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-   -   Move everything to Italy! (https://britishexpats.com/forum/italy-77/move-everything-italy-935158/)

Palmy Oct 5th 2020 5:41 pm

Move everything to Italy!
 
We will be moving over to our Abruzzo property soon and I wanted to check if any others had filled a container and then had it driven over. Thinking of buying one in Uk and then using it for storage on our property whilst some work is completed.

if not what have you found to be the most efficient way to get your belongings over to Italy- any useful contacts or websites appreciated!

thanks to all! 🤔

C.2s Oct 5th 2020 6:07 pm

Re: Move everything to Italy!
 
Can't help you with the buying a container idea, but can tell you what we did.

Because there was gap between when we sold our UK property and when our Italian property was ready we decided to put our stuff into storage in the UK and then had it delivered here when we were ready.

We chose a firm that required us to do most of the packing, loading and unloading in order to keep the costs down. I'd guess the contents of an average UK sized house would cost at least £5000 (probably quite a bit more) to move if you want them to do all the work - and that's without the storage. So we also gave stuff away and bought new stuff here. Ours cost about £2500 including 6 months storage.

Obviously if you want the container for some other storage, then that's a different matter

mikethomo Oct 5th 2020 6:25 pm

Re: Move everything to Italy!
 
There is no cheap way to get your stuff over The cheapest way is to hire a van and take it yourself . If you could get a load to bring back then it would help to ease the cost. See what happens with your container as a point I have an item I would like to bring back to the UK if anyone has an empty van or truck would pay five hundredish!

Geordieborn Oct 5th 2020 9:28 pm

Re: Move everything to Italy!
 
Most people I know who have moved UK stuff over to Italy regret doing so, but I understand if you have personal things you want with you. We decided we had to have a UK small base, hence no need to store as suggested by C2, but it's probably a good idea. That aside, we had absolutely nothing when we bought, but had already rented, so had a good idea (and a few friends) from renting months beforehand. So a bed was first on the list and in the scheme of things a cheap(ish) buy at Mondo here sorted that with delivery before we moved into the place. Best advice I could give is to do anything to give yourself time to get settled in.

SanNico Oct 6th 2020 8:26 am

Re: Move everything to Italy!
 
I had a quote a couple of months ago for a 12 ton truck, 40 cubic meters from Puglia to the midlands. The price was 5300GBP. I understand 20ft containers, port to port costs around 2k plus door to port and port to door. Be careful with the man and van options. Most use 3.5T vans with a max payload of less than 2T. 2T is not much at all so check their insurance first.

I did a self drive 3.5T in July, putting lighter bulky items in the van and sent all heavy items on pallets. Rental, fuel, tolls etc. are going to set you back around 2500 round trip if you do it in under a week. It's tough going, especially if you're unfamiliar with driving larger vehicles. 90*120 standard Euro pallets cost 200-250 Euro each door to door, depending on the height.

If I were to do at all again, I would get rid of everything, pack my sentimental and essential items on to pallets and fly/drive ready to start a new life.

Otherwise, use a reputable company. Self drive and scrimping aren't worth the hassle. If it can go wrong, it will. My rental van broke down, I lost a day waiting for a new van which I had to find myself, had to unload and reload myself, missed the ferry because of the delays then spent weeks chasing Avis to honour their contract to pay my expenses. All in I spent nearly 4k, lost 10 days of my life, realised I'm not as young as I used to be and gained a lot of grey hair.

Listen Very Carefully Oct 6th 2020 10:58 am

Re: Move everything to Italy!
 
Best advice is to get two or three local firms to you to give quotes Get them to come to your house and see the stuff that you are going to take Do not use companies that require you to estimate your own load They will give you a cheap quote pick your stuff up and hey presto the load has suddenly expanded to twice its size so they need umpteen thousand more to deliver it
Frankly you need to be ruthless and cull stuff that you do not really need If you do a man with a van they will be cheap but useless If you do it yourself everything that can go wrong will go wrong as San Nico has pointed out
When we moved to Italy we chose a local company who subcontracted to an International mover that they used regularly and a rep from the local company came along to our house on moving day to supervise
You will have a lot to sort out when you get to Italy The last thing you want is hassle with broken stuff or even no stuff at all

ALIBAR Oct 6th 2020 12:16 pm

Re: Move everything to Italy!
 

Originally Posted by SanNico (Post 12919174)
I had a quote a couple of months ago for a 12 ton truck, 40 cubic meters from Puglia to the midlands. The price was 5300GBP. I understand 20ft containers, port to port costs around 2k plus door to port and port to door. Be careful with the man and van options. Most use 3.5T vans with a max payload of less than 2T. 2T is not much at all so check their insurance first.

I did a self drive 3.5T in July, putting lighter bulky items in the van and sent all heavy items on pallets. Rental, fuel, tolls etc. are going to set you back around 2500 round trip if you do it in under a week. It's tough going, especially if you're unfamiliar with driving larger vehicles. 90*120 standard Euro pallets cost 200-250 Euro each door to door, depending on the height.

