How to check a moving company in Spain
Four checks that take a few minutes and separate a registered business from a phone number with a van. Useful if you’re arranging a move into Valencia from abroad and can’t easily read a Spanish registry.
Ask for the tax ID and check it against the legal notice. Verify the transport authorisation in the public registry. Insist on a written quote that spells out what the insurance covers. And know that the official complaint form exists and is free.
Moving has a low barrier to entry: a van and an advert are enough to operate. That doesn’t make every small company a risk — many of the best are small — but it does mean the checking falls to the customer. These are the four things you can verify yourself before signing anything.
1. The legal notice and the tax ID
Spanish law requires every commercial website to publish its registered company name, tax ID (CIF or NIF) and address. It’s usually behind a small footer link marked Aviso legal.
If it isn’t there at all, you’ve learned something important: you can’t identify who you’re contracting with, or check them against any registry. That doesn’t prove a company is dishonest, but it does mean a basic legal obligation is going unmet, and it leaves you with no named entity to pursue.
Check the legal form too. An S.L. (limited company) and an autónomo (sole trader) carry very different liability, and the trading name is very often not the registered name.
We’ve run this check for you across the 51 companies in our register: 33 publish a verifiable tax identity, with a link to the source and the date on every fact — and where a company publishes none, its record says exactly what is missing. See the register →
2. The transport authorisation
Spain’s transport ministry runs a public registry that needs no login or digital certificate: the Registro de Empresas y Actividades de Transporte. You can search by tax ID, by name, or by vehicle registration plate — which is what makes step one worth doing first.
Paper transport permits have been phased out; validity is now checked electronically. Worth knowing that not every light van requires the same authorisation, so an absent record doesn’t automatically mean someone is operating illegally.
3. A written quote, and insurance
A written quote stating estimated volume, the date, both addresses, and what is and isn’t included is your only practical defence against charges appearing on moving day.
Ask specifically what the insurance covers and up to what value. And ask what happens if they cancel — that’s the scenario that costs a customer the most and the one that almost never gets put in writing.
4. The official complaint form
Any business trading in the Valencian Community must keep official complaint forms — hojas de reclamaciones — and hand one over when a customer asks. It costs nothing and creates a record with the regional consumer authority.
Keep your messages, too. A WhatsApp thread with dates and times is evidence of what was agreed and when each change was communicated.