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HALOINTERNATIONAL RELOCATIONS

Hidden costs of moving abroad: what an international removals quote doesn’t include

Almost every complaint in international removals comes from the same place: a charge nobody mentioned until it had already been incurred. This page lists all of them, with real figures, so you can interrogate our quotation and everybody else’s.

Last reviewed:

The short version

  • No quotation covers everything. Some costs cannot be known until the shipment arrives — whether customs orders an examination, for instance. The question is not whether a quote has gaps, but whether the mover told you where they are.
  • The expensive ones are almost all about time. Ports give you a handful of free days and then charge steeply, per day, per container. Delay is what costs money, not distance.
  • Most of them are avoidable with notice. A completion date that might move, a street a lorry cannot enter, keys you will not have for three weeks — tell us in advance and the cost is planned around rather than incurred.
  • Ask for destination charges as a figure. “Destination charges payable on arrival” is not a quotation. It is an invoice you have agreed to in advance without seeing it.

On this page

  1. Which of these could apply to you
  2. At your home, on loading day
  3. While it is at sea
  4. At the destination port
  5. Customs and biosecurity, country by country
  6. At the far end, on delivery day
  7. Insurance, and what carrier liability is not
  8. The figures, with sources
  9. How to read any removals quotation

Why this page exists

Because the alternative is worse for everybody. A quotation that hides the extras wins the booking and then loses the customer, usually at the point where they are 10,000 miles away and least able to argue. We would rather give you the whole picture now and be compared on it.

Everything below is a real charge levied by a real party — a port, a shipping line, a government agency, a local authority. None of it is invented by removals companies, and none of it is optional once it has been triggered. Where we can quote it in advance, we do. Where it genuinely cannot be known in advance, this page tells you the range so that it is never a surprise.

Which of these could apply to you

Tick anything that is true of your move. Nothing is sent anywhere — this runs in your browser and produces a list of the charges worth asking any mover about.

Your circumstances

Tick anything above and the charges worth asking about will appear here.

At your home, on loading day

These arise from the building and the street, not from the shipping. They are the easiest to eliminate, because a proper survey finds all of them before you have agreed a price.

Parking suspension and permits

Charged by the local council

In a controlled parking zone a removal lorry needs the bays outside suspended, which the council charges for by the bay, by the day. In central London this is not a token amount, and short notice costs more again.

Westminster, from 2 March 2026: £51–£121 per bay per day depending on zone and length of suspension. Kensington and Chelsea: £72 per bay per day, plus a £357 surcharge on any application made with less than five working days’ notice.

How to avoid it: you cannot, in a controlled zone — but you can avoid the short-notice surcharge entirely by confirming your date two or three weeks out. This is the single cheapest piece of planning on the whole list.

Shuttle vehicle

Charged by your remover

Where the removal vehicle physically cannot reach the property — a narrow lane, a weight or height restriction, a gated development, an overhanging tree — the goods have to be ferried out in a smaller van and transferred. That is a second vehicle, extra crew hours and every item handled twice.

How to avoid it: say so at survey. We can often book a smaller vehicle for the whole job instead, which costs considerably less than a shuttle on the day.

Long carry and stair carry

Charged by your remover

A long carry is distance between the lorry and your door beyond what was quoted. A stair carry is floors without a lift, or a lift too small for a sofa. Both are crew time, and crew time is most of the cost of a removal.

How to avoid it: measure the lift and mention the stairs. A video survey catches this if you walk the route from the street to the front door.

Waiting time

Charged by your remover

Keys not released, a completion that runs past lunchtime, a lift booking that was not made. The crew and the vehicle are committed to your job for the day, so the clock runs either way.

How to avoid it: for same-day completions, ask about packing the day before and loading on the day. It removes almost all of this risk.

Container detention at origin

Charged by the shipping line

If a container is released to be loaded at your home and your date slips, the line charges for the days it sits on the trailer or at the depot. The free period is short.