If I were to do at all again, I would get rid of everything, pack my sentimental and essential items on to pallets and fly/drive ready to start a new life.

Otherwise, use a reputable company. Self drive and scrimping aren't worth the hassle. If it can go wrong, it will. My rental van broke down, I lost a day waiting for a new van which I had to find myself, had to unload and reload myself, missed the ferry because of the delays then spent weeks chasing Avis to honour their contract to pay my expenses. All in I spent nearly 4k, lost 10 days of my life, realised I'm not as young as I used to be and gained a lot of grey hair.

😂👍🏻👍🏻Thanks for sharing.. it’s very useful information! I hope you are better now 😀

Palmy Oct 6th 2020 2:24 pm

Re: Move everything to Italy!
 
Thanks to you all for varied replies - have done a good clear out already using Gumtree etc but reading through your comments I think I need to re-visit what I have left and go further!! Getting a container to put on the land sounded quite rational until we looked into the logistics and costs a bit more.

I also take on board your comments on self-drive / man and van and we will have another look at what we have - what can go and what could stay in store in UK for a bit perhaps . Anyway any further comments or advice appreciated... off for a long think!



MigsAngel Oct 14th 2020 7:57 am

Re: Move everything to Italy!
 
Hi
I was looking for a transport / moving company end of last year, and found these guys in Italy.
https://salaristraslochi.it/
They come to the UK often with a full load, and largely return to Italy empty. That's not great for them since it is all cost no gain. They are therefore more than happy to take a load to back with them at a very reasonable cost and deliver it to your house there (any where in Italy).
The only caveat is that you don't have or need to move the stuff from the UK on a specific date, so you can accommodate their schedule of pick up. They will however deliver it on the date you require following a couple of days from leaving the UK.
I had them had them store my stuff at their facilities until i could get to my house in Sicily, for them to deliver when i was there. They had my stuff for a month, and didnt charge any extra.

They were very very good friendly professional....call them up and talk about your needs, I am sure they can help.
If you want more details about costs, stuff etc then PM me.

Palmy Oct 15th 2020 9:36 pm

Re: Move everything to Italy!
 
Thanks for that MigsAngel- looks like a good option! I have taken advice and done a third clear out and have a lot less ‘Stuff’ now and I’m sure I’ve still got too much. Will give these guys a call to see if it could work - based down on Devon so will see if that works for them.

Have many balls in the air at the moment trying to get over to Bisenti soon - in normal times without the Brexit deadline and Covid it would still be stressful but adding those two in is proving trying ..... just focusing on the bigger picture is helping!

Forum has helped and one Forum regular has been really great with loads of helpful advice :)

Pulaski Oct 15th 2020 10:55 pm

Re: Move everything to Italy!
 

Originally Posted by SanNico (Post 12919174)
I had a quote a couple of months ago for a 12 ton truck, 40 cubic meters from Puglia to the midlands. The price was 5300GBP. I understand 20ft containers, port to port costs around 2k plus door to port and port to door. Be careful with the man and van options. Most use 3.5T vans with a max payload of less than 2T. 2T is not much at all so check their insurance first. .....

Your warning about payloads and overloading is very important - and 40m^3 implies a box that would hold upto 20 pallets (maybe a 30ft box holding 18 pallets?), but that would imply payload of upto 18-20 tonnes (a 900mmx1200mm metric pallet has a standard weight capacity of 1000kg), so putting 18 pallets on a 12 tonne (GVW) truck has a very high chance of overloading it, potentially by a large margin. Even 12 pallets on a 12 tonne truck could easily overload it.

philat98 Oct 16th 2020 2:57 am

Re: Move everything to Italy!
 
You have to be sure those Devon drivers follow the travel restrictions and get tested before they leave the UK. If they tested positive on arrival in Italy they might have to quarantine for two weeks before they can return.

Accetturese Oct 18th 2020 8:24 am

Re: Move everything to Italy!
 
We hired a 3.5 ton van, with a luton and tail lift, and packed most of the contents of our 3 bed house into it and drove it over.
Total cost for van hire for european use was under a grand. We enjoyed the adventure and regretted nothing.

heritagestanley Oct 18th 2020 10:11 am

Re: Move everything to Italy!
 
We too hired a 3.5 ton van with a luton and tail lift, and came an expensive cropper, not realising that the lift itself weighs so much that the van can easily become overweight. Of course we got stopped by the Kent police and had to take off part of the load, which caused major hassle. Not to mention a fine. Moral: be more sensible than us and take the loaded van to a public weighbridge before setting off.....

Palmy Oct 18th 2020 11:11 am

Re: Move everything to Italy!
 
Thanks for these experiences and tips - still a bit undecided and thinking a hire van could be tricky now with the quarantine restrictions ...... we may now just drive over with essentials in 2 vehicles and wait until next year to move the rest over once we have respite from the current varied EU rules and regs. Then the hire van option is sounding the best so far....



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