# More planning!



## DH59 (Feb 23, 2010)

OK, we've decided we have to make a start on this plan to come over there. Things are not moving on here as we would like, and we think we will be better off doing this move sooner rather than later. So I have a few issues I need to sort out.

We are currently thinking about what to bring over with us, and a few possibilities spring to mind. Should we, for instance, bring over computers, or are they easily and cheaply available there, or at least computer parts so that I can build my own? I am worried that the journey will damage them in some way - hard drives are very sensitive to movement and knocks.

Regarding furniture - I have read that it is expensive there, but is that preferable to the cost of shipping everything over in a container?

We are thinking we will probably rent a property - are there many that come fully furnished? If so, then we can forget the previous issue.

I think that's all for now. We are in the process of trying to sell our folding camper, and that will give us a few thousand to play with, and we'll probably come over again soon if it sells quickly.


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## Fuss (Jan 31, 2012)

Hi, we came over November 2011 brought furniture and are renting, most people we speak to say renting is best as problems with buying, our own furniture makes it seem like home, many properties available to rent if you know area you want then go for it.


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## RHODES4712 (Jan 29, 2012)

DH59 said:


> OK, we've decided we have to make a start on this plan to come over there. Things are not moving on here as we would like, and we think we will be better off doing this move sooner rather than later. So I have a few issues I need to sort out.
> 
> We are currently thinking about what to bring over with us, and a few possibilities spring to mind. Should we, for instance, bring over computers, or are they easily and cheaply available there, or at least computer parts so that I can build my own? I am worried that the journey will damage them in some way - hard drives are very sensitive to movement and knocks.
> 
> ...


do it now is my advice as if you don't you probably never will. i was all set up for just handing the keys to our house back to the bank and just starting again in cyprus. luckily i managed to sell it and i exchange contracts and complete on monday 30th april. although i bought it 6 years ago as a repossessed house for 200k spent almost 4 years tearing it apart and rebuilding it for it to be finished in 2009 and valued at 260k i ended up giving it away for 178k so not impressed but still better than handing it back to the bank plus i get a few grand back after everyones been paid. as for what to take. i'm taking everything. my missus has 20 crates of clothes shoes bags etc which for reasons i'll not get into at the moment have never been used and no one wanted to pay anything for them here so she will be doing the car boots market etc when we get there and flog it all which will give us a bit of pin money. then i am taking all my garage equipment as i am a custom bike painter so i have loads of paint spraying gear plus masses of tools compressor etc etc. i am bringing my transit van, 2 newish sofas, the bed, washer, fridge freezer, tvs, laptops ( in hand luggage ) iphones ipads etc, you name it i might as well bring it. so it's all going in a sole use container. i have had 3 quotes. all coming in at 4500 plus vat and that is for almost door to door. one from burke bros/mk removals, one from chudley international/peter morton and another from jo valentine in doncaster. i have all my stuff packed in wooden crates which i made and everything is in a self storage unit. they will be turning up at the storage unit in their van plus there will be an artic there which will drop a 40ft container on the floor, then they will load it and build a bulkhead to separate the household goods from the van. then they will put the van in and secure it and then lift the container back on the artic and off it goes. when it turns up in limassol port i'll have to go down and sort custom clearance of the van and then drive away in it while the container will go to the cypriot companies site where all the rest of the stuff will be moved into transit vans and brought to my rental accom where they'll unpack it all and take away the rubbish. then i get a life and chill out for a few months before i start looking for a deal on a house to buy where i can set up a business and semi retire. well thats the plan anyway. this last week or so has been monsterously stressful and i havent even started yet as i am waiting till monday to make sure the house completes ok then i will need to book a flight for 2 days later to fly out to cyprus to secure a long term let and to secure a p.o box to get my mail transferred to then fly back to u.k asap so i can then arrange a date asap for the container to be filled and then book more flights for me the wife and the dog and get the hell out of this country. then i might just grab myself a pint of keo and have five minutes to myself!!

hope this helps in your quest.
darren:bolt:


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## DH59 (Feb 23, 2010)

Hi Darren, glad you finally got your house sold. We are hoping to get ourselves sorted before the end of the year, all being well. We have to do something as we are not getting any richer here. And I think my photography business will work better there than here.

