Pinner → France
Removals from Pinner to France
The shortest of our four European routes, and the one most often done in stages — a posting, a house bought years ago and finally being furnished, or a family leaving for good. What decides it is the residence evidence rather than the driving.
Who goes, from here
Pinner sends a recognisable mix to France. Professional postings to Paris, where the move is corporate in everything but the furniture. Families going to Occitanie and Nouvelle-Aquitaine for a different kind of life, generally with a great deal more to move. And the long-standing holiday house in Normandy or Brittany that is finally being furnished properly rather than with whatever the last owner left.
The route
A404 or A40 from HA5 to the M25, anticlockwise round the top or clockwise past Heathrow depending on the hour, then the M20 to the tunnel at Folkestone or the M2 to Dover.
In France the run splits by destination: the A16 and A28 down the western side for Rouen, Le Mans and everything towards Bordeaux, or east of Paris for Burgundy, Lyon and the Rhône corridor. Provence and the Mediterranean coast are the longest of them and are scheduled honestly rather than optimistically.
The paperwork, in order
These are the documents the file is built from. The ones only you can obtain are marked as such, and they are the ones to start first.
- Passport & proof of UK address Yours The starting point of the residence evidence. A recent utility bill at the Pinner address is usually enough.
- Attestation de domicile Yours Proof of the French address: acte de vente for a purchase, or a bail for a rental in your name.
- Certificat de changement de résidence Yours From the French consulate, confirming you are transferring residence rather than furnishing a holiday house.
- Valued inventory Us, signed by you Itemised and valued line by line, bilingual. This is what customs reconciles against the vehicle.
- Export declaration & transit paperwork Us Raised before the vehicle leaves the UK. Nothing crosses without it.
Delivering at the other end
Suburban and modern French addresses are generally straightforward. The centre of an old village or a bastide town is not: streets laid out for carts, bollards, and occasionally an arch a vehicle simply cannot pass under. A transfer to a smaller vehicle for the final stretch is normal and it is costed into the quotation rather than raised on the day.
Rural properties with long unmade tracks need saying in advance. The question is the same one we ask on Pinner Hill: can a loaded vehicle get in, and can it turn round once it has?
What relief does and does not cover
Relief covers used household effects you owned and used before the move, going to a residence that becomes your main home. That is what all the documentation exists to demonstrate.
It does not cover a second home, and it does not cover anything bought new for the move. A sofa ordered the week before loading is new stock rather than a used personal effect, and describing it otherwise is a problem that lands on you rather than on us.
Related
The overview covers dedicated versus shared loads and collecting from elsewhere in the UK first. Storage in Pinner is what bridges the gap while the documents catch up, and packing to export standard is a different job from packing for a move across HA5. Spain, Italy and Portugal share the first part of this route.
Questions
Pinner to France, asked properly
01 How long is the run from Pinner?
Longer than from Kent and shorter than people fear. A404 or A40 to the M25, round to the M20 or M2, then the tunnel or the ferry. The vehicle is usually loaded in HA5 and crosses the following morning, which is a sequencing decision rather than a delay.
02 What is the attestation de domicile?
Proof of your address in France — a deed of sale, a rental agreement, or a utility bill in your name at the new address. French customs want evidence that the destination is genuinely where you are going to live.
03 Do we need a French tax number before moving?
Not for the removal itself. A numéro fiscal becomes necessary quickly once you are there, and it is worth starting alongside everything else rather than after the vehicle has gone.
04 Does the inventory have to be in French?
It should be, and it must be valued. A bilingual inventory is normal and we prepare it; you check and sign it, because you are the one attesting that it is accurate.
05 We are keeping the Pinner house. Does that matter?
Yes, entirely. Duty relief on used household effects depends on transferring your residence to France. Furnishing a second home while remaining UK-resident is an ordinary import assessed on declared value, and it has to be declared that way.
06 Can you deliver to a village with narrow lanes?
Usually with a transfer to a smaller vehicle for the last stretch, which is exactly the same logic as a shuttle in Pinner Village. Rural France and a medieval High Street present the same problem in different languages.
Next step
Get the residence evidence moving. We will handle the export side.
The consulate paperwork has a longer lead time than anything we do. Start it, and talk to us in parallel rather than afterwards.