Kent to Germany
Removals from Kent to Germany
Excellent roads for the whole distance and then, with some regularity, a rear courtyard reached through an archway measured in the nineteenth century. Germany is the route where the driving is easy and the last thirty metres are the job.
A Hinterhaus flat is reached through the front building. That archway is the number that matters.
Who moves this way from Kent
- People relocating from Kent for work — Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, the Rhine-Ruhr cities.
- Families moving to a German town where the flat is in a rear building off a courtyard.
- Anybody who has been quoted for a German move without being asked about the Hofeinfahrt.
The road out
The shuttle from Folkestone is the usual choice for a Germany run, because it keeps the driver with the vehicle and puts you straight onto the Belgian motorway network within the hour. A Dover sailing works equally well where the timings favour it.
From Calais the E40 runs through Belgium to Aachen and into the German network at Cologne, from where the country opens up: the A3 south-east towards Frankfurt and Nuremberg, the A1 north for Bremen and Hamburg, the A9 and A8 towards Munich. It is among the most straightforward long drives in Europe right up to the point where you leave it.
Where we deliver
Customs, and who obtains what
Germany grants relief from duty on used household effects on a transfer of residence, against a described inventory and evidence that you are genuinely moving your home rather than importing goods. The customs office may ask for the inventory in German; that is prepared here rather than left to you.
The file, split in two
| Document | Obtained by | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Valued inventory | Us | Prepared from the survey and translated where the receiving office requires it. |
| Anmeldung (registration) | You | Registration at the local Bürgeramt. Much of German life depends on it, so start early. |
| Proof of the German address | You | Lease or purchase contract, plus the landlord confirmation the registration requires. |
| Proof of leaving the UK | You | Closing council tax, a tenancy end or a completion statement. |
| Passport and residence route | You | Whichever route applies. Immigration advice is not something we give. |
| Export and import declarations | Us | Lodged against the inventory before the vehicle reaches the terminal. |
Rows marked You are attached to you as a person and take real time to obtain, so start them before you have a moving date. Rows marked Us are built here from the inventory taken at the survey.
The archway, the courtyard and the rear building
A great deal of German city housing is arranged around a Hof: a front building on the street, an archway through it, and a courtyard with further buildings behind. If your flat is in the Hinterhaus, everything you own goes through that arch, and its height and width are the two measurements the whole move turns on.
They are rarely generous. Many were built for a horse and cart and have been resurfaced upwards since, which takes height away rather than adding it. Ask the landlord or the agent, or stand in the arch and photograph it with something of known size in the frame.
Then the staircase. German apartment stairwells are frequently handsome, stone, and tight at the turn, and the lift where one exists was fitted afterwards into the void — which makes the lift car door the second number to take. Where neither will pass a large item, an external furniture lift through a window is completely normal practice in Germany and we will arrange one rather than treat it as exotic.
Altstadt cores are the last pattern. Historic centres in the older cities restrict vehicle access by size and by hour, and a permit is applied for in advance. We check that before the date, because there is no arranging it from a cab at eight in the morning.
Kent to Germany
Questions on this route
01 What is a Hofeinfahrt and why do you keep asking?
The archway from the street into a courtyard. If your flat is in a rear building, every item passes through it, and its height and width decide the vehicle and sometimes the method.
02 What is a furniture lift?
An external hoist that takes goods in through a window rather than up the stairs. It is ordinary practice in Germany, we arrange it where the stairwell will not pass a large item, and it is quoted in advance.
03 Can you get into a historic centre?
With a permit, applied for before the date. Altstadt cores restrict vehicles by size and by hour and it is not something that can be sorted out on arrival.
04 Do we need to register?
Yes — the Anmeldung at the local Bürgeramt, and a great deal else depends on it. It is yours to do, and the earlier the better.
05 Will the inventory need translating?
Sometimes, depending on the receiving office. Where it does we handle it as part of preparing the file rather than sending you away with a form.
06 Are UK appliances worth bringing?
Germany runs the continental standard, so small items work with adaptors. Kitchens are frequently taken with the outgoing tenant, so the fitted appliances question is worth asking your landlord before you decide.
Moving from Kent to Germany?
Both addresses, roughly what is going, and anything you know about the approach at the far end — the gateway, the street width, the archway, the gradient. Photographs are better than descriptions.