moving to thailand

[amidia808]

Hello, I plan to move to thailand soon, and I don't know how to take care of  the transport of my belongings... any tips?

[JohnJay]

For a start... What are you trying to transport, and where are you wanting to transport it from?

[Auriane]

Yes, to begin, you must know what you are sending. At next you need to know your starting point and your point of arrival

[amidia808]

well mostly furniture, from France to Thailand

[MaeJoMTB]

Better off selling everything in France and buying new in Thailand.

Furniture is quite cheap here.

[Auriane]

Now that you know what you are taking, you have to think about how to transport them. You will not necessarily get there alone, ask for help from professionals

Edited January 16, 2018 by Auriane

[amidia808]

On 15/01/2018 at 8:47 AM, MaeJoMTB said:

Better off selling everything in France and buying new in Thailand.

Furniture is quite cheap here.

Noooo, I really can't!

Some of them are priceless this is why I am looking to transport them --'

 

 

[phuketrichard]

no way i would bring priceless antique furniture here, the climate would destroy it...

[MaeJoMTB]

3 hours ago, phuketrichard said:

no way i would bring priceless antique furniture here, the climate would destroy it...

Not to mention lots of hungry termites.

[PoorSucker]

6 hours ago, amidia808 said:

Noooo, I really can't!

Some of them are priceless this is why I am looking to transport them --'

 

 

 

The customs are going to demand 150% import tax on priceless.

[PoorSucker]

2 hours ago, MaeJoMTB said:

Not to mention lots of hungry termites.

And the big flying beetles that lay eggs inside wood.

[zaZa9]

Best to sell , or put in storage.

I stored stuff before  I moved to South Thailand , only to go home years  later and sell or give it away.

 

Having no stuff to look after is very liberating !

Let me assure you black spot mold and humidity will damage fabrics , and there are numerous species of borer and wood eating bugs here. Unless you will live in a constantly climate controlled condo , these are genuine risks.

Your items  also may face import duty ( TAX )  on arrival.

Finally , if you do bring this stuff , dont tell people here how valuable it is !

[smudger1951]

I've taken and sent things back home to UK last year and then back here to LOS. My policy now is buy as little as possible and leave things where you bought them or sell them.

[Henricus]

no way i would bring priceless antique furniture here, the climate would destroy it...

 

 

 

Same for me came here 10 years ago with a container full of antiques, nothing left now, i was better of with selling back home.

But OK lesson learnt. 

[gjoo888]

I used what we call a "moving" company in the states, United Van Lines to be more precise. I called a few different companies and received widely varying prices from them. The company I chose came to my house and packed all my belongings and it took about 6 weeks for them to arrive in Thailand, where they unpacked and moved my things into the house. I was very impressed by the workers both in the states and here in Thailand.

 

As long as your visa is in order and this is your first shipment, you do not have to pay customs duty on your belongings. I did pay about 4.000 Baht for fees I can't remember what for. This was about 12 years ago, and it was well worth the price to ship my things here. It cost about $5,000 USD to ship what I did, and it would have cost much, much more to replace them here. It may or may not be worth it for you, depending on what you're shipping. The weight and size of your items is what determines the price.

Edited January 18, 2018 by gjoo888

[MadMuhammad]

http://www.sevenseasworldwide.com/en-au/shipping/france

[peterb17]

A few things to consider:

 

1 unless your furniture is of stunning quality ( almost museum pieces) the value has now declined to a ridiculous level , pieces that where worth €1000s how a few hundred .

 

2. I reduced a four bed huge house to two suitcases, I was lucky enough to inherit some beautiful Georgian furniture- gave it all away- it is still being enjoyed by family and friends , spent twenty years collecting C 18 silver - sold the lot. 

All my crystal, china , pictures etc etc sold or gave away.

its good not to be burdened with so many possessions.

 

3 The country house look I spent years perfecting - just would not work here. If you hunt about you can find some very stylish furniture- personally I think mix very modern with some lacquered old Chinese / Tibetan add old Burmese lacquer ware. A good look. 

 

4 I suppose if you have heaps of money - go ahead- but if customs have an inkling that your container contains antiques- the duty could be vast. 

 

5 after a few years you may be come fed up with Thailand - then what.

 

6 actually I think the humid climate is good for old furniture- but only really in a decent house or condo- in the country absolutely not , termites! 

 

So leave it, European furniture looks totally out of place in the tropics. Have fun designing your new home . 

[martin26]

I used a shipping co. from the UK (20ft container) was advised to only pay for delivery to Bangkok & then use a Thai co. to clear from Bangkok & transport to our village Thai co used AGS Four Winds, a friend also used them great service & they know all the ins & outs of clearing goods

.

[khunPer]

On 1/11/2018 at 11:30 AM, amidia808 said:

...any tips?

I searched with Google and found a government web-page with the legal details, very helpful.

