Moved Flats in Madrid? Your Padrón Doesn't Know Yet

After moving, update your padrón, Madrid's municipal register of habitual residence. The procedure is Alta y cambio de domicilio en Padrón; choose the address-change option for a move within the municipality.

The register records where you actually live. Registration does not establish lawful immigration status, and a change does not automatically update every other agency's records.

The municipal procedure page lists an online route using electronic identification and an in-person route by appointment. Checked 22 October: the information page was accessible, but the application endpoint could not be verified. Follow its current “Tramitar en línea” link; if it fails, use Línea Madrid's appointment route.

The city lists 010, free when calling from Madrid, and 914 800 010 for calls from elsewhere. Do not submit the same request online and in person at the same time.

Use the city's documentation assistant for the evidence needed in your housing situation. The standard routes include:

For the standard tenant-document route, a rental contract currently in force, for the room or the whole flat, running at least six months, naming the landlord (or whoever is authorized to sign on the owner's behalf), signed by everyone on the lease, and carrying the property's referencia catastral (a cadastral reference code — ask your landlord if it isn't already in the contract). If the contract has been renewed, or was signed electronically, you'll also need proof of your most recent rent payment showing the names, the period, and the address.

A property deed, a copy of the purchase contract, or a nota simple from the Registro de la Propiedad, if you own the place — but these are sufficient by themselves only if nobody has registered at that address since the date on the document. If someone did register later and has since moved out (a previous owner's tenant, say), you'll also need a utility bill no more than three months old. If that later registrant is still living there, a utility bill won't settle it — that's an authorization-or-declaration situation, so use the documentation assistant mentioned below rather than assuming the deed alone will do.

If you're not on the lease or the deed at all — you're moving in with a partner, a flatmate, or a friend who already holds the tenancy — someone needs to vouch for you on the hoja padronal (the registration form), and exactly who signs what depends on your situation: it's a different form section (and a different document, autorización de empadronamiento versus declaración de residencia) depending on whether the person who holds the lease is the one letting you in, or whether it's another resident who's already registered there but isn't the leaseholder either. This is the scenario that trips people up most, and it's specific enough that the city's own Asistente de Documentación para el Padrón (a short online questionnaire on the Sede Electrónica) is worth using before your appointment or online submission — it tells you exactly which combination of documents your situation needs.

The six-month contract criterion is not a general minimum stay for registration. If you cannot provide the standard housing documents, ask the municipal office which alternative evidence or checks apply.

Identity documents follow nationality. Spanish nationals over 14 need a DNI or passport. EU, Icelandic, Liechtenstein, Norwegian, or Swiss nationals need an NIE if they have one, alongside a valid passport or national ID. Everyone else needs a valid residence permit, or a passport if they don't have one yet.

Your padrón is frequently used to establish your address for immigration procedures, school admissions, healthcare registration, electoral records, and other public services. Updating your padrón doesn't automatically update every one of those agencies' own records — some pull from padrón directly, others need to be told separately — so treat each service as its own check rather than assuming one change cascades everywhere.

For first-time applicants for the personal transport card, a separate residence rule also matters. First-time applicants for the Tarjeta de Transporte Público Personal (TTP) — the personal card used to load Madrid's personal travel passes — must now demonstrate residence in the Comunidad de Madrid or in an eligible municipality in the outer fare zones. If you're registered within the Comunidad de Madrid, you can provide a padrón certificate or authorize the CRTM (the regional transport consortium) to consult your registration directly; if you're registered in one of the eligible outer-zone municipalities instead, expect to provide the certificate or volante (a shorter padrón document) yourself, since CRTM's digital consultation only reaches Comunidad de Madrid registrations. That's a Comunidad de Madrid transport rule, separate from the Ayuntamiento's registration system, but padrón is the document that satisfies it. If your registered address doesn't match where you actually live, or you've simply never updated it, that's the moment it surfaces.

If anyone else needs to authorize your registration (a landlord, a flatmate who holds the lease), they have five calendar days from when you submit the request to provide that consent electronically. Miss the window and the request gets cancelled for being incomplete — you'd need to start over.

Don't expect same-day results either way. The Ayuntamiento reviews the file and the documents before resolving it; online, you get an immediate submission receipt, and you can check the request's status through the Sede Electrónica afterward. The legal maximum for a resolution is three months, under Spain's general administrative procedure law (Ley 39/2015). The city doesn't publish an average turnaround time, so if you're working against a deadline elsewhere, don't assume it will land quickly. If you need proof of address the same day — for a bank, an Extranjería appointment, anything with a deadline — an in-person cita previa has an advantage the online form doesn't: the office may be able to issue a padrón certificate once your registration is completed at that same appointment. That's not guaranteed, so confirm it's possible before you build a same-day deadline around it.

One more detail worth knowing if you're moving into a flat with a history: the city doesn't automatically know if the people already on record at that address have moved out. If other people remain registered at the address but no longer live there, you must report that using the separate declaración responsable required by the Ayuntamiento — it's its own document, not a section of the hoja padronal. The city will then open a baja por inscripción indebida proceeding (removal for improper registration) concerning those former occupants. It's a separate proceeding against them, rather than a condition on your own registration.

If you're leaving Madrid's municipality altogether rather than moving to another flat within it — relocating to a different town, even a Madrid-region one like Alcalá de Henares or Getafe — you don't file anything with Madrid to close out your old registration. Register with the ayuntamiento at your new address instead; that new registration is what automatically triggers your removal from Madrid's padrón, with no separate baja for you to request.

This is the padrón trap that catches people who've otherwise done everything right: registration for non-EU nationals without a permanent residence authorization expires every two years unless renewed, and the city can declare it lapsed without giving you a hearing first. The Ayuntamiento sends a written preaviso (advance notice) to people who need to renew — but the online renewal option only works if you've actually received that preaviso and you're still within the deadline it states. Miss that window, and you're back to an in-person appointment with a signed renewal request and the same kind of housing-use proof described above.

Practically, this means a change-of-address filing is also a good moment to check where you stand on that two-year clock, especially if your address (and therefore your padrón file) has moved since the last renewal.