A licence or a permit · P
Needs a permit, and real lead time
The rung people are most surprised to find themselves standing on, because the material is almost never the object — it is a component of something ordinary that nobody catalogued as anything.
Nobody sets out to ship protected species. They ship a piano, or a guitar, or their grandmother's cabinet.
Where it actually turns up
Why a household move meets this at all
Because an international convention regulates trade in specimens of protected species, and moving a possession across a border can fall within it even when nothing is being sold. The object does not have to be exotic — it has to contain the material.
Which is how an entirely ordinary household ends up on this rung: a family piano, a guitar bought in the nineteen-eighties, an inherited cabinet with a thin line of inlay along a drawer front.
Age does not automatically help
It sometimes matters and it is never a general exemption, and the position differs by material, by country and by the nature of the item. That is precisely the kind of question that needs the relevant authority rather than a removals firm, and we will say so rather than guess at it.
What we do is identify likely material at survey, photograph it, and tell you plainly that it needs resolving before anything is booked. Nothing on this page is legal advice.
The lead time is the real issue
This rung carries by far the longest lead time on the ladder. A permit application is made to the proper authority, assessed on its own timescale, and cannot be accelerated by us, by an employer or by a shipping line.
It is therefore the one category that can genuinely reset a moving timetable, and the reason we ask about instruments and antique furniture at the first survey rather than at the packing stage.
The alternatives, which are often better
Replacing ivory key coverings on a piano. Selling an instrument here and buying its equivalent at the far end. Leaving a single decorative piece with family. Having a specialist identify a timber species so that a permit application is even possible.
None of those is a defeat. Each is cheaper and faster than an item seized at a port, and considerably cheaper than a whole consignment delayed behind it.
Needs a permit, and real lead time
Questions about needs a permit, and real lead time
- Why would ordinary furniture need a permit?
- Because protected species appear as components — ivory stringing, tortoiseshell inlay, certain veneers. The object is ordinary; the material inside it is regulated.
- Does it matter how old the piece is?
- Sometimes, never automatically, and it differs by material and by country. It is a question for the proper authority rather than for a removals firm, and we will not guess at it.
- Do you obtain the permit?
- No. We identify likely material at survey and tell you plainly. The permit is applied for through the proper route, and we hold none and issue none.
- How early should this be raised?
- At the first survey, before anything is booked. It carries the longest lead time on the ladder and it is the one category that can reset a timetable.
- What are the alternatives?
- Replacing ivory key coverings, selling an instrument here and rebuying at the far end, or leaving a single decorative piece with family. All are cheaper than a seizure.
- What if we say nothing?
- The risk is seizure of the item and delay to everything travelling with it. The slow route is enormously better than the fast one that fails.
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.