Is Spain a sole-use or a shared load?

Either. Sole-use means the vehicle carries your goods only, loaded once and unloaded once. Shared means consolidation with another household going the same way: less cost, more handling, and a departure that depends on the second load being ready. On a long route the extra handling is a real consideration.

Does the same crew drive the whole way?

Yes. That is the point of the four-destination list. There is no destination agent and no second crew.

What decides the crew size on this route?

The Spanish building, usually, rather than the London one. Four floors with a small lift in Madrid needs more people than the London flat did, and that is established at survey.

Do I need an NIE before the move?

It is frequently asked for as part of the file, but what is required is a matter for the Spanish authorities rather than for us. We will tell you what is normally requested; none of it is legal or immigration advice.

Can you crate a marble table top?

Yes, and on this route you should. Timber crating for rigid fragile items is the right answer far more often than people expect once the drive runs past a thousand miles.

Can you collect from outside London?

Yes. We collect from Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Bristol among others where the load justifies the run, consolidating in London first.

London to Spain

Removals from London to Spain, Spain

Spain is the long one. The crossing is over quickly and then there is most of France and most of Spain to drive, which is why the crew size on this route is decided by the far end rather than the London one. A load that two people can carry down a Clapham stair is not necessarily a load two people should carry up four floors in Madrid in August.

The crossing is the short part. It is the thousand miles after it that sets the crew size.

Our half

What our crew does in London

A survey that measures the London building and then asks harder questions about the Spanish one. Packing by packers, to a standard built for a run of well over a thousand miles: vibration, stacking, and heat once the vehicle is south of the Pyrenees. Rigid fragile items — mirrors, marble, glass-topped tables, framed work — go into timber crates, which on this route is the right answer far more often than people expect. The inventory is built item for item against the paperwork.

Not our half

What is not ours on the route

The crossing and the paperwork. The tunnel or ferry slot belongs to an operator with its own timetable, and the customs entry is filed by an agent against declarations that are legally yours. The drive itself, both ends of it, and every pair of hands that touches your furniture are ours. On a route this long that matters more than on any of the other three.

Who moves on this route

Households relocating for work to Madrid or Barcelona, where the flat is usually a fourth-floor one with a lift too small for a sofa.
People retiring or semi-retiring to the Costa Blanca, the Costa del Sol or inland Andalusia, moving the contents of a whole London house rather than a flat.
Families with an existing Spanish property who are consolidating — a London flat being emptied into a house that is already furnished, which is a part-load and an awkward one.
Spanish nationals returning after years in London, usually with a longer inventory than they expect and a set of documents that need to be in one name.

Destination areas

Where the shipment is actually going

Madrid Old central blocks with a portal, a small lift and a stair that turns. The lift dimension is the single number that decides how the day runs, and it is worth measuring rather than describing.

Barcelona and Catalonia Eixample flats with high ceilings, long balconies and narrow stairwells. Loading restrictions in the centre are enforced, so where the vehicle stands and for how long is part of the plan rather than an afterthought.

Valencia and the Costa Blanca A mix of city flats and urbanisation properties. The urbanisations are usually easy for access and hard for finding the door, and a gate code nobody has is a genuinely common way to lose an afternoon.

Andalusia and the Costa del Sol The longest drive of the four and frequently the hottest. Whitewashed old towns have stepped streets no vehicle enters, so the carry distance is measured at survey and priced as what it is.

Inland Spain and the north Castilla, Aragón, Asturias, Galicia. Longer approaches, smaller towns, and properties where the vehicle can usually reach the door — which makes these the straightforward end of a long route.

Paperwork

Who holds which document

A household move to Spain needs a customs entry and, for the goods to be treated as a relocation rather than an import, evidence that you are actually moving. The list below is what is normally asked for. None of it is legal, tax, customs or immigration advice, and the Spanish authorities set the requirements rather than us.

Passport and, where held, NIE or residencia You The identifying documents for the person the goods belong to. Names must match across the whole file.

Proof of the Spanish address You Escritura, a lease, or an empadronamiento certificate. This is asked for consistently.

Baja consular or equivalent You Evidence of the change of residence, which is normally what decides how the goods are treated.

A detailed inventory with values Us Built at the packing visit. Spain is one of the routes where values on the inventory are looked at, so it is worth doing carefully.

The customs declaration An agent Filed against your documents. The declarations are legally yours and the accuracy of them is too.

Insurance documentation You Declared values for the load, and a clear understanding of what cover applies over a run of this length.

Arriving in Spain

The crew that loaded in London unloads in Spain. Nobody new appears, and nothing is handed over at a border to people we have never worked with. On a route of this length that is the substantive difference between this and a freight-and-agent arrangement, and it is why we would rather run four destinations well than list forty.

What we need from you before the vehicle leaves is the far end in detail: the lift’s internal measurements rather than the fact that there is one, whether the stair turns, whether the street takes a long vehicle, whether there is a gate, a barrier or a code, and who will be there with a key. On the Costas an urbanisation that nobody can get into is a more common problem than a piece of furniture that will not fit.

Heat is a real planning factor rather than a remark about the weather. Where the unload is somewhere genuinely hot we plan the order of the day around it, because a crew working through the worst of the afternoon drops things.

London to Spain

Questions about moving to Spain

1Is Spain a sole-use or a shared load?: Either. Sole-use means the vehicle carries your goods only, loaded once and unloaded once. Shared means consolidation with another household going the same way: less cost, more handling, and a departure that depends on the second load being ready. On a long route the extra handling is a real consideration.
2Does the same crew drive the whole way?: Yes. That is the point of the four-destination list. There is no destination agent and no second crew.
3What decides the crew size on this route?: The Spanish building, usually, rather than the London one. Four floors with a small lift in Madrid needs more people than the London flat did, and that is established at survey.
4Do I need an NIE before the move?: It is frequently asked for as part of the file, but what is required is a matter for the Spanish authorities rather than for us. We will tell you what is normally requested; none of it is legal or immigration advice.
5Can you crate a marble table top?: Yes, and on this route you should. Timber crating for rigid fragile items is the right answer far more often than people expect once the drive runs past a thousand miles.
6Can you collect from outside London?: Yes. We collect from Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Bristol among others where the load justifies the run, consolidating in London first.

Tell us the stairs, not the boxes

Both addresses, what floor each one is on, where a vehicle can legally stand at either end, and the widest thing you own. That is what sets the crew — and the crew is what sets the price.

Get a price Ask about crew size