Overseas · from SW15
Moving overseas from Putney
The European routes run on the same inventory as a local move with a customs file built on top. What carries over more than anything else is the habit of measuring the way in — because a Paris stair, a Madrid lift and a Lisbon hill pose the problem this postcode already knows.
Four routes run often enough to have their own pages. Anywhere else in western Europe is an enquiry we will answer honestly.
The four routes we run
On these four we hold agents, know the entry formalities, and send vehicles often enough to price them properly. Each page sets out the road route, the regions we deliver into, and a document list split between the rows you obtain and the rows we obtain.
Removals from Putney to France
Our commonest France job from here is a family relocating to the Île-de-France and discovering the flat is a floor higher than they pictured.
- Paris and the Île-de-France
- Normandy and the Cotentin
- Brittany and the Loire
- Charente and the Dordogne
Removals from Putney to Spain
Madrid and Barcelona are work moves into apartments. Andalucía and the Costas are households with more space than they have had in years.
- Madrid and the centre
- Catalonia and Barcelona
- Valencia, Alicante and Murcia
- Andalucía and the Costa del Sol
Removals from Putney to Italy
Tuscany and Umbria restoration buyers are the pattern here. Milan behaves like any city apartment move.
- Milan, the lakes and Lombardy
- Piedmont and Turin
- Tuscany
- Umbria and Le Marche
Removals from Putney to Portugal
The Algarve takes most of the volume. Lisbon and Cascais behave like city moves and bring the staircase question with them.
- Lisbon and Cascais
- The Silver Coast
- The Algarve
- Porto and the north
How an overseas job runs from here
The opening is identical to a move to Roehampton: a survey, a measured volume, a written inventory. What changes afterwards is what that inventory becomes — a document an official at a border will read, which is why the wording is taken seriously. "Twelve cartons, books" and "boxes" are not the same declaration.
The vehicle leaves SW15 by the South Circular and the A3, joins the M25 and runs round to the M20 for the Folkestone shuttle. From Calais the routes separate: east and south for Italy, straight down for Spain and Portugal, anywhere at all for France. The export declaration is raised before the terminal, and the import entry is lodged at the far end against the same list.
Measure both ends, not one
The habit this postcode teaches is worth exporting. Before a load crosses a continent it is worth knowing whether the sofa reaches the flat at the other side, and the cost of finding out is one measurement taken at a viewing. Ask the agent for the stair width and the clear space at the turn, send us those with the length of your longest rigid piece, and most of the uncertainty disappears before anything is loaded.
Collecting beyond SW15
A vehicle bound for a Kent crossing passes most of south London on the way, so second pickups across the south-west boroughs and the M25 corridor are routine. When a European vehicle is already scheduled we will also collect from London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Bristol. Moving from one of those rather than from Putney? Say so, and we will tell you plainly whether we are the right firm for it.
Two things we will not put in writing
A transit time before the route, the load and the vehicle arrangement are settled — the honest spread is far too wide to compress into a single figure, so the quote carries an estimated window for your own consignment instead. And a duty position, which turns on your residence status and your documents, so we set out the conditions rather than imply an outcome.
Overseas
Questions about moving overseas
01 Which countries do you run to?
France, Spain, Italy and Portugal on established road routes, each with its own clearing agent and its own page here. The same vehicles reach Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland, so ask about those. Where a destination is not routine for us we say so rather than treat your move as practice.
02 Does the staircase problem follow us abroad?
More than people expect. Haussmann buildings in Paris, Madrid apartment blocks with elderly lifts, Italian hill towns and the older Lisbon parishes all set a limit on the longest rigid object that can reach the flat. We measure the destination as well as the origin, which is not universal practice.
03 What is an exterior lift and when is one needed?
A platform hoist set up on the street to reach a window or balcony. In Paris and Lisbon it is routine for upper floors rather than exotic, it usually needs a permit, and it changes the plan and the quote — so we establish it before quoting.
04 Dedicated vehicle or a shared load?
Dedicated carries your goods alone and leaves when you say. Shared travels with other consignments going the same way: cheaper, departing when the route fills. Immovable dates argue for dedicated; flexibility usually makes sharing better value.
05 Who assembles the customs paperwork?
We do, from the inventory taken at your flat and with an agent at the destination. What we cannot obtain are the rows tied to you personally — a tax number, a residence registration, a consular certificate. Each country page separates the two.
06 Can goods be held here first?
Frequently, and for two reasons on this route: an overseas date that is not yet firm, and a destination that will not take everything. Either way the goods are collected, listed and held, and the export file is built from that list.
Where is it going?
Both addresses, the floor at each end, a rough volume, and whether the far end has a date. We will come back with the route, the document list and a written quote.