 

At that time about 10-years ago, and probably not changed since, one is allowed one surface shipment (sea) and one (smaller) air shipment. I used the sea shipping method with a 20-feet container; not that I could fill it up, but because it cheaper and more safe, than individual parcels.

 

The trick seemed to be a very detailed packing list – with model and serial numbers of all electronic and like items – as described by the authorities, and stated with fair and reasonable values for each item or package (I hand-wrote the values on my printed packing list).

 

I used a shipping company to ship the container cif. Bangkok, including "total loss" insurance, which is cheap; but not other damage insurance, which is expensive, and I was told furthermore difficult to claim any damage from. The shipper packed the container, and filled the empty space with air-balloons so everything was steadily packed.

 

I found a local Thai company to arrange for custom clearance and domestic transportation, and offloading including bringing the empty container back to Bangkok. I paid minor duty and little v.a.t. – there will always be little charged, I was told – and I paid "overtime" to customs, for working in normalk morning day time; that I was recommended to do, and they opened the container door, a corner of one parcel, and closed the door, and calculated the minor fees probably from something in my detailed packing list.

 

Everything arrived safe without any damages.

 

Cost will be depending from where you ship – you can get more than one quote, and ship cif. at that's cheaper – and local costs also depending of domestic transport. Almost 10-years ago I had my stuff moved (after being stored in a warehouse in may country little more than a year). From Scandinavia, including storage, to cif. Bangkok was about $8,000 for 20-feet container. Custom clearance, various fess and domestic transport in Thailand around 50,000 baht.

 

Hope this info may help you, and wish you good luck...

[MyFriend You]

On 1/15/2018 at 2:47 PM, MaeJoMTB said:

Better off selling everything in France and buying new in Thailand.

Furniture is quite cheap here.

Very good advice............you will find the shipping costs & customs on your belongings may be more than its worth.  (and the corrupt Customs inspector ca put the price on whatever he wants)  They have some very nice furniture in Thailand, and quite reasonable - I donated all mine to charity then took a Tax deduction.

[MyFriend You]

On 1/17/2018 at 9:47 AM, phuketrichard said:

no way i would bring priceless antique furniture here, the climate would destroy it...

Not to mention termites

[speckio]

when you say priceless do you mean sentimental value like stuff handed down from generation to generation?

 

In any case, I agree with most of the comments above... you might be better off entrusting the stuff to a friend or family member you can trust.

 

Also you probably shouldn't rush shipping everything at once and paying huge amounts of money in taxes only to find out things aren't working out for you a few years later in Thailand.

 

I suggest bringing over only essentials and then transport everything else over time if things are going well and positive you will remain in thailand long term.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 18, 2018 by speckio

[maxcorrigan]

On 1/15/2018 at 11:53 AM, amidia808 said:

well mostly furniture, from France to Thailand

If you have a Thai wife look into shipping it in her name, customs are more lenient on Thai nationals, plus once here she can do all the telephoning as required.

But as others have said, if items are really valuable, the humidity and termites will wreck any wooden furniture here! 

[James2020]

My wife and I gave away or sold all of our stuff from a 4200 sf house in the US and moved to Thailand with 2 suitcases apiece.  As others have said, so liberating!  You have to get rid of it sometime anyway, unless you leave it for your heirs to do it - save them the trouble!  We don't miss any of it!   

[sikishrory]

allied pickfords

[F4UCorsair]

no way i would bring priceless antique furniture here, the climate would destroy it...

Good advice....store it.

Taking European furniture to the tropics is inviting disaster. It will deteriorate from the day of unpacking.

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[Ruffian Dick]

10 hours ago, James2020 said:

My wife and I gave away or sold all of our stuff from a 4200 sf house in the US and moved to Thailand with 2 suitcases apiece.  As others have said, so liberating!  You have to get rid of it sometime anyway, unless you leave it for your heirs to do it - save them the trouble!  We don't miss any of it!   

Just about exactly what you've done. Except I'm not married. Not to your wife anyway. I'm sure she's lovely but you found her first, right?

It's quite a revelation. We get so attached to things that will be dust soon anyway.

[Farang99]

On 1/15/2018 at 11:53 AM, amidia808 said:

well mostly furniture, from France to Thailand

I used a transport  company who provided a container, packed and shipped the lot. All arrived safely, though it cost me 30,000 baht to get it out of customs - this was when the baht was 70/£ so it was not too bad.

[Farang99]

On 1/15/2018 at 2:47 PM, MaeJoMTB said:

Better off selling everything in France and buying new in Thailand.

Furniture is quite cheap here.

Cheap, but not the same quality - a lot of veneered chipboard. I had a lot of Danish teak furniture from the 70s, all now here and quite undamaged by the climate.

[zaZa9]

Certainly teak will go alright here. After all , Teak is native to this area.

The Danes have never grown teak.