Relocation services beyond the removal

Pet relocation

The one people leave latest and regret most. Rabies timing alone can put three weeks between you and a flight.

Your pet does not travel in your container, is not covered by your removals insurance, and runs on a completely separate timetable to everything else. It needs its own paperwork, its own crate and usually its own flight booking.

If you live in England, Scotland or Wales you can no longer use a pet passport to enter the EU, even one issued in the EU. You need an animal health certificate from a vet instead, valid for ten days for entry, six months for onward travel inside the EU and six months for re-entry to Great Britain.

Two pieces of timing catch people out. The microchip must go in before or at the same time as the rabies vaccination — do it afterwards and the vaccination has to be done again. And travel can only happen 21 full days after the first vaccination or the last of the first course. There is no wait after a booster, as long as cover has never lapsed. Dogs going to Finland, Ireland, Malta, Northern Ireland or Norway also need tapeworm treatment recorded by a vet between 24 hours and five days before arrival.

Our partner

Jets4Pets — a Leeds-based pet travel specialist covering all major UK airports. They book your pet’s flight, handle the export paperwork and DEFRA export licence, work with your vet on the documents, arrange collection and delivery, and can coordinate with your travel agent so you fly on the same flight as your pet. Call them on 0113 239 7287.

We receive a commission from Jets4Pets if you book with them after we introduce you. You should still check them against the list above as you would anyone else.

Currency exchange and international payments

On a house sale, the difference between a good rate and a bank's rate is usually larger than the entire cost of your removal.

If you are moving the proceeds of a UK property, you are shifting a six-figure sum across a currency border, and a fraction of a percent is real money. It is also the only part of your move where the risk runs both ways: rates move while your sale completes.

The thing almost nobody explains is the difference between authorised and registered. Firms handling payments in the UK operate under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 as either an authorised payment institution or a small payment institution. An authorised payment institution must safeguard your money — keep it separate so that if the firm fails, you rank ahead of its other creditors. A small payment institution safeguards only voluntarily.

And in neither case is your money protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. The FCA says so directly: money held with authorised and small payment institutions is not FSCS covered. That is not a reason to avoid them — it is a reason to know which one you are dealing with before you send six figures.

Our partner

Currencies Direct — a currency specialist that moves money abroad for people buying property, sending house-sale proceeds or making regular transfers such as pensions and salary. Large transfers come with a personal account manager, and you can fix a rate in advance or set a target rate so your transfer goes automatically when it is reached. In the UK, Currencies Direct Ltd is authorised by the FCA as an Electronic Money Institution (FRN 900669) and safeguards client funds. Call them on 020 7847 9400.

We receive a commission from Currencies Direct if you transfer money with them after we introduce you. You should still check them against the list above as you would anyone else.

Property at your destination

Finding somewhere to live, and not losing money doing it.

Renting first is almost always the right answer, however certain you are about the area. You cannot judge a commute, a school run or a neighbourhood from photographs, and a short let costs far less than selling a house you bought in the wrong suburb.

If you are buying, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office publishes guidance that is blunter than anything an estate agent will tell you: appoint an independent English-speaking lawyer, licensed to practise locally and experienced in property sales. Specifically avoid a lawyer recommended by the estate agent or the developer, because they may be acting for both sides. The FCDO says many property owners run into trouble precisely because they relied on professionals the seller suggested.

The same guidance says to be wary of a translator or interpreter recommended by the agent or the lawyer, and to have contracts translated independently with an interpreter present when you sign.

That advice applies to us too. Use anything on this page as a starting point, not as a substitute for a professional you chose yourself. If an introduction we make ever feels like pressure, ignore it.

Our partner

RE/MAX — one of the largest estate agency networks in the world, with more than 145,000 agents in more than 110 countries and territories. That means we can usually put you in touch with a local agent where you are going, whether you want to rent first or buy, and their site lists homes for sale and rent worldwide. Each RE/MAX office is independently owned and operated, so the agent you deal with is a local business rather than a head office.

We receive a commission from RE/MAX if you rent or buy through them after we introduce you. An estate agent is usually paid by the seller or landlord, so still appoint your own independent lawyer and check everything against the list above.

Letting out your UK home

If you keep the house and rent it out, HMRC treats you differently the moment you leave.

Under the Non-Resident Landlord Scheme, your letting agent must deduct basic rate tax from your rent after allowable expenses, and give you a certificate at the end of the year showing what was withheld. If you have no letting agent, a tenant paying more than £100 a week has to make that deduction themselves — which is a conversation most tenants have never heard of and will not enjoy.

You can apply to receive your rent gross and settle the tax through Self Assessment instead, using form NRL1i. One warning worth having in advance: HMRC will not approve the application if your tax affairs are not up to date, so a late return from two years ago can cost you the whole arrangement at the worst possible moment.

This is also the point at which to decide what happens to the furniture you are not shipping. A let property needs either emptying or furnishing, and both are easier to arrange while you are still in the country.

Visas and immigration advice

Regulated almost everywhere, which means you can check the person before you pay them.

We are movers. We will tell you what paperwork your shipment needs and when your residence status affects your customs relief, and we will not give you immigration advice, because doing so without being regulated is an offence in most of the countries we ship to.

