REMOVALS FROM FRANCE TO THE UK
Removals from France to the UK: Coming Home, Handled End to End
Moving the other way? This page covers moves from France back to the UK. For a move out from Britain to a French address, see our main removals to France service.
Gentlevan Removals collects from any address in France and delivers anywhere in the UK, on the return leg of the runs we already make out to France every couple of weeks. That makes a France to UK removal one of the better value international moves you can book. A family firm established 2011, 205 five-star reviews, Move Assured and AIM accredited.
Whether you are leaving France for good after years abroad, clearing a holiday home before a sale, or bringing back what you left in a French store, we handle the whole job: access and parking at the property, the customs entry, the crossing, and delivery into your UK home or into storage until it is ready. Packing and export wrapping at the French end are optional, so you can take as much or as little of the work off your own hands as you want.
- Collection anywhere in France, delivery anywhere in the UK
- 3-7 working days typical transit, France to the UK
- Return-leg pricing when your dates fit a scheduled run
- Transfer of Residence and the UK customs entry prepared
- 2 months free UK storage while you find a place
How a France to UK Removal Works
A move out of France is not simply a move to France played backwards. The paperwork is different, the access problems are different, and the timing is usually driven by a French sale completing rather than by a UK one. The sequence below is how nearly every job we run in this direction actually goes.
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1. Survey from where you are
You are in France and we are in Oxfordshire, so we survey by video. Walk through the property on your phone, room by room, and send it to us on WhatsApp on 07861 930529. We price from what we can see, not from a form.
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2. Dates matched to a run
We tell you which scheduled returns from France have space around your window. If one fits, that is the cheaper option. If your date is fixed, a dedicated vehicle goes out for you instead.
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3. Paperwork started early
Your Transfer of Residence application goes in well before the vehicle moves, because the reference number has to exist before the customs entry can be filed.
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4. Packing and inventory
Choose your level of service. Our crew can pack and export wrap the whole property, do the fragile items only, or leave the packing to you. The inventory is written either way, and it becomes the basis of the customs declaration.
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5. Load, access arranged
Hoist, parking suspension or a smaller transhipment vehicle, whichever the property needs. All arranged in advance rather than discovered on the day.
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6. Delivery or storage
Straight into your UK home if it is ready. Into sealed numbered containers at our Oxfordshire site if it is not, with two months included.
Where We Collect in France
We collect from every part of France, and in practice a large share of the work in this direction comes from rural areas rather than the cities. Brittany, Normandy, the Dordogne and the Charente between them account for a great deal of the British population in France, and they are also where access needs the most thought.
If you are moving out of one of the cities we run to regularly, the city page will tell you more about the route and the local access rules: Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, Nice and Toulouse. Those pages cover the outbound journey, and the return works the same way in reverse. The full picture of how we run the route, in both directions, is on our main removals to France page.
Rural collections and difficult access
A farmhouse at the end of a narrow lane, a village street with an overhanging roof, a gîte with a gate too narrow for a full size vehicle: none of these are unusual and none of them are a problem. We run a smaller transhipment vehicle alongside the main lorry, shuttle the load out to where the lorry can stand safely, and transfer it there. It takes longer, so we quote for it up front rather than turning up and discovering the job cannot be done in a day.
Where We Deliver in the UK
Delivery is to any UK address, and the length of the UK leg is part of what sets the price, so it is worth telling us the destination at quotation stage even if the purchase has not completed. We run long distance work across the country as a matter of course, so a collection in the Dordogne delivering to Scotland or Cornwall is a normal job rather than a special arrangement.
- South west and west country. Cornwall and Devon, both a long haul from the ports and both regular destinations for people coming back from France.
- Scotland and Wales. Scotland and Wales, including the Highlands and rural mid Wales where access needs the same thought as a French village.
- Cities. London, Manchester and Cambridge, where parking and loading restrictions at the UK end need booking in the same way Paris does.
- Everywhere else. Our long distance removals service covers the rest of the mainland, and our Oxfordshire base means the Midlands and the south are short runs.
