International · from UB10
Moving abroad from Uxbridge
A thirty-year house does not become a smaller house because the destination is abroad. If anything the accumulation matters more, because every carton has to appear on an inventory a border official can sit down and read.
Four routes run often enough to have their own pages. Anywhere else in western Europe is a question we answer straight.
The four routes with their own pages
On these four we hold clearing agents, know the entry formalities and send vehicles often enough to price them honestly. Each page carries the road out, the regions we deliver into, and a document list divided between the rows you obtain and the rows we obtain.
Removals from Uxbridge to Spain
Freighting a full British household to Spain in order to sell half of it there is the expensive version of a downsize.
- Costa Blanca — Alicante and Murcia
- Costa del Sol and Málaga
- Valencia and the east
- Madrid and the centre
Removals from Uxbridge to Portugal
Portuguese purchases complete when they complete. British sales do not wait for them.
- The Algarve — Faro, Lagos, Tavira
- Lisbon and Cascais
- The Silver Coast
- Porto and the north
Removals from Uxbridge to Ireland
No customs file worth the name. One ferry booking that cannot be moved.
- Dublin city and the canals
- Greater Dublin and the commuter towns
- Cork and the south
- Galway and the west
Removals from Uxbridge to Italy
Distance and inaccessibility are each manageable. Italy hands you both at once.
- Milan, the lakes and Lombardy
- Piedmont and Turin
- Tuscany
- Umbria and Le Marche
How a European job runs from here
It opens like a move to Ickenham: a survey, a measured volume, a written inventory, and a long look in the loft. What changes is the standing of that inventory, which stops being our working list and becomes a document an official may read line by line. The wording gets attention accordingly.
The vehicle then takes the M40 or the A40 to the M25 and works round to the M20 for the Folkestone shuttle — except on the Irish route, which goes the other way entirely, up the M40 and across to Holyhead or down the M4 for Pembroke.
Tenure is the variable, not distance
Everybody planning a move abroad worries about the border. In our experience the border is the predictable part: the documents are knowable, the agents are appointed, and the process is the same every time.
What is not predictable is how much a household that has been in one house since the eighties actually owns. That is the number the whole quotation turns on, and it is why an international enquiry here starts with a survey rather than with a country.
Collecting beyond Uxbridge
A vehicle heading for a Kent crossing passes much of west and south London on the way, so second pickups are straightforward. Where a continental run is already in the diary we will take consignments from London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Bristol onto the same vehicle. Moving from one of those rather than from UB10? Say so, and we will tell you plainly whether we are the right firm.
Two things we will not put in writing
A transit time before the route, the load and the vehicle arrangement are settled — the honest spread is far too wide for one figure, so the quotation carries an estimated window for your own consignment. And a duty position, which turns on residence status and documents, so we set out the conditions rather than imply an outcome.
International
Questions about moving abroad
01 Which countries do you run to?
Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Italy on established routes, each with its own page here. The same vehicles reach France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany without difficulty, so ask. Where a destination is not routine for us we will say so rather than treat your move as practice.
02 Do you ship outside Europe?
No. We are a road firm, and a container to Perth is a different trade with different insurance behind it. We would rather point you at somebody who does it properly than take the booking and hand it on.
03 We have been in the house for thirty years. Should we ship everything?
Almost certainly not, and this is the most useful thing on the page. Freighting a full British household a very long way in order to sell half of it at the other end is the expensive version of a downsize. Edit here, hold what you are unsure about, and decide with the new rooms in front of you.
04 Dedicated vehicle or a shared load?
A dedicated vehicle carries your goods alone and departs when you say. A shared load travels with other consignments going the same way: less to pay, leaving when the route fills. On the Portuguese run the saving from sharing is the largest of the four.
05 Who assembles the paperwork?
We do, from the inventory taken at your Uxbridge property and working with an agent at the destination. The rows we cannot obtain are the ones attached to you as a person — a tax number, a registration, a consular certificate. Each country page separates the two clearly.
06 What about everything in the garage?
Fuel, gas cylinders, open paint, solvents and garden chemicals are refused on an international load exactly as on a local one, and soil and plant material are restricted on top. On a long tenure there is usually more of this than anybody remembers.
Where is it going?
The country, how long you have been in the UK house, and whether the far end is confirmed. Those three decide the vehicle, the route and the file.