Pinner to Switzerland
Removals from Pinner to Switzerland
The only destination on this page outside the EU customs union, which makes it the most paperwork-heavy route we run from HA5 and the one where the order of events matters most. Switzerland is not difficult; it is exacting.
Everything on the Swiss side is conditional on a document, and the documents have an order.
Who takes this route from Pinner
- Finance and pharmaceutical relocations to Zurich, Zug and Basel, usually with a fixed start date and a corporate timetable.
- Moves to Geneva and Lausanne for international organisations, where the residence paperwork runs on its own track.
- Families moving to the lake and Alpine towns, where the last stretch of road is the interesting part.
The road out of HA5
HA5 to the M25, round to the M20 and onto the Folkestone shuttle. Switzerland sits at the far end of a long French run, so the shuttle earns its place by preserving driving hours rather than by saving distance.
From Calais the A26 heads south-east past Reims towards Langres, then the A31 and A36 for Basel, or the A39 and A40 for Geneva and Lausanne. Zurich and Zug are reached through Basel on the Swiss motorway network; the Alpine towns come off it and climb.
Where we deliver
Customs, in the right order
Switzerland is outside both the EU and the UK customs union, so this is a full third-country import. Used household effects come in free of duty for somebody establishing residence, but the relief is claimed on a specific Swiss form and it is conditional on a residence permit existing first.
Who obtains what
| Document | Obtained by | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Detailed inventory (valued, in English and German or French) | Us | Prepared at the Pinner survey. Swiss customs reads it closely, so contents are described rather than counted. |
| Form 18.44 (application for duty-free entry) | You | The Swiss household-effects declaration, signed by you. We prepare it with you and lodge it through our agent. |
| Residence permit or confirmation of application | You | The permit, or written confirmation from the canton that the application is in. The relief depends on it. |
| Rental contract or deeds for the Swiss address | You | Evidence that a home exists at the far end and is yours. |
| Proof the UK residence has ended | You | Completion paperwork or a closing council tax bill from the Pinner address. |
| Export declaration and Swiss import entry | Us | Raised against the same inventory, with the Swiss side lodged by our clearing agent at the border. |
Rows marked You are the ones that hold a load up when they are started late, so begin those the week the move becomes real. Rows marked Us are built here from the inventory taken at your Pinner property.
The permit comes before the furniture
The Swiss sequence trips up more moves than the Swiss mountains do. Duty-free entry of household goods depends on you having, or having applied for, a residence permit — and permits are issued by cantons on their own timetables, which do not consult your completion date in Pinner.
So the order is: job or purpose confirmed, canton application in, address secured, then goods. Where a Pinner sale completes before that chain is finished, the answer is to collect and hold here rather than send a vehicle to a border with an incomplete file.
The second Swiss particularity is building rules. Apartment buildings commonly specify which days and hours a move may happen, and some prohibit it outright at weekends. Ask the landlord or the managing agent the week you sign, not the week you move.
Pinner to Switzerland
Questions on this route
01 Can we move before the residence permit is issued?
Sometimes, with written confirmation that the application is lodged — but it depends on the canton. Where the position is unclear we will say so and recommend holding the goods in the UK until it is not.
02 What is Form 18.44?
The Swiss declaration for the duty-free import of household effects. You sign it; we prepare it with you and lodge it with the inventory through our clearing agent.
03 Is Switzerland more expensive to move to than the EU countries?
It involves more work — a full third-country entry, a clearing agent at the border, and more documentation. What that costs on your particular move is settled at quotation, after the survey.
04 What about wine, alcohol and food?
Restricted and often dutiable even within a household move, with quantity limits that apply regardless of the relief. Tell us what is in the cellar rather than letting it be found at the border.
05 Can you deliver to an Alpine village in winter?
With planning. Access, vehicle size and the conditions on the last stretch are all established before the quotation rather than negotiated in a valley with a full load.
06 We are keeping the Pinner house. Does that affect the relief?
Possibly, because the relief rests on you transferring your residence. Tell us the position honestly and we will set out what the file needs — we will not describe a situation on a declaration as something it is not.
Moving from Pinner to Switzerland?
The two addresses, what is happening to the Pinner house, and roughly what is going. We will come back with the route, the documents and a written quote.