SPAIN TO UK REMOVALS

How a Spain to UK Removal Works

A move out of Spain is not simply a move to Spain played backwards. The paperwork is different, the access problems are different, and the timing is usually driven by a Spanish sale completing rather than by a UK one. The sequence below is how nearly every job we run in this direction actually goes.

• 1. Survey from where you are

  You are in Spain and we are in Oxfordshire, so we survey by video rather than in person. Walk through the property on your phone, room by room, and send it to us on WhatsApp on 07861 930529. Our video survey page shows you what to film and how, so nothing gets missed and the price comes back right first time.

• 2. Dates matched to a run

  We tell you which runs have space around your window. If a shared load fits, that is the cheaper option. If your date is fixed or the volume is large, a dedicated vehicle goes out for you instead.

• 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.

• 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.

• 5. Load, access arranged

  At survey we check the items and the access, so we can tell you whether the street needs a parking suspension for loading. Booking the bay is the customer's responsibility, but if you would rather we arranged it in advance we can, for a small extra fee.

• 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.

Small Removals from Spain to the UK

Most people coming back from Spain are not shipping everything they own. They took a houseful out years ago, sold or gave away a good deal of it since, and what is coming home is a few rooms, the things that matter and whatever will not fit in the car. That is a shared load, and it is the job we do most often in this direction.

On a shared load you pay for the space your belongings actually occupy rather than for a whole vehicle, which typically works out 40 to 50 per cent cheaper than a dedicated load carrying the same items. The trade is time: a shared load takes longer because the vehicle is picking up and dropping other work on the same run. Your things travel to exactly the same standard either way, wrapped, blanketed and strapped, and listed on the same written inventory.

• A few boxes to a few rooms. There is no minimum load that makes the job not worth doing. Small consignments are normal work, not an awkward favour.
• Holiday home clearances. Furniture, art and personal effects coming back after a sale, with the rest of the property left to the buyer.
• Part of a household. Bringing back what you want and leaving the rest. We list what travels so the customs entry matches what is on the vehicle.
• Sending things out instead? Smaller consignments going the other way are covered on our part load removals to Spain page.

Where We Collect in Spain

We collect from every part of mainland Spain. In practice most of the work in this direction comes from the coastal regions where British buyers settled: the Costa Blanca around Alicante, Torrevieja, Denia and Javea, the Costa del Sol from Malaga through Marbella and Estepona, the Costa Cálida around Murcia and Mazarrón, and the Valencia region. Barcelona, Madrid, Zaragoza, Seville, Granada, Almería and the northern coast around Bilbao and Santander are all regular collections too.

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: Alicante, Barcelona, Madrid, Málaga and Valencia. 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 Spain page.

Where We Deliver in the UK

Delivery is to any UK address, and the length of the UK leg is a real 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 on the Costa Blanca 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 Spain.
• Scotland and Wales. Scotland and Wales, including the Highlands and rural mid Wales where access needs the same thought as a Spanish village.
• Cities. London, Manchester and Cambridge, where parking and loading restrictions at the UK end need arranging in advance in the same way.
• 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.

How Much Do Spain to UK Removals Cost?

There is no single price for a move between Spain and the UK, but here is a realistic guide. A full household move usually lands between £2,500 and £7,000 door to door, and smaller shared loads start from around £1,200. The table below gives you a range to plan around.

What Moves the Price

Two moves of the same size can be quoted quite differently, and it is worth knowing why before you compare one quotation against another. These are the things that actually change the figure:

• Volume. How much is travelling, measured in cubic feet when we survey. It is the starting point for everything else.
• Access at both ends. A ground floor villa with the vehicle at the door is not the same job as a fourth floor apartment on a street where the lorry cannot stand. Where a transhipment vehicle or extra crew are needed, that is in the quotation from the outset.
• The level of service you choose. A full pack, a fragile-only pack, or your own packing with us loading. Packing and export wrapping are optional and quoted separately.
• Heavy and specialist items. Pianos, safes, gym equipment, large stone or marble pieces and oversized furniture all need planning and sometimes extra hands.
• How your dates sit against our runs. Where your collection window lines up with a vehicle already coming home, a shared load is the cheaper route. Where the date is fixed, a dedicated vehicle travels to your schedule instead.
• Where in the UK it is going. The final UK leg is part of the job, so a delivery near where the vehicle lands is a shorter run than one across the country, and the two do not cost the same.

Prices cover loading, transport, the customs paperwork, Transfer of Residence support where you qualify, and carrying everything into your new place rather than leaving it at the kerb. Get a quote online in under 60 seconds, or send a room by room video on WhatsApp for a written price based on your actual inventory.

Transfer of Residence and UK Customs

This is the part that catches people out, and it is genuinely different from moving out to Spain. 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 Spanish job, so the declaration is in experienced hands rather than being the first one somebody has written that month. Our guide to moving back to the UK from Spain walks through the paperwork side in more detail.

Access at the Spanish End

Spanish properties throw up their own access problems, and they are rarely the ones people expect. Apartment blocks on the costas often have a lift sized for people rather than furniture, and a staircase that turns too tightly for a sofa or a wardrobe. Old town streets in Barcelona, Málaga and the inland pueblos are frequently too narrow for a full size vehicle, or restricted to certain hours for loading. Rural fincas sit at the end of tracks that a loaded lorry has no business attempting.

The answer in nearly every case is the same: we run a smaller transhipment vehicle in to the door and shuttle the load out to where the main lorry can stand safely and legally. Where the street needs a parking suspension so the vehicle can stand outside on the day, we will tell you at survey stage. Booking the bay itself is the customer's responsibility, though we are happy to arrange it in advance for a small extra fee if you would rather not deal with the local authority yourself. Our guide to removal van parking permits across the UK and Europe covers how the various systems work and what notice each city expects.

All of it gets asked about at survey stage rather than on the morning of the move, which is the whole point of walking us through the property on video before anything is booked.

UK Storage While You Find Somewhere

Almost nobody moving back from Spain completes on a UK property the same week they leave the Spanish one. The Spanish 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 own crew who load out and deliver, so you are not hiring a second firm to handle your things again. One booking, one inventory, one number to call.

• Two months included with every Spain 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 Spain

• We run the route ourselves. Our own vehicles and our own crews go out to Spain and come back, so nothing is handed to a third party partway.
• Family run since 2011. You deal with the family that owns the firm, and it is our own crews who do the work, 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 a full house goes in one go.
• Small loads taken seriously. A few rooms coming home is normal work for us, priced on the space it takes rather than treated as a whole vehicle.
• 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 our own crews rather than passed to a storage company.
• We also move the other way. Going out to Spain rather than coming back? See our main removals to Spain service.