Moving out of Greece behaves differently from moving in. Collection is often from a house being sold. Dates hang on a completion nobody controls. And the goods arriving in Britain face a customs process that has to be started before they travel.
We handle a lot of this direction. Retirees coming home, families who gave it a few years, remote workers whose stay has ended, adult children clearing a parent's house, and owners emptying a property before handover. All of them need the same thing: a moving company that has done the paperwork side before.
Send the move once and you are connected with a vetted company from our network that already runs Greece to Britain. No charge, no obligation, and you deal with the mover from that point on.
Full homes, part loads, furniture, boxes and whole property clearances all move this way. What the mover needs from you is the Greek town, the UK postcode, whether an island is involved, and whether the goods still need packing.
Goods coming into Great Britain from Greece are an import. Without relief, HMRC can treat a container of your own furniture as a commercial consignment and charge import VAT at the standard rate on the declared value, plus any duty.
Transfer of Residence relief exists precisely for people making Britain their normal home again. You apply on GOV.UK using the ToR1 form. If it is approved you get a Unique Reference Number, and your shipping agent quotes that number on the import declaration to release the goods without charges.
The mistake we see most often is leaving it until the goods are already at sea. Approval is not instant, and a shipment sitting at a port while an application is processed accrues storage. Apply before the goods move.
The general rule is that goods must have been owned and used for at least six months before they travel, and that only living individuals can claim. There are recognised exceptions worth knowing about.
Coming to Britain for full-time study, you do not complete a ToR1 at all. Your agent declares the goods under the student procedure code and you supply evidence of the course. If you then stay on after graduating, the rest of your belongings can follow under the normal relief within twelve months.
The six month ownership requirement does not apply where the move follows a marriage or civil partnership. Wedding gifts and trousseaux can qualify even when brand new, provided they arrive within four months of the wedding. This is one of the very few routes by which new goods get relief.
Moving from Greece to Northern Ireland is handled differently from a move to Great Britain, because of how goods move within the EU. Say which nation the goods are going to when you enquire, since it changes which process applies and what your mover needs from you.
They cannot claim. The relief is available only to living individuals moving their own personal property. If a company owns the goods, or a trust holds the Greek property, the shipment is a commercial import and gets treated as one. Worth checking before you assume.
A large share of Greece to Britain work is not a family relocating. It is a property being emptied, often after a sale or an inheritance, sometimes with nobody living in it and nobody local to let the crew in.
These jobs need different handling, and a London delivery brings its own parking and lift constraints. The inventory is usually unknown until someone opens the door. Some of the contents will be worth shipping and some will not. Access at a Greek village house or a top-floor Athens flat can rule out a large vehicle entirely.
Say plainly if this is your situation. A moving company that knows it is a clearance will plan for sorting, disposal and a possible shuttle vehicle rather than turning up expecting a packed house.
The answers that decide whether this move goes smoothly or expensively.
Not if you qualify for Transfer of Residence relief and apply in time. Without it, HMRC can treat your household goods as a commercial import and charge import VAT on the declared value plus any duty. Apply on GOV.UK with the ToR1 form before the goods travel, and give the reference number to your mover.
It varies with how complete your documents are and how busy HMRC is, so build in weeks rather than days. The practical rule is to apply as soon as your move date is real, not once the goods are loaded. A shipment waiting at a port for an approval accrues storage charges that nobody refunds.
No. The relief is for transferring your normal place of residence to Britain. Clearing a Greek second home into a British house you already live in does not meet that test. If that is your situation, plan for the shipment to be charged and ask the mover to quote accordingly.
If you are moving to Britain for full-time study you do not complete a ToR1 at all. Your agent uses the student customs procedure code and you provide proof of your course. Coming home after finishing a Greek course is a normal transfer of residence, so the standard ToR1 route applies instead.
Often yes, provided someone can grant access and the paperwork is arranged in advance. Property clearances are frequently done with the owner in Britain. What the mover needs is a key holder, clear instructions on what goes and what stays, and photographs of the rooms and street access.
Close off the practical ties rather than the paperwork ones. Utilities, any local tax position, and the building or community charges on an apartment. None of that involves your mover, but all of it becomes far harder to sort out once you are in another country and the keys have gone.
Alcohol and tobacco are excluded from Transfer of Residence relief, so they do not travel duty free with your household goods. That does not mean they cannot be shipped, but they are treated separately and attract excise duty. Declare them at enquiry stage rather than at loading.
Send the Greek collection town, the British delivery postcode, your dates and roughly what is coming. A vetted moving company from our network checks access, the sea or road leg and the customs position before quoting.
Get your free quoteWe are a free enquiry service and a Working Member of AGM Group. We connect people moving from Greece to Britain with vetted international moving companies from that network. We do not carry out removals ourselves, own vehicles or employ crews, so the firm that quotes you is the firm that does the job.
Use this page to get the customs side started early, then work the detail through with your mover.
Written by Darren Benjamin, Founder, International Removals Companies.