Removals to Jersey

Williams & Yates provide removals to Jersey from the UK for households relocating to the largest of the Channel Islands. One coordinator plans everything, from the first survey in your UK home to the last piece placed in your new home on the island.

The service is for individuals and families moving a whole household, and for the PAs and household managers who organise those moves for them.

Moving to Jersey from the UK feels close to home, but it is not a domestic move. Jersey is a Crown Dependency with its own customs and GST (its equivalent of VAT) regime, so your belongings are imported when they arrive, and the removals vehicle crosses as ferry freight with its own booking.

Your dedicated move coordinator at Williams & Yates is your single point of contact for all of it:

• A survey of your home, in person or virtual
• The inventory, which we complete on your behalf and which forms the basis of your Jersey customs declaration
• Packing and loading at your UK address
• The ferry freight booking and the route to the island
• Customs paperwork, prepared with you, and guidance through Jersey’s change of residence relief
• Placing your furniture and belongings room by room in your Jersey home

Premium here means the whole household. Your sofas, beds, kitchenware and children’s rooms receive the same care as your paintings and antiques, and fine art and high-value pieces are crated and handled within the same move.

We work alongside your PA or household manager where they run the move day to day. One move can also combine more than one collection address, such as a London residence and a country house. That matters for Jersey, because the island’s relief rules cover goods transferred from a secondary residence.

At the Jersey end, a debris clear unpack leaves boxes emptied and taken away, with items placed onto clear surfaces so you can arrange things yourself. A full white-glove unpack goes further, with cupboards wiped, belongings put away and beds made, so the family can sleep in the new house that night.

Williams & Yates are FIDI/FAIM accredited, members of BAR and IAM, and Which? accredited, so the standards behind your move are independently checked. When you are ready, arrange a tailored survey and your coordinator will start planning.

Jersey charges GST at 5% on imported goods, but household belongings are exempt under change of residence relief if you owned and used them at your previous home for at least six months and lived outside Jersey for at least twelve months. Alcohol and tobacco are excluded.

Change of residence relief is Jersey’s exemption from GST and duty on the personal belongings you bring when you make the island your home. It is claimed by the person moving, and it is separate from HMRC’s Transfer of Residence relief, which applies to moves into the UK.

Jersey shares a customs union with the UK, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, so the Common Customs Tariff applies only to goods from outside that union. Where GST is due, gov.je calculates it on the total value, including insurance, packing and freight, plus any taxes and duties already applied.

gov.je’s guidance on customs and import duties sets out the relief conditions:

• The goods must have been in your possession at your former normal residence for at least six months before you left
• They must be used for the same purpose in your new Jersey home
• Your normal residence must have been outside Jersey for a continuous period of at least twelve months
• Goods moved from a secondary residence outside Jersey to your principal residence in Jersey can also qualify, provided they were kept there for at least six months

Alongside alcohol and tobacco, commercial means of transport get no relief. Relieved goods must not be lent, hired, sold, given as security or given away without notifying the Jersey Customs and Immigration Service, and if they are disposed of within twelve months of relief being given, GST is charged.

You can apply up to six months before your goods are imported, through the CAESAR system or by oral or written declaration. If no customs officer is available when your goods arrive, you declare within three clear days. You can also import goods before you take up residence, provided you move in within six months and give security for the GST.

Your coordinator prepares the paperwork with you from your survey inventory, so the declaration and the consignment match.

A car brought to Jersey must be declared to customs, with GST and Vehicle Emissions Duty settled before registration. The duty is based on the manufacturer’s CO2 data, or engine capacity for older vehicles, and the car must pass an inspection before Driver and Vehicle Standards will register it. Vehicles can be included in a relief claim, and gov.je asks for documents such as the registration certificate, an invoice or valuation and your ferry ticket.

We offer vehicle transport as part of the household move, and your coordinator will talk through whether bringing a car makes sense before anything is booked.

For pets, gov.je states there are no official requirements for pet dogs, cats or ferrets travelling between the UK and Jersey, although your pet should be fit to travel and your vet can confirm this. Our pet relocation service plans the family pet’s journey alongside everything else.

We plan storage at the survey, at the start of your move. On a move to Jersey, the common reasons to need it are:

• You arrive before a suitable home is available, and spend the first weeks in temporary accommodation
• You are moving into a smaller home on the island and want to keep some pieces in the UK
• Your UK property has not yet sold and some furniture is staying for viewings

Our UK high-security storage in London and Dunstable is temperature and humidity controlled. It is containerised, so your belongings stay together, with a picture inventory, private viewing rooms and no minimum contract. We also have storage at your destination, close to your new home.