The things people actually ask

Both ends, always. The French property is usually where the difficulty is, and surveying only the origin tells us what is moving without telling us whether it will go in when it gets there.

Where a physical visit to the French end is not practical before the move, we work from measured dimensions and photographs of the specific points that matter — the tightest doorway, the stair turn, the landing, the approach. We will tell you exactly what to measure and photograph.

That is a common outcome rather than a failure, and the answer is planned rather than improvised. We identify a hard-standing transfer point as close as the approach allows and shuttle the load in a smaller vehicle.

The important thing is that this is decided at survey. A shuttle that is planned is a routine part of the day; a shuttle that is discovered at the end of a lane is not.

There are three routes and we will have chosen one before the day. The piece comes apart and is rebuilt in position, it goes in through an upper-floor opening with a ladder hoist or an external furniture lift, or — where neither is possible — we tell you plainly that it will not go and you decide before it is packed.

Where an external lift is needed against the façade in a village street, that generally requires notice to the mairie. We arrange it as part of the job.

Yes, and we survey it as a separate space with its own inventory. Outbuildings are consistently under-counted, and the contents tend to carry the most handling restrictions — tooling, machinery, salvaged materials, garden equipment.

Anything holding fuel or gas cannot travel with household goods. We identify it at survey so it can be dealt with properly rather than becoming a problem on loading morning.

It is a normal one. Most French communes can grant a temporary parking authorisation to hold kerb space for a removal, and practice varies from commune to commune.

We establish what your commune actually requires as part of the survey and deal with the mairie ourselves. Where no kerb space is achievable at all, we crew for the carry distance instead.

That is half of what we do, and it is the reason this firm exists in the shape it does. The return leg is routinely treated as an afterthought by removers who are set up to go one way, and it is the harder of the two.

A return move is a clearance, a local sale and a shipment running at once, usually against a completion date that will not move. We scope all three at survey.

Often yes, sometimes emphatically not, and we would rather say so before it is packed. French case furniture is built for rooms with height — an armoire sized for a longère frequently will not stand upright in a UK house.

Give us the dimensions of the property you are moving into and we will check the large pieces against it. Paying to ship something that then has to be sold at the other end is the most avoidable expense in a return move.

Bringing used household effects back after living abroad is a well-established route, and it is evidence-based rather than complicated. You need to show where you were living, for how long, and that the goods are yours and used.

We prepare the declaration and tell you precisely which documents your circumstances need. The documents themselves have to come from you, and they are far easier to find while you are still in the French house than afterwards.

Yes. Split deliveries are common on return moves — part to the new house, part to a relative, part into store while a purchase completes.

Tell us at survey and the load is packed and labelled to the split, which is considerably easier than sorting it on a driveway.

Anywhere. London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Bristol are our regular collection and delivery points, and we run to addresses well away from them just as readily.

Scottish and northern collections are planned with the crossing in mind so the load is not sitting around waiting for a sailing.

No, and most people do not. A part-load shares a vehicle running the corridor with other consignments going the same way, which is the sensible answer for anything short of a full household.

The trade-off is that a part-load travels when the vehicle travels, within a planned window rather than on a date you name. If your date is fixed by a completion or a rental changeover, say so and we will look at a dedicated run.

That depends on the route, the crossing, the customs formalities on the consignment and whether the load is dedicated or shared — which is why we will not give you a figure before we know those things.

Your written quote sets out the expected window for your specific move, and we tell you when the vehicle loads, when it crosses and when it is due. What we will not do is quote a duration to win the job and then explain it away afterwards.

Yes, on both sides of the Channel. Return moves in particular rarely have their French completion and their UK purchase falling on convenient dates, and storage closes the gap.

It is far better than trying to force two conveyancing chains in two countries to agree with each other.

We read everything that comes in and reply by email as soon as we have gone through it, normally within a working day or two.

If the move is time-critical, say so in the notes and we will treat it that way.

Yes. Goods in transit and public liability cover are in place, and the level applying to your consignment is set out in writing with your quote rather than buried in a link.

Higher-value items — art, instruments, anything you would not want to replace — should be declared at survey so they are covered on their actual value and handled accordingly.