These are the standing terms on which we provide quotations and operate moves. The detailed booking contract you sign before a move incorporates these terms and the BAR Overseas Group standard contract framework as referenced.
1. Quotations
Written quotations are valid for thirty days from the date of issue. After that, the figures may need refreshing if the move date moves materially. Verbal indications are exactly that — indications, not quotations — and are not binding on either side until put in writing.
A written quotation sets out what is included (route, customs filings, packing scope, insurance summary, contingencies held including a held-stock storage window for property-completion slippage, dock-and-lift booking coordination at both ends, destination-side shuttle vehicle where access requires it) and what is extra (additional storage beyond the included window, items discovered at load-out that were not part of the surveyed inventory, access difficulties materially different from those described at survey).
2. Booking and deposit
A move is confirmed when the booking contract is signed and the deposit received. The deposit secures the move date and is set against the final balance. The deposit is refundable up to fourteen days before the agreed load-out date, less an administrative charge for survey and quote-preparation work already done.
3. Payment
The balance is payable in cleared funds before the consignment leaves the United Kingdom. We will not dispatch a consignment across the Channel against unpaid balances, save in pre-agreed commercial arrangements (which include corporate-relocation account terms where the customer's employer is the payer).
4. Customs filings
We file the UK-side ToR1 declaration to HMRC and the destination-country inventory and supporting documentation on your behalf, on the basis of the information you provide. The accuracy of declarations rests on the accuracy of the information supplied. If a customs query results in additional duty, penalty, or storage charge because of misdescribed or undeclared items, the customer is responsible for those costs.
5. Insurance
Network-side transit cover is included at the values set out in the written quote. Higher-value items (artwork, instruments, antiques, watches, jewellery declared at survey rather than carried with the customer) declared and itemised separately are covered at their declared value. Items the customer has packed themselves (own-packed boxes) are covered only for damage caused by external impact, not for damage caused by packing.
6. Items we will not move
The following items will not be transported under any circumstances:
- Live animals — they travel via dedicated pet-transport firms only.
- Perishable food and plants subject to phytosanitary controls.
- Hazardous goods (paints, solvents, fuel, flammables, ammunition, gas cylinders).
- Items you are not legally entitled to export from the UK or import into the destination country.
- Cash, jewellery (other than declared at survey), securities, and documents of value — these travel with the customer.
- Cultural-property items requiring an export licence we have not been engaged to handle — those go via specialist art-shipping firms.
7. Estate-management and dock-and-lift coordination
For Battersea Power Station, Nine Elms tower residences, and other estate-managed origin or destination buildings, the move is coordinated against the estate management's booked delivery-bay slot and service-lift window. We book the slots in advance and the load-out / delivery happens against the booked windows. Where the estate management's protocol changes between booking and the move date, we coordinate with them and document any revised window in the move plan.
8. Held-stock storage during property-completion slippage
The written move plan includes a held-stock storage provision in our UK-side depot to cover the common case of a destination-country property completion slipping after load-out, or the practical staging of a move across months. The included window is set out in the quote; storage beyond that window is at the rate documented in the quote, agreed in advance.
9. Claims
Any claim for loss or damage must be notified in writing within seven days of delivery, with photographs and the relevant inventory line items. The booking contract sets out the claims process in full, in accordance with the BAR Overseas Group framework.
10. Limitation of liability
Our liability is limited to the terms of the network-side transit cover (or, where higher cover has been declared at survey, to that declared value) and is in any case capped in accordance with the BAR Overseas Group standard contract.
11. Variations
If a move's scope changes between quote and execution (more items than surveyed, different address, materially different access, additional regions added at the destination, partial-consolidation scope adjusted), the price is varied in writing before the work is done. We do not absorb scope creep and we do not surprise customers with variations on the day of the move.
12. Confidentiality
We treat the details of a customer's household and move as confidential. We do not discuss specifics of a customer's move with parties outside the move (the BAR insurance side, the destination crew, the corporate relocation manager if engaged, the customs authorities, the estate management at managed buildings) without the customer's consent.
13. Governing law
These terms and any contracts incorporating them are governed by the laws of England and Wales, with jurisdiction in the courts of England and Wales, save where consumer law requires otherwise.
Contact
Questions on these terms or a specific booking contract: email hello@battersea-removals.co.uk.