nicola27

We are hoping to move to queensland and we are going with the view that it willl be for 2 yrs. At the end of the 2 yrs we will decided if we want to stay or come back to the uk. We will rent out our property whlst we are gone and was advised by the letting agents to move our frniture out before getting tenants in.
The question do we take our stuff out there with us and pay for shipping out there (possibly back to the uk)? Or do we pay for it go in storage and start a fresh when we got there?
Taking cost into consideration any advice would be helpful

Thanks in advance.

fa kin su pa

The only advise I can give you as we have not yet arrived is. It cost us £3700 to ship to Sunshine coast and when we filled out the insurance form the total came to £15000 and we only put the main items down. So I guess if you have a spare 15k that you don't want leave it in the UK

dickchap

We did the same as what you are thinking, come over to give it a go for two years and we rented out our house. OH's company paid for the shipping so it wasn't an issue for us. After 6 months we have decided to go home and we are currently getting quotes to ship our furniture back home. I personally would get rid of anything that you don't want and ship over the rest. I think storage is quite expensive and by the time you have paid for 6-12months storage it would probably work out cheaper to ship it over. You also have the expense of replacing all your furniture once you get here. Good luck.

Deutschmaster

I've found that most stuff is cheaper to ship than to buy again. I paid 50 pound per 3 cuft box of stuff.

I tried to work out what to send/what not to by looking at its volume and guessing whether the proportion of the 50 pound it took to send was worth it.

I didn't bother shipping a fan because it took up a relatively large volume for what it cost. Things like pots, CDs, cutlery etc shipped.

I know that you're thinking of larger things - suppose you might want to cost the size of a container, then think of how much something costs to ship on its volume then decide on that whether to take. I'm surprised how the insurance in one of the posts came to about 11000 pounds. Surely that's more than the value of the stuff which you are shipping?

nicola27

Wow, thanks for the advice, I too was surprised at the 11k insurance for shipping. Decisions decisions, best get our thinking caps on.

Sunshinesammie

I had a four storey house in Scotland, and I shipped everything over to Launceston then onwards to Beauty Point and the whole affair came to £5,000 £500 insurance, this included dismantling in Scotland professionally packed and unpacked and erected in Tasmania. Brillient service, nohing broken, the only bid was doing the inventory for customs and quarantine but I respected the laws and had no hastle whatsoever.

nicola27

Well that sounds a bit more like what i hoped and a bit more reasonable. Thanks

Sunshinesammie

Nicole, I had several quotes, I got Pickfords in but I knew they would be the most expensive, therefore they were a good leverage. The Removal company must be a member of the Removals organisation of bla bla bla so that if your items were broken then you could claim against the insurance. The guys actually lived in the van (and ate with me) for 2 days . They were fantastic. Yes the insurance bit slightly but in reality it is nothing. I am surrounded by my european relics from grand parents etc. my le ceuset pans, furniture. Took 3months to arrive via Singapore and you could track your containers progress, and Australian customs were excellent, friendly an efficient.

coolerkingcooler

That seems like a good what of dealing with it Deutschmaster, can you just convince the OH for me as she "wants to start a fresh"

Cooler

homewardbound

I think the average to ship from Uk to oz is around gbp4000 but how much is it to bring it back???

skinnygeorge

We pondered on this for a bit, Then a friend who had moved two years prior recommended shipping as much as We could. They dumped a lot and got through a lot of money replacing it. Again calc for insurance came to over £25000 for Us. Shipping cost near £5000 including insurance. We used GB Liners and We got everything without so much as a chipped mug. When they pack remove every thing You do not want to take, Or its in a box as soon as Your backs turned. TV is an example, Will it work?, Another friend said well what will You get for it if You sell it, next to nothing. Here We can only get 4 out of 5 channels on it,Though We have not tried a Sat TV box on it. But We are not bothered. To replace is another $A1000. And if its another expense to move back You may think twice about it, And I will wager that time will come at some stage. And You`ve got to do atleast two years.

lisaroo

we just insured main expensive items, eg. sofa, plasma, £1500 mountain bike, and a couple of other items which cost us £300 approx on top of the shipping, the likelyhood of the boat sinking is highly unlikely so just insure expensive items that could get damaged during movement! and it was simular prices to return too. we should have shares in pickfords as ours is going back again end of next year!!!

slipshot

Take everything - it's far cheaper to than anything else.

To answer other questions...

Shipping to the UK is about 20% more expensive than the other way round - that's a very rought guide based on my experience.

£11,000 insurance was the value of the goods. Not the cost to insure.

We insured out lot out shipping out here for £40,000 since it was probabaly about £50+ but things like CD's we have on the ipod etc so that makes a difference. £40k value equates to about £800 insurance which is what we got it for after negotiation.

TV's work with set-top boxes. Always. If it does not work then the TV is knackered and would not work back in the UK. Very simple...

Ship with an agent that covers you for packing and unpacking damage and that is where most of the issues occur.

And be prepared for a minimum of 8 weeks shipping regardless of what they tell you. Our left UK shores 11 Jan. Delivery to us is this Tue 10 Mar. Would have been quicker by a few days had the moving company had a 40ft truck for the container this past Friday, and a week quicker had it made the connection in Singapore. But it would NEVER had gottne here faster given shipping times...

BackAgain

Just be very careful that your quote is door-to-door & not to depot, the only thing you should pay other than the quoted amount is the $450 for customs clearance. We got three quotes and went with the slightly cheaper option at £2,200 the other two quotes were £2,300 and £2,400. The small print of 'to depot' means that we have to pay all port charges, unloading charges and customs clearance and delivery. This has added another £2,300 onto the cost.

Do NOT use 1st Move International an absolute rip off, but just make sure that whoever you use, you are being quoted door-to-door (this is our 3rd move so we should have known better but had never heard of this before). Stick with Pickfords, they are as cheap as anyone else and much better.

Oh by the way yes - I would ship my stuff for two years - get rid of any rubbish or old stuff but for £2,000 you can ship a lot and it's nice to have all your stuff around you.

nicola27

Thanks for the advice, have found it very useful.