TOR1 questions
 

My partner and I (both UK citizens) are relocating from France back to the UK over the coming months and I am about to apply for a TOR1. Everything that we will bring back are our personal belongings, clothes, books, computer, pictures, kitchen equipment, bed linen and some items of furniture and we wonder with an approved TOR can we move our items in 2 or maybe 3 consignments over a period of several months? We have already bought a property in the UK and will most likely sell our small French property early next year, maybe partly furnished but certainly we would want to bring more items back after the sale. Does anyone know if this is possible with the TOR1 application? Also as we are renovating a property in the UK our permanent move will be gradual what date should I put on the application as a move date? Sorry several questions!

Re: TOR1 questions
 

Yes it's possible. The rules have some flexibility to allow for this - here's what it says on the gov.uk website:

"Conditions for relief

To claim relief, you must satisfy all of the following criteria:

• you’ve been resident outside the UK for at least 12 consecutive months, prior to the date of moving to Great Britain or Northern Ireland
• you’re importing the goods within 12 months of coming to live in the UK
• you intend to use the goods in the UK for the same purpose they were used for prior to moving

The goods can be imported in multiple consignments."
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/transfer...-great-britain

We are doing similar.

I would add that you might want to think about how you are moving stuff. For our first step in the process we drove and brought a car load of stuff (mostly clothes and a few personal items) - and whilst we were prepared to fill in a TOR1 we just drove through the ferry port in the normal way. UK customs asked how long we'd been away/where we had been staying and we said "since June/in our holiday home" and no TOR1 form was requested. So we will probably just date our first TOR1 from December (when we hope to sale our property abroad and move more items) thereby giving us 12 months from that date