Well, I don't think we'll have that much stuff! Hope not anyway, at that price for shipping. The cost of shipping is the main reason I thought we might sell it all and either buy new there, or rent furnished.

Yes, the smaller laptop and iPad can travel with us - I was after infor about our two full-size computers and monitors mainly, and the safety of the hard drive in transportation. If parts or ready-built computers are easily and cheaply available, then we might sell these and start afresh when we get there.


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## RHODES4712 (Jan 29, 2012)

DH59 said:


> Hi Darren, glad you finally got your house sold. We are hoping to get ourselves sorted before the end of the year, all being well. We have to do something as we are not getting any richer here. And I think my photography business will work better there than here.
> 
> Well, I don't think we'll have that much stuff! Hope not anyway, at that price for shipping. The cost of shipping is the main reason I thought we might sell it all and either buy new there, or rent furnished.
> 
> Yes, the smaller laptop and iPad can travel with us - I was after infor about our two full-size computers and monitors mainly, and the safety of the hard drive in transportation. If parts or ready-built computers are easily and cheaply available, then we might sell these and start afresh when we get there.




You could always remove the hard drives and take them with you in hand luggage and send the rest on??


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## DH59 (Feb 23, 2010)

RHODES4712 said:


> You could always remove the hard drives and take them with you in hand luggage and send the rest on??


That was my other thought. But I wondered if the airline will accept it. They seem to want to check laptops for some reason, not sure why, exactly, but they didn't bother about the iPad when we came over in January. I'll have to check on that one.


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## toppers4 (Feb 24, 2012)

We are in a similar boat really, we want to come across asap, we are waiting for the house to sell, but can't decide whether to ship furniture or buy over there. I've heard that there are plenty of second hand bargains to be had, so depends if you (we) want the hassle of sourcing it. I need a new computer so was wondering a similar thing...is it cheaper to buy here and (safe) to ship or just to buy there...or does that depend on the make? I'd like an apple mac. I've also heard that white goods are expensive in cyprus. I guess you need to weigh up the cost of shipping stuff against the buying it all again when you arrive. So, I too am looking for advice on expense of furniture, safety of shipping computers or buying a new one etc etc

Good luck with your moving plans, good luck too to Darren, I've read your comments with interest on a couple of other threads. It's interesting and helpful to hear other people's experience.


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## Pam n Dave (Jun 11, 2007)

We had problems waiting for the house to sell so rented it out and rented it over here, our possessions and a car went into a 40ft container and £4500 and 3 weeks later they arrived here. A small table was damaged but all the electrical stuff was fine including the TV, and computers. 

I'm also glad that we rented, some people have had bad experiences with buying and we know that we can leave in a month or so if things go wrong with our rental.


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## RHODES4712 (Jan 29, 2012)

Pam n Dave said:


> We had problems waiting for the house to sell so rented it out and rented it over here, our possessions and a car went into a 40ft container and £4500 and 3 weeks later they arrived here. A small table was damaged but all the electrical stuff was fine including the TV, and computers.
> 
> I'm also glad that we rented, some people have had bad experiences with buying and we know that we can leave in a month or so if things go wrong with our rental.


Hi pam n dave, who did you use for the shipping? As I'm getting all sorts of info thrown at me, such as customs charge €7.50 for each electrical item plus if they want to do a full check of all the goods it will be at my expense and now they're saying that all vehicles have to be drained of fuel and batteries disconnected. It seems a bit of a mine field.


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

I've never known anyone to have to pay customs charges on electrical items. 
Maybe if you were to bring a load of brand new stuff over they might charge you as they would think you were bringing them to sell and make a profit.
We brought all of our electricals with us and weren't charged a single penny.