Maersk UK exports, from 1 August 2026: 7 free calendar days, then £50 per day for a 20ft rising to £80 per day after day 17.

How to avoid it: on a purchase chain that could move, we load to our own warehouse and stuff the container only when your date is certain. It costs a little in handling and removes the risk entirely.

Access-day surprises that are not charges at all

Nobody charges for these — they just stop the job

An unbooked service lift, a concierge who needs insurance documents a week in advance, a restricted delivery window in a managed block. These do not appear on an invoice; they appear as a failed day, which is far more expensive.

While it is at sea

Very little changes once the vessel sails, which is the quiet part of the move. Two things are worth knowing about.

Terminal handling charges

Charged by the shipping line, at both ends

The cost of lifting your container on and off the vessel and moving it around the terminal. It is levied at origin and again at destination, and it is a standard published tariff rather than anything negotiated for your move.

Maersk UK, from 1 October 2026: £220 per container for a standard dry box, at each end. Destination terminal handling is charged in local currency and varies widely — see the figures.

What to ask: whether your quotation includes terminal handling at both ends. This is one of the commonest things to be left out of a headline figure.

Emissions surcharges

Charged by the shipping line

Shipping entered the UK Emissions Trading Scheme on 1 July 2026, covering domestic voyages and emissions while a vessel is berthed in a UK port, for ships of 5,000 gross tonnes and above. The EU scheme has been phasing in since 2024 and covers 70% of reported emissions in 2026, rising to 100% from 2027.

Lines recover this through a surcharge. On a UK–Australia move the exposure is modest, because only the UK leg and the time at berth fall inside the UK scheme — but it is a line on the invoice that did not exist two years ago, and surcharge levels are republished quarterly.

What to ask: whether emissions surcharges are inside your quoted ocean freight or passed through at cost. Either is reasonable; not being told is not.

A correction worth having

A great deal of UK removals content states that shipments to Australia need brown marmorated stink bug fumigation. For goods shipped from the UK, that is wrong. Australia classes the United Kingdom as an emerging risk country rather than a target risk country, and for emerging risk countries the department applies random inspection only — mandatory BMSB fumigation is not required. The risk season runs 1 September to 30 April. You may still be selected at random, and that costs money; you should not be quoted compulsory fumigation as a certainty.

At the destination port

This is where the serious money is, and it is nearly always about time. Ports and lines give you a few free days and then charge per container per day, on a scale that steps up sharply the longer it sits.

Demurrage, detention and port storage

Charged by the port and the shipping line

Three different charges that people reasonably confuse. Demurrage accrues while your container sits inside the terminal beyond its free days. Detention accrues once it has left the terminal and is in your possession, until it is returned empty. Storage is the terminal’s own charge for the ground your box is occupying.

To show the shape of it, using published UK tariffs — the pattern is the same worldwide. Felixstowe, from 1 April 2026: 5 free days, then £25.13 per day for a 20ft on days 6–12, and £67.69 per day from day 13. Maersk UK imports, from 1 August 2026: 7 free days, then detention of £50–£80 per day on a 20ft and £80–£135 per day on a 40ft, rising by tier.

How to avoid it: this is the one we care most about, because it is both the largest and the most preventable. If your keys are going to be late, we move the goods into storage at destination before the free days expire. Storage is charged by the week and is far cheaper than a container accruing daily charges at a terminal. The mistake is waiting to see whether the date holds.

Customs examination

Charged by the terminal, the examination station and the haulier — not by the customs authority

Customs can select any container. A scan is the cheap end. A tailgate examination means the doors are opened and the load looked at. A full examination means the container is taken to an examination facility, completely unloaded, inspected and repacked, which is where the costs climb — and where damage becomes likely, because it is not your crew doing the repacking.

Worth being clear about who bills you: in the United States, Customs and Border Protection does not charge for the examination itself. The cost is the terminal’s, the examination station’s and the haulier’s, plus the demurrage that accrues while your container waits its turn.

