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Cleaning for shipping


Shigella

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The wife and I went crazy on the cleaning through fear of delays and charges, scrubbing the soles of shoes with toothbrushes, cleaned all of my tools with Jeyes Fluid, didn't even dare to bring gardening tools, etc....what a waste of time!!!

 

The only box checked in our container was the Xmas decs!

 

We've since spoken to people who didn't even clean their lawn mower.

 

My advice would be to forget it, spend you last few weeks doing something you enjoy!

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  • 3 weeks later...

We were praised by Customs for how clean our stuff was and so we think it was worth it. My wife scrubbed the shoes. I cleaned the bikes until they shined. We left garden tools behind but I took all my tools, including workmate, saws, plane etc - all carefully cleaned. Anything that we thought would be a problem we cleaned or left behind (Dyson was left to daughter much to her delight).

The one car was valeted all through and passed quickly through Customs.

 

The second car had to leave the UK when we did in January last year. It was cold and snowing hard to be valeted properly and looked in a sorry state as it was loaded on the transporter. Icicles were hanging from it. 12 weeks later no doubt this very dry and scruffy car reached Customs and as we expected they cleaned it - and it cost.

 

When we look back, the boxes that were opened were the usual suspects - shoes, Christmas tree and decorations, tools, bicycles, kitchen utensils and some others at random. If they find a bad box, they will obviously check more and that can delay you or incur charges.

We have heard stories of people getting dirty stuff in but we have also heard of those who had to pay for cleaning and clearance.

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The one car was valeted all through and passed quickly through Customs.

 

The second car had to leave the UK when we did in January last year. It was cold and snowing hard to be valeted properly and looked in a sorry state as it was loaded on the transporter. Icicles were hanging from it. 12 weeks later no doubt this very dry and scruffy car reached Customs and as we expected they cleaned it - and it cost.

.

 

fosseboy, did you get the engine steam cleaned as well as the valet? If you don't mind me asking, how much did Customs charge to clean your second car?

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We rang around and asked on websites for valets who had experience of preparing a car for export and found one. He cleaned the engine, I think with chemicals but may have used steam. It took him 4 hours to prepare the car. I will look up the cleaning costs and put them on here.

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I found it quicker than I expected.

The customs total bill for the Clio was $2333.23 of which duty was $82.70, GST 253.77, processing charges $64. Then there were wharfage charges ($158.57), cleaning totalled $979 and a further $798 for clearance charges and ozone clearance.

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By contrast a 12 month old Volvo XC60 in showroom condition after valeting had no cleaning charges. Customs clearance charges were $549. Duty was $1642.27 and GST $3571.

I have to say I was a bit sick about that as I had paid 20% VAT in the UK a year earlier but there is no offset on sales tax.

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  • 1 month later...

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