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## RHODES4712 (Jan 29, 2012)

This is the PDF I received from one of the shipping companies which I've not heard much about it's called valentines who are at skelbrooke at Doncaster 

In Cyprus the port authorities apply an* '' Electrical item tarff '' charge.*This means if a consignment contains the following*items*listed below the port authorities charge us* Euro 7.65 per item at time of customs clearance formalities. 
* 
ITEMS PAYABLE 
-------------------------- 
TV, DVD, VIDEO, FRIDGE, FR/FREEZER, WATER COOLER, AIR CON, WASHING MACHINE, DISHWASHER. 
* 
* 
ITEMS FREE OF ELEC TARIFF. 
----------------------------------------------- 
COOKER, COMPUTER, TUMBLE DRYER..SMALL* 
ALSO NOT APPLICABLE*ARE SMALL ELECTRICAL ITEMS *SUCH AS TOASTER, KETTLE, HAIRDRYER, MICROWAVE, LAMPS*ETC, ETC.... 
*


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

If these items are your own and have been used you DO NOT have to pay customs on them. If you bring anything new make sure it isnt in its original box, say you have had it for a few months. Anyway why would the customs charge the removal company? Dosn't make much sense to me, they would surely charge the owner not the removals company. 

I will repeat, I have NEVER known anyone to have to pay these charges and all of our clients who have bought property through us have brought their whole household over with them.


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## RHODES4712 (Jan 29, 2012)

No problem V I'll check to make sure I'm not being fleeced. I don't suppose anyone has ever had a full customs check have they?? Only if they do mine it will be a 2 day job with all the stuff I'm bringing and I dont fancy paying for that!!


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## totorama (Jun 12, 2010)

We shipped a forty foot container all the way from the USA without any problems. When the container arrived at the villa, we had two customs official who watched as the customs seals were removed from the doors then they stayed all day as the container was unloaded watching every item as it came out of the container. They would randomly picked boxes and checked that the contents matched the manifest. I even had TV's and computers packed in there original boxes. These were the ones they went after most of the time because they looked new. They check box labels for any signs of dates etc. anything that may be a giveaway that the item was less than 6 months old. Anyway, the whole thing was very friendly and the outcome was we did not have to pay any duty whatsoever. I also shipped a motorcycle in the container that has taken me nine months to get through customs clearance. Now that it's finally cleared, I can't get it registered for use on the road because it does not have a Certificate of Conformance for Cyprus. . But this is a whole new can-of-worms, If anyone else has managed to import a vehicle from America I would be interested to hear from them


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## RHODES4712 (Jan 29, 2012)

Thanks for the info and advice. As I am a custom motorcycle painter I will be importing my van plus I will have 2 motorbikes inside the van which I'll be importing however these are both motocross bikes so no import duty no vat and no re registration required. At some point I'll be importing container full of bikes for me to repair custom airbrush and then sell on so I'm sure I could advise once I've done this plus I am in touch with a dealer based in paphos who does it regularly so I can find out the score in any case.


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## cds usa (Jan 4, 2011)

totorama said:


> We shipped a forty foot container all the way from the USA without any problems. When the container arrived at the villa, we had two customs official who watched as the customs seals were removed from the doors then they stayed all day as the container was unloaded watching every item as it came out of the container. They would randomly picked boxes and checked that the contents matched the manifest. I even had TV's and computers packed in there original boxes. These were the ones they went after most of the time because they looked new. They check box labels for any signs of dates etc. anything that may be a giveaway that the item was less than 6 months old. Anyway, the whole thing was very friendly and the outcome was we did not have to pay any duty whatsoever. I also shipped a motorcycle in the container that has taken me nine months to get through customs clearance. Now that it's finally cleared, I can't get it registered for use on the road because it does not have a Certificate of Conformance for Cyprus. . But this is a whole new can-of-worms, If anyone else has managed to import a vehicle from America I would be interested to hear from them


Who did you use to ship from the USA and how much please? Did you pack yourself or they packed for you? We are in the process of figuring it all out and we'll also be coming from the US. Did you bring all your appliances? 
Thanks for any info also anything you wish you brought but didn't


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## DH59 (Feb 23, 2010)

Well, it all seems pretty daunting, but if we don't accept that and face it head on then we'll never get this done!