Return-Leg Pricing and Why It Costs Less
Our vehicles deliver into France roughly every couple of weeks, and every one of them has to come home afterwards. If your collection date lines up with one of those scheduled returns, you are sharing the cost of a journey that was already happening rather than paying for a vehicle to make the trip in both directions for you alone. That is the single biggest lever on the price of a France to UK move.
Where your dates are fixed, or the volume is large enough to fill a vehicle, a dedicated load is still available and often the right answer. It costs more and it moves to your schedule rather than ours. You get a written quotation either way, and that is the price you pay on the day.
- Shared return load. You pay for the space your things occupy. Best value where your dates have some flexibility.
- Dedicated vehicle. The whole load is yours and travels to your dates. Right for a full house or a fixed completion.
- Part loads out to France. If you are sending a smaller consignment the other way, see our part-load removals to France service.
How Much Does a Removal from France to the UK Cost?
The price depends on the volume, where in France we are collecting from, and whether you take a shared load or a dedicated vehicle. Here is a typical guide for 2026:
| Move Size | Service Type | Price Range (GBP) |
|---|---|---|
| 1-bed flat / studio | Shared load | £1,200-£2,500 |
| 2-bed house | Shared load | £2,500-£4,000 |
| 3-bed house | Shared load | £4,000-£6,000 |
| 4+ bed house | Shared load or dedicated lorry | £6,000+ |
Prices include loading, transport, customs paperwork and delivery. Packing and export wrapping are optional and quoted separately. The collection region moves the final figure: Paris, Normandy and Brittany are the most competitive because the crossing is short; Provence, the Cote d'Azur and rural southern France cost more for the distance.
Where your collection date fits a scheduled return run you will normally sit at the lower end of the band, because the vehicle is coming home either way. Get an exact quote online in under 60 seconds, or send a room by room video on WhatsApp for a written price.
Transfer of Residence and UK Customs
This is the part that catches people out, and it is genuinely different from moving out to France. Bringing your own used belongings into the UK should not cost you duty or VAT, but the relief is not automatic. You have to apply for it, and the application has to be granted before your goods travel.
Transfer of Residence relief is applied for through HMRC. In broad terms you need to have been living outside the UK for at least 12 consecutive months, to have owned and used the goods for at least six months, and to be moving your normal home to the UK rather than furnishing a second property. HMRC issue a unique reference number, and that number goes on the customs entry when your load reaches the border.
We prepare the application with you and check it against your inventory before it goes in. The entry itself is filed by the customs agent we use on every French job, so the declaration is in experienced hands rather than being the first one somebody has written that month. If you are bringing back wine or anything else with its own allowance, our guide to customs allowances from France to the UK sets out what applies.
Two things worth knowing early
- Second homes do not qualify. Relief covers a genuine transfer of your normal residence. Clearing a French holiday home into a UK house you already live in is a different case, and we will tell you so at quotation stage rather than at the border.
- The inventory is a customs document. It is not just a packing list. Vague entries cause questions and questions cause delays, so it is written properly at the French end while the items are in front of us, whether we packed them or you did.
Access at the French End
French apartment buildings were not designed with removals in mind. A Haussmann block in Paris may have no lift at all, or one barely large enough for two people and a suitcase, and the staircases turn too tightly for a wardrobe or a sofa. The answer is an external hoist: a boom lifted to the window or balcony so furniture comes straight down the outside of the building.
We arrange a local hoist crew where the property needs one, and we arrange the parking suspension with the mairie so the vehicle can legally stand outside on the day. In Paris that permission has to be applied for in advance and the bays physically reserved, which is why we ask about access at quotation stage rather than on the morning. Our guide to removal van parking permits across the UK and Europe explains how the French system works and what notice each city expects.
UK Storage While You Find Somewhere
Almost nobody moving back from France completes on a UK property the same week they leave the French one. The French sale finishes, you have to be out, and the UK purchase is still weeks or months away. That gap is the normal shape of this move rather than a mishap, and it is why every European removal we do includes two months of free storage at our Oxfordshire site.
Your belongings go into sealed timber containers, numbered and listed against your inventory, and stay there until you tell us where they are going. When the time comes it is our crew who load out and deliver, so you are not hiring a second firm who have never seen your things. One booking, one inventory, one number to call.
