Moving from Canada to the UK: ToR1 relief, pricing by the cubic metre, and the ship that takes six weeks

Who qualifies for relief

Alcohol and tobacco are excluded, and so is anything you bought to sell.

Twelve months abroad is the qualifying clock. Transfer of Residence relief is for a person who has kept a home outside the United Kingdom for twelve months and is moving that home to Great Britain, not for a term of study or a short work posting. The goods need six months of use before they ship, and you are expected to keep them for twelve months after they arrive. The same rule sits on the United States to UK page, and a Canadian mover who knows the lane will ask the question before pricing a container. If the answer is no, the shipment is a commercial import and the relief never starts.

Used household goods qualify; a stockroom does not. Alcohol and tobacco are excluded, and so is anything you bought to sell. The ToR1 inventory is the list of every item you intend to ship, with age and condition, and goods left off that list are not relieved. Run the boxes through the prohibited items check before a surveyor turns them into cubic metres. The desk is not a carrier. We read what people reported after the move, and we do not file the relief for you.

The ToR1 application

Until that reference exists, the container is a commercial import waiting for a number.

File ToR1 before anyone books the ship. ToR1 is HMRC's Transfer of Residence application, and it produces the Unique Reference Number your UK agent quotes on the Customs declaration (CDS). The form asks you to show twelve months abroad, a normal home moving to Great Britain, and a ToR1 inventory of what is in the shipment. Sea transit on the September 2026 rate cards is six to ten weeks door to door, so an application started after the container is booked is an application started late. Build the list with the inventory calculator and leave room on the twelve week international checklist for the URN to come back before sailing.

Northern Ireland follows the Windsor Framework. If the address is in Northern Ireland, those rules apply, and you should ask the mover before you build the ToR1 inventory or name a port. The Canadian export declaration is the carrier's outbound filing, not a form you complete, and it does not stand in for ToR1. The URN is what the UK agent types onto the Customs declaration (CDS). Until that reference exists, the container is a commercial import waiting for a number.

Six months before, twelve after

Outside the window, duty and VAT apply, and a ToR1 you filed does not stretch to cover a late container.

The window runs six months before residence to twelve months after. Goods can arrive in that span and still take the relief, which is why some households ship ahead of a start date and why people who land first still have time. Outside the window, duty and VAT apply, and a ToR1 you filed does not stretch to cover a late container. The UK to Canada lane has its own timing. This direction is governed by the British arrival window, not by the date you left Canada. Put the sail date and the residence date on one page before you accept a booking.

A container that arrives early still has to clear. Port storage starts when the ship discharges and the entry is not ready, and the reviews that mention a wait almost always mention a reference that was still in draft. The desk does not invent HMRC processing times, because the file does not support a number and the guidance does not publish one you can plan a wedding around. What the file does support is the sequence: URN first, then the booking, then the six to ten weeks of water. Read the bill of lading so you know which date is the arrival the window is judged against.

Sole-use, groupage, or air

The UK agent files the Customs declaration (CDS) and quotes your URN on it.

The price is the cubic metres, not the room count. September 2026 rate cards price Canada to UK by volume. A sole-use container is the whole box. Groupage shares one. On the reverse lane those cards put a 20 ft container at £4,800 to £6,200 and groupage at £2,400 to £3,800 for 10 to 15 cubic metres. Treat that pair as a reverse-lane benchmark, not as a quote for your shipment out of Canada. Measure with the cubic metre calculator and convert with the units calculator before you compare a video survey with a written estimate.

Sea is six to ten weeks door to door. The UK agent files the Customs declaration (CDS) and quotes your URN on it. That is the job: clear the goods against the reference you already hold. Air freight still needs the same relief and the same ToR1 inventory, and it is how people move a small load when the window is tight. Groupage waits for other cargo, which is a sound plan if the URN is already in hand and a poor one if you are using the extra days to finish the form.

What a mover can and cannot do

It will not apply for ToR1 for you.

The mover ships, lists, and carries the URN. A competent firm will survey the goods, write the inventory into the booking, file the Canadian export declaration, and hand your Unique Reference Number to its UK agent. It will not apply for ToR1 for you. That application is yours, online, before the goods arrive. Check how the firm is set up on the Canadian credentials page and, on the far side, remember that the UK has no mover licence of the kind a province issues. The agent in Britain clears the goods. The agent does not invent a reference you forgot to request.

Most Canada to UK quotes are volume estimates from a video survey. The cubic metre count decides the price, and the customer who packs first and measures second pays for the air in the cartons. A lamp wrapped like a museum piece is still a lamp-shaped hole in the container, and the hole has a price. Ask for the survey notes in writing and read them the way the estimate guide describes, before you sign. The reviews of Canadian movers that go sour on international work usually go sour on a number that changed after the boxes were already shut.

What it costs

Storage, a second delivery, and a customs exam are the lines that sit outside the volume rate.

This lane is thin, and the median needs its n. As of 21 Sept 2026 the licensed file holds 13 Canada to UK reviews, 6 of them dated since 2022. The reviewer-reported median is $5,000 across those 13 reviews, and that figure is the whole move as the person typed it. The sample is self-reported, skewed toward long distance and toward people with something to say. The reverse lane, written up at UK to Canada, holds 16 reviews at a median of $2,881. Quote the Canada to UK median only with 13 beside it.

The extra shows up when the reference is late. The desk holds only a handful of reviews on this lane. What they share with the busier lanes is the same story: the reference filed late and the container that waited on a quay. Storage, a second delivery, and a customs exam are the lines that sit outside the volume rate. In the wider cross-border file the desk holds 29 reviews at 3.21, and 1 of them mention customs. A 2025 interstate median of $4,500 will not price this move. Fuel is a trucking line, not ocean math. US diesel was $5.60 in the week of 31 Aug 2026.

Read the reverse-lane cards as cards, not as your quote. September 2026 rate cards on the UK to Canada direction show £4,800 to £6,200 for a 20 ft container and £2,400 to £3,800 for groupage of 10 to 15 cubic metres. They are a benchmark from the other direction. They are not the Canada to UK median, and they are not a survey of your house. Your number is the cubic metres a surveyor writes down after looking at the goods. If that count and the written estimate disagree, stop before the deposit and reconcile the two figures on paper.

Restricted items and the vehicle

Vehicle import (NOVA) is a notification separate from ToR1, and the six-month ownership rule applies to the vehicle.

Household relief does not cover a cellar or a shop. Alcohol and tobacco stay out of the ToR1 inventory. Food, plants, and anything another agency controls are a separate conversation with the mover, and the prohibited items check is the list to open before you pack a surprise into a carton. The desk has no basis for inventing duty rates on those categories. If an item is excluded from relief, listing it just in case is how a clean URN picks up an amendment at the port.

A car is a separate import from the household. Vehicle import (NOVA) is a notification separate from ToR1, and the six-month ownership rule applies to the vehicle. The mover can book the car on a ship. The mover cannot turn a household URN into a vehicle clearance. Confirm the ownership dates before you accept a sea transit of six to ten weeks, because a car that fails the ownership test pays duty while the sofa takes the relief. No figure in this lane file is a car price, so this page does not pretend to have one.