Ship belongings or start from new?
 

Hi all, when you made the big move to portugal, I was wondering what you guys did with your belongings?

Did you ship them over (how did you do this and what was the cost of shipping a container to portugal.) or did you start afresh.

Re: Ship belongings or start from new?
 

When we moved to Spain we just looked for a company that did international moves and found one. They took about 4 days to get the goods to us. Can't remember the name, and, in any case, wouldn't recommend them as they delivered two day late.

Re: Ship belongings or start from new?
 

We brought half a container with some of our belongings and bought the heavy stuff, beds, sofas, washing machine, over here.

We also used a well known international movers and won't recommend them We had a lot of damage (they packed it) and wet clothes. Eventually got some compensation, but a bit of a pain.

Re: Ship belongings or start from new?
 

I bought, packed, and shipped a full container. Few people can fill a container though. Mine was very full and very heavy.
I wanted the container itself, and now it's my metal shop.
It took a while to find a shipper to move the container for a good price. I did find one in the end, it cost me 2.700 as I recall, door to door.

If you're coming from the UK, I think the added paperwork now required definitely tilts the decision towards buying new stuff here.
And that goes double for motor vehicles.

Re: Ship belongings or start from new?
 

Very much depends on where you are coming from and how much yours are worth.

We came to Portugal from Dubai few years ago, my wife insisted on bringing our stuff, even though we didn't really have much worth bringing. She bought high chairs for the kids and so on. Not only did the stuff only arrive a good month after we did (which we knew), we also then had to navigate paperwork and costs to get the stuff through customs, regardless of what exemptions you might have, you still need the paperwork done to get it through, and I seem to recall some inventory list in advance that needed to be stamped by the Portuguese embassy in Abu Dhabi and god knows who else. The cost and hassle just wasn't worth it.

If you are coming from within the EU, no issue, get a truck to bring everything.

I assume with Brexit, the paperwork is going to be pretty bad if you're coming from the UK. I have clients that (used to) ship to the EU, and unless you're shipping in bulk to justify the expense of doing the paperwork on a big order, it's just not viable to do it for small one off shipments.

Re: Ship belongings or start from new?
 

Bought our house fully furnished! But we also brought down quite a bit of stuff from the UK. Rented a large sprinter-type van for C. £300 for a week, drove down via Santander with it fully loaded, then took it back empty a couple of days later and picked up our car to drive down. Probably cost c£1500 all in. However that was 8 years ago now when the UK was still a proper country. In practice, really not sure how easy it will be to bring stuff post-brexit, maybe customs declarations need to be done and duty paid. Another Brexit dividend.

Re: Ship belongings or start from new?
 

I have done it a few times in both directions, the first time everything (windsurfing gear, Vespa and some clothes) fit in the VW camper
Next time with friends and our vans (more stuff)
Next time with friends and very overloaded friends vans and boat (now married with child). Van with boat broke down in Spain - all finally arrived on a low loader - VERY expensive!!!
Last time I sold most stuff in UK (found Gumtree good) except the expensive and emotionally valuable stuff and used Trans-Portugal
Very, very satisfied with them - would definitely use them again
Also used them to send bikes and boxes from UK to us later too
When choosing what to bring and not to bring - check replacement prices online in PT as most stuff is less choice and more expensive here than in the UK (Except for sardines)
NB I have no idea of the implications of Brexit ert paying tax on your stuff and how that swings it towards buying everything here.
That's my personal take on it

Re: Ship belongings or start from new?
 

It really depends where you're coming from. If outside the EU you'll need to do some extra customs paperwork (i.e. get a baggage certificate from your local Portuguese consulate, which is not hard to get, it just takes extra time and effort. You'll need an address to put on that baggage certificate and an Atestado de resedencia and both of these need to match. Note that it can be nigh on impossible to get an atestado de residencia unless you own a property).

I just received my container, which was sent from California about 10 weeks ago. It sailed, pardon the pun, through customs within a day (all the paperwork was in order).

I'm really in two minds about whether I'd ship stuff again.

On one hand the expense and stress were so much more than I had anticipated and literally made me ill. The shipping company used was an absolute shambles (didn't keep us updated, no clear contact point, wrong documents sent, didn't stick to agreements we had made about packing some of our high value items, the packing team was rude, aggressive and not careful with our stuff, they charged us over $4,000 EXTRA for delays/storage fees at the port in the US but refused to give us a breakdown of the cost (which I think is actually illegal), our main contact in Portugal went on vacation last week and didn't hand over to anyone and we only knew our container had arrived in the country because we called the customs broker to check that he had all our documents and he informed us - our stuff all arrive in perfect condition though with nothing broken).

On the other hand, I wish I'd stuffed the container to the brim with things that we cannot find here in Portugal or source easily or are very expensive, such as good quality bedding, pillows, personal care items such as hair products, computer/phone accessories, TVs etc.

Re: Ship belongings or start from new?
 

This is a real issue at present, what with the Covid crisis, blocking driving through France as an option.
With their very slow vaccination progress, it may be a long time before the road route to Spain and Portugal is available for UK citizens be they legalised 'residents of Portugal' or UK 3rd country classification.

Shipping by sea may be possible, but the slowness put against the window of opportunity that Portuguese Customs allow for new legalised residents under the Withdrawal Agreement, to ship their 'chattels' free of taxes.
From my experience so far, it does not seem to enter the Portuguese Customs mind? (what problems - world pandemic nahh)
I have contacted them three times explaining the predicament, but they do not acknowledge the issue as valid.

In my own case I managed to drive to Portugal on 1/1/21, after selling my house and putting all the house hold items into in a dedicated storage provider' units.
My residency and temporary rental apartment, were sorted a month before via a flying visit in early December 2020. Being here now has allowed me to conduct a decent house search. The net result is I have now paid a deposit and signed the promissory contract on a house near Portimao.

In days gone by, hiring a man with a van or hiring a vehicle yourself and driving it down, would have been options. No now with travel bans, curfews, quarantine, if your personally go back to the UK from here, makes things near impossible.

If you don't go back to catalogue all the items (in Portuguese) value them and ensure nothing is new. Then get the form from the Portuguese embassy in London necessary to ship by any means. Then one must package everything up and stack in a 20 foot shipping container, to ensure everything is loaded. Suggests if you are not there (having quarantined in the UK hotels and paid out £1750) plus the costs of getting back to the UK. Then the last resort is to request the shippers to do all of the above and can you imagine the cost, if that were the case??

Love to hear if anyone out there in a similar position, has a solution or a suggestion?