. You can call 0499 - 491 491 during office hours. 

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.