The house sells faster than the paperwork moves. It happens on a great many US relocations, and storage is the answer that keeps a completion date from becoming a crisis.
We connect your enquiry with a vetted international moving company from our network that can collect, store and then ship when you are ready.
Storing before departure is usually the cheap option, because your goods sit in a UK warehouse at UK rates rather than in a port or a US facility. The complication is not cost, it is time.
storage in Britain bridges the gap between a house sale completing and a visa or start date arriving. It is cheap by the week and it carries one long term risk worth knowing about.
If storage turns into years rather than months, the ten year limit becomes relevant. Effects arriving more than ten years after your last arrival from the country where they were used are generally not admitted free of duty.
The most common case is timing. A completion date and a start date rarely align, and paying storage for six weeks is far cheaper than paying to hold a house or rushing a shipment.
The second is staging. Some households ship the essentials, live lightly for a few months while they find a permanent home, and send the rest afterwards. Storage is what makes that possible.
The third is uncertainty. Where an assignment might be extended or curtailed, keeping goods in Britain rather than shipping them across an ocean is the reversible choice.
Storing everything is simple and storing selectively is cheaper. The difference is worth an hour of thought.
Transit insurance does not always follow goods into a warehouse. Ask specifically rather than assuming.
Whether the same company ships them onward matters, because moving stored goods between firms adds cost and handling.
Usually timing. Completion dates and start dates rarely align, and storing for a few weeks costs far less than the alternatives.
Normally by volume and by week or month. Ask how the volume is measured, because that determines the bill more than the rate does.
Not automatically. Transit cover and storage cover are different things, so ask whether the policy follows the goods into the warehouse.
Yes, and it is common. Ship what you need to live and store what can follow later.
Commercially, no. For customs purposes, effects arriving more than ten years after your last arrival are generally not admitted free of duty, which matters if storage becomes long term.
Sometimes, with notice, and sometimes not at all depending on how they are stored. Ask before committing if access matters.
Ideally the same company, because moving stored goods between firms adds handling and cost. Agree it at the start.
Generally, yes, and considerably cheaper than storage arranged at a US port in a hurry.
Usually, though it may be stored separately. Tell the company at the outset if a second collection is likely.
Access varies with how the goods are stored. If you know you will need specific items, say so before they are packed.
Send your collection address, your likely US destination, when the goods need collecting and roughly how much there is. A moving company from our network quotes storage and onward shipping.
A Working Member of AGM Group. Enquiries are connected with vetted FIDI FAIM certified and BAR Overseas accredited international moving companies from the network.
We are an enquiry service rather than a storage provider. Facilities and terms belong to the moving company you are introduced to.
Written by Darren Benjamin, Founder.