We were visiting family yesterday, and spoke to Keith's sister's husband, who used to be in the haulage and removals business. He is going to speak to a few people and get us some quotes.

He also mentioned making our own crates for the items, as the companies will charge a fortune for them. Darren, what did you use to make your crates/boxes?

I also spoke to my cousin yesterday - who is on a visit from New Zealand where they moved three years ago - and she reassured me that things would be safe in transit (unless the container goes overboard, of course, which has recently happened to a friend of hers!).

Seems it might be as well to bring some stuff with us, but we would have to get someone in to calculate the quantity so that we can see what size container we might need. I may remove the hard drives from the computers, though, just to be on the safe side, although I can back up everything to 'the Cloud' as well.

The major items will be Keith's picture framing equipment, including the mitre guillotine which is made from cast iron and weighs rather a lot.


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## totorama (Jun 12, 2010)

cds usa said:


> Who did you use to ship from the USA and how much please? Did you pack yourself or they packed for you? We are in the process of figuring it all out and we'll also be coming from the US. Did you bring all your appliances?
> Thanks for any info also anything you wish you brought but didn't


We used Bekins for our move from California and they handled everything door-to-door including packing although we did pack a few things ourselves, they still had to check and list the contents of each box for the customs manifest .

Rather than highjack this thread, if you can PM me, I can give you all the details, costs etc. Incidentally whereabouts in the US are you moving from? And where are you looking to move to?


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## Geraldine (Jan 3, 2009)

DH59 said:


> Well, it all seems pretty daunting, but if we don't accept that and face it head on then we'll never get this done!
> 
> We were visiting family yesterday, and spoke to Keith's sister's husband, who used to be in the haulage and removals business. He is going to speak to a few people and get us some quotes.
> 
> ...


Hi Diane,

I brought EVERYTHING with me, garden pots, ladders, the lot, and I am so glad,some of these items are more expensive than the UK, the upside is it makes you feel more settled having your own belongings around you plus if you have really good quality furniture, you may not get the same standard here. 

It was different for me, I moved straight into a permanant property not rental and there was no way I was going to buy again when I had it already. 

It was worth spending the money on exporting it than having to start looking around for what you wanted/liked, getting it delivered etc.


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## RHODES4712 (Jan 29, 2012)

Hi, again. We're now out of the house at Barnsley Road Hemsworth and I've never been so happy. We're in a nice little terrace house not far from Barnsley and all our stuff is in a 20ft x 8ft storage unit. And just to let anyone know we are taking more stuff than anyone can imagine. 38 crates 3feet x 20" x 20" plus 2 large sofas, fridge freezer, washing machine, 4 x chest of drawers 5ft long x 3'6" high x 17" deep plus 5ft dressing table, lawn mower snap on tool chests large garage compressor, tons of garage equipment, 2 electric beds, large Italian dining table and 6 chairs, coffee table tv's 2 x motorbikes, push bike, loads of garden lights, electric garage door opening machine, alarm system the list goes on and on, if you pm me ill give you the add of the company I got the wood from to make the crates which are holding around 30 to 40 kilos each


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## cds usa (Jan 4, 2011)

totorama said:


> We used Bekins for our move from California and they handled everything door-to-door including packing although we did pack a few things ourselves, they still had to check and list the contents of each box for the customs manifest .
> 
> Rather than highjack this thread, if you can PM me, I can give you all the details, costs etc. Incidentally whereabouts in the US are you moving from? And where are you looking to move to?


Done!! Thanks


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