- Two months included with every France to UK removal
- Sealed, numbered containers listed against your inventory
- No driving to a unit and carrying your own things in
- Extended monthly if you need longer, at a rate quoted up front
More detail on the site and how containerised storage works is on our storage page.
Why Choose Gentlevan for a Move Back from France
- We run the route ourselves. Our own vehicles and our own crews go out to France and come back, so nothing is handed to a third party partway.
- Family run since 2011. The same people quote the job, plan it and turn up to do it, with 205 five-star reviews behind them.
- Move Assured and AIM accredited. Independently checked on process, paperwork and the standard of the work.
- No weight limit on the load. Heavy boxes, large furniture, gym equipment, antiques and pianos travel together on the same vehicle, so the whole house goes in one go.
- MoveProtect, our optional service providing increased liability cover, can be arranged before your move.
- Storage built in. Two months free at our own site, handled by the same crew who collected from you.
- We also move the other way. Going out to France rather than coming back? See our main removals to France service.
FAQs: Removals from France to the UK
It depends on the volume, the collection point in France and whether your dates fit one of our scheduled return runs. A shared load on a return leg is the cheapest option because the vehicle is coming home anyway. A dedicated vehicle costs more but travels to your dates. Send us a room by room video on WhatsApp and you will get a written price rather than an estimate.
Typically 3 to 7 working days from collection to delivery, depending on where in France we are collecting from and where in the UK you are going. Collections in the north of France and around Paris are usually at the quicker end. Collections in the south, the Dordogne or the far south west take longer because the vehicle has more ground to cover before it reaches the ferry or tunnel.
Not on used personal effects, provided you apply for Transfer of Residence relief before your goods travel and you meet the conditions. You need to have lived outside the UK for at least 12 consecutive months, to have owned and used the items for at least six months, and to be moving your normal home to the UK. HMRC issue a unique reference number that goes on the customs entry. We prepare the application with you and our customs agent files the entry.
Our vehicles deliver into France every couple of weeks and then have to come home either way. If your collection date fits one of those scheduled runs, you are sharing the cost of a journey that was already happening instead of paying for a vehicle to travel in both directions for you alone. Tell us roughly when you need to move and we will tell you which return dates are open.
Yes. Paris apartments frequently have no lift, or a lift far too small for furniture, so we arrange a local hoist crew to bring larger items down through a window or balcony. We also arrange the parking suspension with the mairie so the vehicle can stand legally outside the building on the day. Both are booked in advance and quoted up front.
Yes, and every European removal includes two months of free storage at our Oxfordshire site. Your belongings are inventoried, loaded into sealed numbered timber containers and held until you have somewhere to go. Most people coming back from France complete on a UK property weeks or months after they leave, so this is the normal pattern rather than the exception.
Yes, if you want us to. Packing is an optional service rather than something built into every quotation, so you choose the level that suits you: a full pack of the whole property, a part pack covering just the fragile items, or your own packing with us doing the loading. Export wrapping for upholstery and mattresses is optional in the same way. The written inventory is done on every job, whoever packed the boxes, because it forms the basis of the customs entry.
Yes. A large share of our France to UK work comes from Brittany, Normandy, the Dordogne and the Charente rather than the big cities, and those are exactly the places where access is awkward. Where a full size vehicle cannot reach a farmhouse track or a village street, we run a smaller transhipment vehicle from the lorry to the door and load in stages.
Pianos yes, routinely, and they travel on the same load as the rest of the household. Garden furniture, tools and bicycles are all normal. Wine has its own allowances, which our guide to customs allowances from France to the UK sets out in detail. We do not move cars or other motor vehicles, so a car will need shipping separately by a specialist. Tell us what you are bringing at quotation stage so everything is declared correctly rather than discovered at the border.
Get a Quote for Your Move Back from France
Moving out to France rather than back from it? Start with our removals to France page instead.
The quickest way to get a real price is to walk through the property on your phone and send us the video on WhatsApp on 07861 930529. We quote from what we can see, room by room, so the number you get is the number you pay.
Book a free video survey or request a quote online, no obligation and no pressure.
Prefer to talk it through? Contact us for straightforward advice on moving from France back to the UK.