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Customs clearance

Clearance is a declaration, not a queue at the docks.

Household consignments into Great Britain are entered on HMRC’s Customs Declaration Service. We prepare that entry from the packing list, the relief claim and the transport document, then stay with it until the port releases the cargo.

Bonded warehouse with wooden crates on pallets and an inspection table

The clearance path we run

01

List, not a guess

Room-by-room inventory with crate numbers, a declared value, and a note of anything bought in the last six months.

02

Relief, if it exists

ToR1 is filed with HMRC before sailing where the importer is transferring their normal home to the UK. Approval is HMRC’s, not ours.

03

CDS entry

Import (or export) declaration with the correct procedure code, commodity treatment for mixed household goods, and the ToR unique reference where issued.

04

Release

Duty and VAT settled if they are due, holds answered, and the last-mile booked only after the cargo is actually free to leave the port.

Documents we ask for at the start

  • Passport bio page of the importer (and partner if jointly claiming).
  • Evidence of residence outside the UK for the 12 months before the move, if claiming ToR.
  • UK visa, eVisa share code, or other evidence of the right to live here.
  • UK address: tenancy, occupancy, or a letter confirming where the goods will be used.
  • Bill of lading / CMR / air waybill once issued, and the numbered packing list.

What we tell you in writing

Whether ToR looks available on the facts you have given us. Which items we will split out as non-qualifying. Which UK port or inland terminal the carrier is using. And the point at which storage charges start if documents are late.

We do not file a relief claim we know will fail in order to make a quote look cheaper. A refused ToR at the port, with VAT then due on a household of furniture, is an expensive way to learn the rules.

Oak desk with manila folders, notebook and brass lamp used for customs paperwork

Ports and inland terminals

Household sea cargo into GB most often clears through Felixstowe, Southampton, London Gateway, Immingham or Liverpool. Road groupage arrives via the Channel tunnel and the short-sea ports. We do not pick a port for romance; the carrier’s consolidation pattern does.

If HMRC asks for a physical examination, we attend the conversation with the packing list, not with a shrug. That is why crate numbers on the list have to match crate numbers on the floor.

Send your packing list