Slightly different scenario, I’ve got a friend who is halfway through renovating a mill close to me ( it will be a holiday home). He bought a load of “stuff” to bring over early last year (full 4 metre trailer full) but couldn’t make it over last year. He’s now thinking early June all being well, but no customs agents are interested in dealing with this. Can he do this himself, I’ve said before needs a full inventory ( including receipts) but what else, form wise, is needed?
Hi Karen,
You need to fill out a detailed inventory in triplicate - 2 in French - including any cars/trailers etc. All electrical items to be separately boxed with any receipts you have available. valuable items to be listed in euros.
if you have any UK registered vehicles including large trailers email the manufacturer and ask for a Certificate of Conformation. These are usually free.
Then attach CERFA form filled out - as above attachment - 3 copies (this is a declaration of duty exemption for personal items)
email the French Consulate in London to ask for a Certificate of Change of Residence (they will guide you on documents they need ) which will cost you £21 dated and signed
copies of proof of residence - can be utilities; attestation de hebergement/ titre de sejour/carte vital if you have it - if you are renting or staying somewhere
copy of passport
copy of address of your destination.
If you are thinking of taking plants you need to apply for a phytosanitary certificate. you get this from ALPHA. There is a 50% discount for private individuals not selling on. form for that attached above. It’s all a bit ‘frontier’ it’s taken me three weeks to get that far and they are processing it manually for me.
When you have presented all that to customs they will then, in return give you the following:
A stamped copy of the inventory
A copy of Certificate 846A, so that you can re register your vehicle(s) with a standard registration number
A free circulation card, which can be drawn up at your request. (I think this is so that you can make multiple trips more easily.
Hope this is useful. All above in French.
Amanda
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CUSTOMS CERT. CERFA cerfa_10070-03 (2).pdf (758 KB)
PLANTS DISCOUNT APPLICATION FORM.pdf (437 KB)
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Just another point. You can move your own chattels but you cannot get a friend to help you. At the moment there is only movement into France allowed for Residents or via a Removal company.
My advice: leave some of your furniture in the UK and take paint. DIY stuff is expensive go to cheap store in the uk and fill up your van. Brushes rollers paint primer sandpaper enough to do the whole house use the money you get from selling the furniture to buy it.
Use the internet to check tool prices in France if dearer buy them too. Everyone needs a chainsaw lol. Sell your car and buy a french one . Too much hassle with a uk one.
Interesting. As a non-resident is he subject to same import rules as a resident? If so then he will have to pay import duty on anything over I think 300€?
Other than that, links on this thread list the forms.
Edit: this extract from one of the links suggest there will be duty to pay. That’s going to be fun for all those renovating homes here!
Précisions relatives aux importations de biens destinés à meubler une résidence secondaire située en France ou dans l’Union européenne
Les biens destinés à l’aménagement d’une résidence secondaire ne sont plus admis en franchise de droits de douane et de TVA. Vous devez acquitter le droit de douane, la TVA et toute taxation complémentaire éventuelle sur la totalité de votre déménagement vers votre résidence secondaire.
À cet effet, vous devrez fournir au service des douanes la liste exacte des biens importés et leur valeur (présentation des factures ou estimation de gré à gré avec le service).
La valeur totale déclarée servira de base à la taxation de votre déménagement (Valeur en douane). Vous êtes invité à produire également la facture de transport et d’assurance de votre déménagement. Les taux et la réglementation relatifs à vos objet et marchandises sont établis en fonction de la codification (nomenclature tarifaire) de la marchandise et du pays d’origine.
Too much expense to change your car unless you need to. Far easier to keep UK one until need to change it.
Thanks @JaneJones
The Home Office were pretty dismissive.
I think the situation may be that under both UK and French Covid rules moving house is allowed. The catch seemed to be that it is not on the list of allowable reasons for international travel. I wouldn’t have been allowed on the ferry / in the tunnel. Moving things for a living is allowed, domestic or commercial and if I’d booked a personalive as freight I might have got through without any commercial paperwork.
They definitely officially want documentation about UK address and duration, French address and proof of it being “normal residence” plus a very detailed inventory (it’s all on the French Government website). Which is why the Douane want a Customs Agent to sort it all out so that they can simply say yes or no.
In the real world they have better things to do than worry about a couple of vans of.domestic “stuff”! They possibly profiled us as not being likely to smuggle items of great value or illegality and ticked the box. The Customs Agent said he had over 100 lorries crossing that day. He had our passport and address data but definitely not the fully detailed inventory.
The main part of my stress was the incompetence of VanOne and their not talking to the Customs Agent they were using who actually knew what he really needed!
Jonathan
Yes, the mixing up of covid regulations and new post Brexit rules isn’t helping!
I imagine that in a few months time an individual bringing a van full of obviously personal and used goods would be waved through as long as they have the right forms and flourish a big sheaf of papers. No way will a customs agent be interested in that sort of work. I hope so, as I still have some things to bring over.
Hope your right Jane
we’re hoping to semi furnish our holiday home if the sale ever goes through"its a long story concerning drainage rights" we hope to fill a luton van and drive over when all the madness ends,should hopefully be used furniture and my own tools so hoping for a trouble free crossing if all the paperwork is correct
Makes you realise how easy things were before 
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The craziness of moving abroad not for the fainthearted at least my vet has the eight paperwork now 10 days before leaving UK i can collect but the dog will need worming and proof and i have to get her in a vets i. France asap apparently
Well done Karen! Fingers crossed the rest of the process goes smoothly 
You are absolutely right about it not being for the faint-hearted. It’s stressful enough sorting out things post Brexit when we’re already living here and must be much more so for you. Worth it once you make it though 
There is a bit of a problem with buying raw materials now… it’s excluded from Duty Free… but there are ways and means…
The proof of movement has to be via a certificate from the French consulate in London. You apply three weeks before your first movement of goods and it costs £21. The consulate ask for proof of residence in the UK and need to see records of council tax and passport numbers. Apply via email in French (with all the usual courtesy’s top and tail). You can move residence during the pandemic (its an allowed process in the UK and France) but you cannot ask anyone to help you. Whether or not customs bother you is a bit like Russian Roulette. Some get through without hassle and others have their vans dismantled. (one friend had customs shouting at her - in the face without a mask - for even moving back to France). Make sure all your documents are correct; you have included all your cars and any trailers that need to be registered and get a phytosanitary certificate for any plants you want to take.
Jane, You will have to pay Customs Duty and vat on any possessions you take to a second home.
Do you know something about Colin we don’t? 
This is undoubtedly what is supposed to happen!
Maybe getting an inept removals firm to do the transport was a good move (although nerve-wracking).
With the extra paperwork and costs of tests if I returned to England to handle the move it wasn’t worth it in the end. I could hire a suitable lorry in the UK that would let e use it in France but couldn’t find one to hire in France that would let me use it in England which would have resulted in two trips across the Channel. Going North empty handed claiming I was going back to collect what missed the Ferry in December may have been a hard sell. I was told unequivocally that it would not qualify for a tourist booking and that although movement to move house is allowed in both England and France it was not one of the published allowed reasons for International Travel.
I expect things will settle down and become clearer and more straightforward but that is no consolation if you’ve sold your house and your goods are in storage.
Just to say that moving house is considered a valid reason for movement into France at the moment. There is no lockdown in France. The removals company that we are using for the bulk of our Chattels has been doing several trips a week. They have an agent on the border. We are taking the rest of our kit in a horsebox and trailer ourselves.
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ps… Considered a valid movement because we have Residency in France and are able to return under those terms… Moving to a second home may be more difficult.