What we can tell you is how to check that the person charging you for it is entitled to. In the UK, immigration advice is regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority — formerly the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner, which is the name most of the industry still uses. It publishes a searchable adviser register.

The same exists at the other end. Australia has the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority, New Zealand the Immigration Advisers Authority, and Canada the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants — each with a public register you can search before you hand over a fee.

Tax when you leave the UK

Residence is a test with numbers in it, not a feeling about where you live.

Tell HMRC you are going if you are leaving permanently, or going to work abroad full time for at least a full tax year. If you do not normally file a Self Assessment return, that means form P85, sent with parts 2 and 3 of your P45. If you do file, you use the residence section of the return, form SA109, which has to go by post. Working abroad full time for a UK employer means doing both.

Whether you are still UK resident is decided by the Statutory Residence Test, and it runs on day counts. Broadly: 183 days or more in the UK and you are resident automatically. Under 16 days, having been resident in any of the previous three years, and you are not. Under 46 days, having not been resident in the previous three years, and you are not either. Between those, it comes down to a set of ties — family, accommodation, work, a 90-day test and, for people previously resident, a country tie.

Split-year treatment can divide the tax year into a resident and a non-resident part. There are eight cases, three of them for people leaving. Which one applies, and whether it applies at all, is exactly the sort of thing worth an hour of professional advice before you go rather than a year of correspondence afterwards.

Healthcare and insurance

The most commonly held wrong belief about moving abroad lives here.

Moving permanently means you are no longer automatically entitled to NHS treatment, because the NHS is a residence-based system rather than something you have paid into and can draw on.

Your GHIC or EHIC does not fill the gap. It covers medically necessary state healthcare during temporary visits, usually up to 90 days. It is not cover for somebody who has moved.

Nor are the reciprocal healthcare agreements, and this is the one people get wrong most often. The UK has agreements with around twenty countries and territories, Australia and New Zealand among them — but they are written for temporary visits, typically with limits of three to six months. Australia's covers medically necessary treatment outside hospital and as a public patient in a public hospital. New Zealand's covers emergency treatment in a public hospital, and dental care only for under-19s. Neither is a substitute for cover when you are living there.

For moves to the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland there is an S1 route, which has the UK pay for your state healthcare where you live. It is narrow — UK State Pension recipients, some exportable benefits, posted and frontier workers — and most people moving for work will not qualify.

Document legalisation and translation

Birth certificates, marriage certificates, degrees and police checks, in a form the receiving country will accept.

An apostille is a certificate the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office adds to a UK document to confirm the signature or seal on it is genuine, so that an authority abroad will accept it. Whether you need one, and for which documents, is decided by the country receiving them — so check with that authority or consulate rather than guessing.

The FCDO's standard service costs £45 and takes up to 25 working days plus postage. The e-Apostille is £35 and takes up to two working days, which makes it the obvious route for anything that exists digitally. Registered businesses can use a next-day service at £40 or a same-day restricted urgent service at £100. Courier charges are extra on the paper service.

Translation works differently in the UK from how most of Europe does it, which causes real confusion. There is no British equivalent of a court-sworn translator. In the UK the translator certifies their own translation, with a statement that it is a true and accurate translation of the original, the date, and their full name and contact details. If an authority abroad asks you for a “sworn translation”, that is what you send.

Driving at your destination

Including the thing almost every removals website gets wrong.

If you are emigrating, do not buy an International Driving Permit. The government's own guidance is explicit: an IDP is for visits, and for a permanent move you should either exchange your UK licence or apply for a new one in the country you are moving to.

If you do need one for a trip, an IDP costs £5.50 and is issued over the counter at shops with a PayPoint — not at the Post Office, which stopped issuing them, though a great many websites still say otherwise. There are three types, 1926, 1949 and 1968, and which you need depends on the country. You must carry your own licence alongside it.

Exchange rules are set by the destination, and in federal countries such as the United States and Canada by the individual state or province rather than nationally. Some allow a straight swap, some require a theory test, some a full test. Singapore, for instance, requires UK licence holders to pass its Basic Theory Test, and asks for proof of a year's UK residency and a letter of endorsement from the UK licensing authority. We will point you at the right authority for your destination, but we will not pretend there is a single answer.

Banking

Dull, and the thing most likely to strand you in week one.

Opening an account at your destination before you arrive is possible in some countries with some banks, and impossible in others, because many require a local address, a local tax number or an in-person identity check. It is worth finding out which applies to you early, because the first month abroad involves deposits, utilities and a rental agreement, all of which want a local account.

On the UK side, check your bank's terms before you go rather than after. Account terms commonly assume a UK residential address, and discovering what your bank does about that while you are mid-move and relying on it is a bad time to find out. Tell them you are going.

Schools and education

Timetables that do not bend around your shipping dates.

School admission runs on local calendars and local deadlines, and in much of the southern hemisphere the academic year starts in January rather than September. International schools in popular destinations run waiting lists, and places are not held for people who are still deciding.

This matters to your move because it often sets the date everything else works back from. If a term start is immovable, that is the fixed point, and the survey, the sailing and the delivery all have to fit around it. Tell us the date early and we will plan to it.