United States, indicative trade figures: scan or X-ray examination US$150–350 per container; a full devanning examination at a Centralized Examination Station well over US$1,000–2,500, plus transport and handling. On a shared container the cost is normally divided between the shipments inside it.

How to reduce the risk: a precise, honest inventory. Vague descriptions — “box of miscellaneous”, “personal items” — attract selection. So does a declared value that does not match the contents. This is one of the few places where doing the paperwork properly measurably lowers your odds.

Documentation and administrative fees at destination

Charged by the shipping line and the destination agent

Bill of lading release, delivery order, container inspection and survey, administrative fees. Individually small, collectively not.

Singapore, from 1 January 2026: documentation S$250 for a 20ft and S$370 for a 40ft per bill of lading, plus S$40 container inspection and survey. South Africa, from 1 April 2026: general administrative fee at destination R1,702 for a 20ft and R2,129 for a 40ft.

Customs and biosecurity, country by country

Household goods are usually relieved of duty when you are genuinely moving your home. The relief is not automatic, it has conditions, and the inspection regimes sit alongside it and are charged separately.

Australia

Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, and the Australian Border Force

The strictest biosecurity regime of any destination we ship to, and the one where preparation changes the bill most. Your shipment needs an unaccompanied personal effects statement and a detailed, box-by-box packing list. At inspection you or your agent must open and unpack the consignment.

Biosecurity work is charged in 15-minute units, split between documentation assessment and physical inspection. Under the 2025–26 published schedule that was A$40 per 15 minutes for documentation and A$67 per 15 minutes for inspection in ordinary hours, with substantial loadings for evenings and weekends. Those rates rose by 3.8% on 1 July 2026. The biosecurity cost recovery charge on a sea declaration is A$71 from the same date. If treatment is ordered, a container fumigation is quoted in the region of A$340–650 depending on size and method.

How to avoid it: clean everything a quarantine officer will look at, and do it before it is packed. Garden tools, bicycles, outdoor furniture, camping equipment, vacuum cleaners, the underside of the lawnmower. Soil, seeds and plant material are what they are looking for. An hour with a stiff brush in the UK is worth several hundred dollars of inspection time in Australia.

New Zealand

Ministry for Primary Industries, and New Zealand Customs

Similar in character to Australia and more predictable in price, because MPI publishes a fee scale based on how many items need inspecting.

MPI inspection of unaccompanied household goods, as at 1 April 2026: NZ$38.88 for a single item, NZ$155.50 for 5–12 items, NZ$241.03 for 21–28 items, and so on up the scale. Entry fees on a high-value sea import, from 1 April 2026: NZ$73.87 Customs plus NZ$44.57 MPI biosecurity levy. Where work is charged by the hour the rate is NZ$133 with a NZ$399 minimum — effectively a three-hour floor, which catches people out.

How to avoid it: as Australia. The cleaner the outdoor items, the fewer items flagged, and the fee scale is driven by exactly that count.

United States and Canada

CBP and CBSA, plus the terminal

Neither authority charges for an examination. Both generate real costs when one happens, through the terminal, the examination facility, the haulier and the resulting delay. In the United States an importer security filing must be lodged 24 hours before your container is loaded at the UK port — your destination agent does this, and a late or inaccurate filing carries liquidated damages of up to US$5,000.

Canada relieves settlers’ effects from duty under tariff item 9807.00.00, declared on form BSF186. The conditions matter: you must intend to reside for at least twelve months, you must have owned, possessed and used the goods abroad before arriving, and goods sold within twelve months of import become dutiable.

United Arab Emirates

Dubai Customs and the shipping line

The trap here is ownership, not paperwork. Duty exemption on personal effects requires the goods to be in used condition and in a quantity consistent with furnishing a home. Items bought new shortly before the move are not exempt.

Published Dubai Customs fees include a declaration at AED 70–100, an inspection charge of AED 150, seals at AED 20, and a late document penalty of AED 50 per day up to ninety days. Line charges at destination include customs inspection of AED 680 for a 20ft and AED 1,060 for a 40ft.

