A declaration is enough · I
Needs only your inventory
The reassuring rung, and the one that covers the overwhelming majority of what is in a house. Used household goods move on a described inventory and a transfer-of-residence relief, and nothing more is asked.
Most of an international move is ordinary. The rest of this site is about the parts that are not.
What this covers
What the relief actually is
Most countries waive import duty on used household effects belonging to somebody genuinely moving their home there. It is claimed against a described inventory plus evidence that you are leaving one address and taking up another, and it is the ordinary basis on which household shipments travel.
The conditions attached vary: how recently you must have owned the goods, how soon after your own arrival they must land, and how long you must keep them afterwards. Each country page names the ones that apply there.
"Used" is doing real work in that sentence
Relief applies to things you have owned and used. A sofa bought specifically for the new house sits outside it, and listing it as old is precisely what turns a routine clearance into an inspection.
Where you genuinely are shipping something new, say so. A correctly declared new item is a duty question; an incorrectly declared one is a credibility question, and credibility is what the whole entry rests on.
Why the description matters more than the count
An inventory that reads "four boxes, kitchen" tells a customs officer nothing and invites them to look. One that describes contents lets an entry clear on paper.
It is slower to produce at your house and it is the single most useful thing about shipping with a firm that writes the list where the goods are rather than compiling it afterwards at a depot counter.
Where this rung ends
At three places, and all of them are things people own without thinking about them. Anything with a licence attached, anything containing protected material, and anything alive or wheeled.
That is what the rest of the ladder is for, and it is why the survey looks at pianos, guitars, inlaid furniture, garden tools and the medicine cabinet specifically rather than counting boxes.
Needs only your inventory
Questions about needs only your inventory
- Is most of our house really this simple?
- Yes. Furniture, clothes, books, kitchen things and toys move on an inventory and a relief claim. The complications sit in a small number of specific categories.
- What is transfer-of-residence relief?
- The waiver of import duty on used household effects for somebody genuinely moving home. It is claimed against the inventory plus evidence of both ends of the move.
- Does it cover new items?
- Generally not — relief applies to goods you have owned and used. Declare anything new correctly rather than describing it as old.
- How specific must the inventory be?
- Specific enough that a customs officer can tell what each line is. Carton counts invite inspection; descriptions let an entry clear on paper.
- Who writes it?
- We do, at your property, as the vehicle loads. A list compiled later at a depot is a list of boxes rather than of contents.
- What takes things off this rung?
- A licence requirement, protected material inside an ordinary object, or anything alive or wheeled. Those three are what the rest of the ladder covers.
Which rung are you on?
Both addresses, roughly what is going, and anything in the house that might sit higher up the ladder — an instrument, an antique, a wine collection, a drone, a car.