Your household goods to Greece: no customs, but 2,700 kilometres and a boat

Taking your household goods to Greece costs no form. Within the EU there is no customs declaration for removal goods, no exemption to apply for and no deadline by which it has to happen: what you bought as a private individual was taxed in the country of purchase, and Your Europe says that no further payment is due in another EU country as long as it is for your own use. So the question is not whether it is allowed, but how you do it — and with Greece that is harder than with any other EU destination, because it is the farthest: over 2,700 kilometres to Athens, or a night ferry from Italy. The money is in that distance, not in the paperwork.

Do I have to declare anything at the border?

No. For furniture, clothing, books, tools and household effects there is no procedure within the EU. There is one exception customs may look at: excise goods. Alcohol and tobacco are free of further duty as long as they are for your own use, but each country may apply guideline values to test that. The European floor for those guideline values:

Goods	EU guideline value for own use
Cigarettes	800
Cigarillos	400
Cigars	200
Smoking tobacco	1 kg
Spirits	10 litres
Fortified wine (sherry, port)	20 litres
Wine	90 litres, of which 60 sparkling
Beer	110 litres

Above those quantities customs may ask you to prove it is for yourself, and without proof excise duty in the country of destination may follow or the goods may be confiscated. Whoever moves a serious wine collection therefore puts the receipts on top in the box. Medicines are a story of their own.

Which route, and what does it cost?

There are two ways to get there. Overland it is three to four driving days through six countries; the usual route cuts that in half with the ferry from Ancona, Bari or Brindisi to Patras or Igoumenitsa. For a removal firm that matters: Dutch movers don't run fixed weekly routes to Greece the way they do to Spain, so a part load waits more often for a full truck. If you are going to an island, the crossing for the last leg comes on top, and movers charge that separately. Ask for it explicitly in the quote.

What it roughly comes to for a part load, half a truck or a whole one is worked out by the cost indication for Greece on the basis of your household. Those are estimates, not tariffs: there is no authority that sets this.

The option people forget is moving in two stages. First with suitcases and a furnished rental, and having the household goods come only once you know where you are going to live. With Greece that is extra defensible, because the housing market differs so much per region and you rent in the first year anyway.

What does not simply come along?

Three things don't ride on the freedom of the household goods, each with its own procedure.

The car. Your Europe is firm: whoever moves permanently to another EU country registers the car there and pays the vehicle taxes there. There are no common EU rules; some countries have an exemption when moving, with their own deadlines and conditions. Greece is such a country, but with a transfer-of-residence certificate you obtain in the Netherlands and a Euro standard that keeps older cars out of the country — that is in the car article. On the Dutch side there is the export notification at the RDW (€ 12, then fourteen days of driving on white export plates) and the bpm refund, which only goes through if the car is registered in Greece within thirteen weeks of the export status.

The pet. A dog, cat or ferret travels on a European pet passport with a microchip and a rabies vaccination at least 21 days old; on the ferry the shipping company's rules apply as well. It is in the pet article.

Other people's things. The freedom applies to goods for your own use. Whoever transports for a business or for third parties falls under different rules.

The car has the only real clocks in this move. The household goods may come months later; the car may not. The transfer-of-residence certificate is valid for twelve months and the Dutch bpm refund lapses after thirteen weeks. So plan the car separately from the truck.

Where does this sit in the journey?

The household goods are the only part of the move that is completely reversible as long as you have booked nothing, and completely irreversible once the truck is moving. Get three quotes on the same inventory, and ask what is not included: insurance, packing and unpacking, the ferry, storage if the home isn't free yet. On an island that last point is no theory — summer rental contracts end in May, and whoever arrives in June with a full truck and no key pays storage in a harbour.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 3 of 5 of the journey, step 3.1: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Greece or go straight to step 3.1 in the open plan.