I need to transport some furniture from my deceased father’s house to France. Unfortunately the solicitors, having dragged their feet for nine months, now want me to clear the house by next Friday.
Am I going to be able to rent a van in the UK to put the stuff into storage? I now have a French licence, so I can’t use any of the websites which all require me to have a DVLA check code. Would appreciate if anyone has recent experience.
Getting the personal effects down here I did with my own camionette, but it’s too small for the furniture, even to get it three miles into the local store. And the solicitors, naturally, would like me to pay £1,300 for the job.
Yes up to 3.5 tons should be rentable from all the major rental co’s who will be used to taking licences from major countries all over the world for tourists and other visitors hiring in the UK. Vans can be more complicated terms wise and cost wise so always check the small print. Some companies won’t allow a van to go abroad (which maybe you’d consider see below) but Hertz does and I would think quite a few others do.
I still have UK licence though so hopefully someone who’s done it in the other direction with a Fr licence will confirm.
I found Hertz branches that specialise in vans (there’s one in Feltham) or have vans on offer amongst cars really know their stuff and they’d much rather take a call from you ahead about your documentation than have you turn up and not be able to accept your docs.
If parking away from home or on the road overnight I always add a note that I don’t want a branded van. Nothing says “I hired this van to transport valuable stuff” like ‘Hertz’ plastered all over the sides.
Why not book a ferry while they’re cheap, get the biggest size of van they’ll hire to you (if you’ve had your licence a long time and over a certain age I believe the van size limit may be more than 3.5 tons). Hertz charges a nominal fee to issue the docs (is it a V75?) for you to take the hired van abroad and are very efficient and I’m sure all the majors hiring vans would know how to do this. Done it in this direction a few times.
Storage is a trap and costs do mount up (“I’ve got the T-shirt”).
Optional 'excess coverage (for the van hire excess) may still be available from Questor who are good to deal with…
Alternatively look for a local “man and van” service for a quick move to storage, with you attending, and plan the move out of storage later.
Your licence will not be a problem at all. Two other issues though:
Hire car companies insist on credit cards so that they can raid your account after the car is returned. Do you have a UK credit card? if so, no problem. They query French cards as they are debit and do not allow transactions after the first. Still not a problem as hire car companies know this and allow for it, but often it requires you to insist the agent make a call to his/her manager that might take time. Most are OK though.
2 Second, and a bigger issue - will the hire company allow you to take the van to France? Since brexshit, this has become harder, but I believe it can be done with a hefty deposit.
Thanks everyone - looks like I will use storage short term, which means I just need to rent a single van for the day, and I can take Eurostar backwards and forwards. Gives me a little more time also to check the possible options and fix to share the driving with a friend.
A quick word with Mr Google shows a surprising number of rental compnids allow their cars to be taken outside the UK - with some allowing one way trips…
