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Moving house? What happens to your firearm licence and safe

Your licence moves with you, but your firearms are only as legal as the place you keep them. Plan the safe and the paperwork before the removal truck arrives.

Your firearms live at the address on record

As a licence holder you must keep your firearms in the prescribed safe at the address SAPS has on record for you. A new home means a new address, so SAPS needs to know about it, and the firearms need a compliant safe waiting for them when they arrive.

Step 1: the safe goes in first

Install the safe at the new home before the firearms go there. It must be fixed properly, as it was at your old address. If the safe is moving with you, empty it, move it, and fix it at the new home before you bring any firearm into the house. Firearms should never spend a night at the new address without a safe to go into.

Take new photos of the safe once it is installed, open and closed. You will want them for your next application, and they show where and how the firearms are kept now. What the safe must meet →

Step 2: moving the firearms

• Every firearm unloaded.
• Locked away, in a locked case or container, and out of sight.
• Your licence with you for each firearm you carry.
• Move them yourself, as a separate trip, rather than packing them in with the furniture.

Step 3: tell the DFO and keep proof

Notify SAPS of your new address. Go to the Designated Firearm Officer at the SAPS station that serves your new home, tell them you have moved, and keep proof that you did: a stamped copy, a receipt or a reference number. File it with your licences. How a change of address works →

What does not change

Moving does not change any dates. Your firearm licence and your competency certificate expire on the same day as before. A renewal still has to be handed in at least 90 days before the licence expires, and after your move it goes to the DFO at your new station.

If an expiry date falls soon after the move, do not let the boxes push it aside. Our free renewal date checker works out the last day to hand in from the date on your card.

A quick moving checklist

1. Safe installed and fixed at the new home.
2. Firearms moved unloaded, locked and out of sight, with your licences.
3. New address given to the DFO at your new station, with proof kept.
4. New safe photos taken.
5. Expiry dates checked, and the 90 day mark in your diary.

Firearm License Pro South Africa keeps your address, your safe photos and every expiry date in one profile, and reminds you four months before anything expires, so the next application after your move is built from the right details.