How to avoid it: if you have bought furniture in the last few months, tell us before it is packed. There are legitimate ways to handle it, and all of them involve deciding in advance.

Singapore

Singapore Customs

Relief from GST on household goods is conditional, and the conditions are specific. You must be moving your place of residence, own the items, have used and possessed them for at least three months, agree not to dispose of them within three months of arrival, and import them within six months of your first arrival in Singapore.

South Africa and Hong Kong

SARS and Hong Kong Customs

Hong Kong is a free port: only liquor above 30% alcohol, tobacco, hydrocarbon oil and methyl alcohol are dutiable, so household effects attract no import duty at all. South Africa operates a rebate for returning residents and immigrants, with its own forms and conditions, and adds a scanner cartage charge where a container is pulled for examination — R1,227 for a 20ft and R1,508 for a 40ft under the April 2026 tariff.

Moving to the United Kingdom: Transfer of Residence

HMRC

If you are moving to the UK, transfer of residence relief removes import duties and charges on your belongings. You apply before the goods arrive, and you need to have lived outside the UK for at least twelve consecutive months, to have owned the goods for at least six months before moving, and to import them within twelve months of coming to live here. Goods granted relief cannot be lent, hired out, used as security or transferred to anyone else for twelve months.

Worth knowing: HMRC does not publish a processing time for these applications, so any figure you see quoted for it — including on removals websites — is somebody’s guess. Apply as early as you can. Goods arriving before the relief is granted sit at the port, and the port charges by the day.

At the far end, on delivery day

Everything from the origin list applies again at destination, in a country whose streets you have not seen. Two additions.

Storage at destination, and redelivery

Charged by the destination agent

If you are not ready, the goods go into the agent’s warehouse. That is a handling charge in, storage by the week, and a handling charge out — and then the delivery itself, which you are paying for a second time in labour terms even where the mileage was included.

How to avoid it: it is often not worth avoiding. Storage at destination is almost always cheaper than demurrage at the port, and far better than taking delivery into a house that is not finished. The thing to avoid is deciding late. Read our storage page for how the options compare.

A failed delivery

Charged by the destination agent

The crew arrives, the lift is not booked, the building will not let them in, or the keys did not come through. The day is gone and it is charged. This is the most avoidable charge on this entire page and the most common.

Insurance, and what carrier liability is not

This is not a hidden charge — it is a visible one people decline without understanding what they are declining.

Marine transit insurance

Charged as a percentage of what you declare

Carrier liability is a limited sum per unit of weight, set by international convention. It is not compensation and it was never designed to be. A piano and a pallet of sand of the same weight are worth the same amount under it.

Our marine cover on household goods is priced at 2.5–3.5% of the total declared value. On a £35,000 shipment that is £875–£1,225. Where it falls in that band depends on the route, how the goods are packed and the cover you choose, so treat it as a shape rather than a price until it is quoted.

What to ask: whether cover is on a valued inventory — item by item, at replacement cost — or a single total. The first pays properly on a single loss. The second is where disputes come from. And ask what the excess is, because that number is where cheap policies hide.

The figures, with sources

Every number on this page comes from a published tariff or a government fee schedule, with the date it took effect. They change — several changed during 2026 — so check the date before relying on one.

