Urgent Update to Transfer of Residence

This is an urgent update to the on-going changes for clearance of consignments of household effects and personal property applying for Transfer of Residence (ToR) relief.

Any consignments of household effects, personal property or privately owned vehicles attempting to gain ToR relief for other Member States must now be cleared by that Customs Authority. With that in mind, if the consignment lands in the UK first, the Commission has instructed all Member States that the consignment must be sent on to the final delivery point under Transit.

It should also be noted that the consignment could be declared to Free Circulation with all import duties and charges paid if the client agrees to this, and that the client can also be advised to apply retrospectively for ToR to the customs authority of the Member State they then reside in. But, it should be stressed to them that there is no guarantee the application for relief will be accepted. UK Customs will not be able to affect or support the application for relief, it is for the Customs Authority of the Member State to decide.

And finally, any consignment applying for ToR relief to set up a natural place of residence here in the UK can still be customs cleared here as before.

These instructions were laid down to all Member States in a Commission committee meeting on Monday 18 April 2016, and so as this is the very latest ruling. The new TOR1 Application process should be available on GOV.UK soon, and the new CPC (Customs Procedure Code) 40 00 C01 is now live on CHIEF for consignments for ToR relief into the UK only. These changes will eventually replace the C3, C5, C104 and C104(vessels) manually processed forms.

This latest update will be the core part of a new CIP (Customs Information Paper) and we welcome input to include into that CIP for our consideration that will help clarify the future operation of consignment clearances. Further information will become available on GOV.UKover the coming weeks.

Please note: the old manual processes and onward clearances for ToR will cease to exist entirely at the end of December 2016. We therefore advise all traders and brokers involved in any ToR business to make the necessary adaptations as soon as possible.