Published charges relevant to UK outbound household goods, as at October 2026
ChargeAmountLevied byEffective
UK terminal handling, dry container£220 per containerMaersk1 Oct 2026
Felixstowe import storage, 20ftFree 5 days, then £25.13/day, then £67.69/day from day 13Port of Felixstowe1 Apr 2026
UK import detention, 20ftFree 7 days, then £50–£80/day by tierMaersk1 Aug 2026
UK import detention, 40ftFree 7 days, then £80–£135/day by tierMaersk1 Aug 2026
UK export detention, 20ftFree 7 days, then £50–£80/day by tierMaersk1 Aug 2026
Parking bay suspension, Westminster£51–£121 per bay per dayWestminster City Council2 Mar 2026
Parking bay suspension, Kensington & Chelsea£72 per bay per day, £357 short-notice surchargeRBKCcurrent
Australia biosecurity, documentationA$40 per 15 min (2025–26 rate; +3.8% from 1 Jul 2026)DAFF1 Jul 2025
Australia biosecurity, inspectionA$67 per 15 min (2025–26 rate; +3.8% from 1 Jul 2026)DAFF1 Jul 2025
Australia biosecurity cost recovery, seaA$71 per declarationAustralian Border Force1 Jul 2026
Australia container fumigationA$340–650 (provider guide price)Treatment providerindicative
New Zealand MPI inspection, 5–12 itemsNZ$155.50MPI1 Apr 2026
New Zealand sea import entryNZ$73.87 Customs + NZ$44.57 MPI levyNZ Customs / MPI1 Apr 2026
New Zealand hourly rateNZ$133/hr, NZ$399 minimumNZ Customs1 Apr 2026
US customs scan examinationUS$150–350 per containerTerminal / haulierindicative
US full devanning examinationUS$1,000–2,500 and aboveExamination stationindicative
US importer security filing penaltyUp to US$5,000 per violationCBPcurrent
UAE customs inspectionAED 150; line charge AED 680 (20ft) / AED 1,060 (40ft)Dubai Customs / carrier2025–26
Singapore destination documentationS$250 (20ft) / S$370 (40ft) per B/LCarrier1 Jan 2026
South Africa destination admin feeR1,702 (20ft) / R2,129 (40ft)Carrier1 Apr 2026
South Africa scanner cartageR1,227 (20ft) / R1,508 (40ft)Carrier1 Apr 2026
Marine transit insurance2.5–3.5% of declared valueInsurerHalo rate

Carrier figures are taken from published line tariffs and apply to that line at that date; your shipment may travel with another. Government fees are from the agencies’ own schedules. Figures marked indicative are trade norms rather than published tariffs, and we have said so rather than dress them up. Currency conversions are not applied anywhere on this page — each charge is shown in the currency it is levied in, because that is how it will reach you.

One thing we will not pretend to know

You will find websites publishing a single “destination charges for Australia” figure, or a processing time for a Transfer of Residence application. No primary source publishes either. Destination charges are built from the components above and genuinely vary by port, agent and shipment; HMRC publishes no timescale at all. Where a number does not exist, we would rather tell you that than invent one.

How to read any removals quotation

Including ours. If a quotation cannot answer these, it is not a quotation, it is an opening position.

  • Does it state the volume in cubic feet or metres, and is that volume based on a survey rather than a guess from a room count?
  • Does it include terminal handling at both ends, or only at origin?
  • Are destination charges given as a figure, or described as “payable on arrival”?
  • Does it name the destination agent, or just say “our partner”?
  • How many free days do you have at the destination port before storage and demurrage begin?
  • What happens to the price if your completion date moves by two weeks?
  • Is customs clearance included, and does that include a quarantine or biosecurity inspection if one is ordered?
  • What are the parking, shuttle, long carry and stair carry assumptions, and what happens if they are wrong?
  • Is insurance on a valued inventory or a single declared total, and what is the excess?
  • Is the price fixed, or subject to a currency or fuel adjustment between quotation and sailing?

What we do about all this

We quote destination charges as a figure rather than a promise to tell you later. We name your destination agent before your goods sail. Where a cost genuinely cannot be fixed in advance — an examination, a treatment ordered on arrival — we give you the range on this page and tell you what makes it more or less likely. And if a delay is coming, we move your goods into storage before the free days expire rather than after, because that decision is worth more than everything else on this page put together.

Ask us the awkward questions

Bring us somebody else’s quotation and we will tell you what is missing from it, including when the answer is that it is a good quote and cheaper than ours. Send it over, or work through the self survey first so we are talking about a real volume.

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07749 924755
Email
enquiries@halointernationalrelocations.com
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