Relocating to Bulgaria
August 26th, 2007Provided by Richard Payne
Here are some useful tips:
(a) If the car is less than perhaps £1500, maybe it is best to sell it and buy another car in Varna, considering the cost of shipping and re-registering a UK car. Around Varna, there are a lot of new car shops and 2nd hand car supermarket zones (essentially no difference to UK prices). Furthermore, the car in UK is right handed while in Bulgaria they are left handed. It is a good idea to hire a bulgarian friend to do the negotiation for you, so you may get 20% lower price than yourself. If you’re not sure about the paperwork, your friend can help you.
(b) Shipping to Bulgaria, they consider quotation primary on shipping volume, not weight. Smaller volume (20m3 versa 10m3) reduce the cost and hence 20% VAT surcharge.
(c) Since the furnish items take a lot of volume (ie draw units), it may be a lot cheaper to dispose them (ie ebay, charity, etc) and buy new furniture. For example cheap MFI bedroom draw unit cost £50 to buy, but may cost £50-£150 to ship it, where you may sell it for £10 and buy new one. Take what you really need and be crucial about it. When you start living in Varna or the region, there is plenty of good furniture stores around there. There is Ikea in Romina not far from the Bulgarian border if you like Swedish style and you can hire a large transit.
(d) Do communicate with the shipping company, do not pre-assume there is complete understanding, the shipping company would be very concerned how to deliver the goods when they get to Varna…they may use a very big lorry, which cannot drive into small streets (which in fact is impossible). You may need to hire a transit or large SUV car to transport the goods between the main road and house/apartment on the small street, they may do that for you but at extra cost.
(e) Do try to pack way ahead of schedule, so you can work out the shipping volume, making sure it does not exceed the contract limits.
(f) Do consider insurance, so your stuff would be protected. The company may have a policy that they perfer to pack the stuff themsleves (at extra cost) and hence validate the insurance policy…..read the small print. They may use a good money making scheme.
(g) Each box must comply to weight specification provided by the shipping company, if it is too heavy, they may refuse to handle it due to H&S policy.
Above all…do communicate with the people at the shipping company, do not pre-assume, keep communication on records, any charge:- record it on writing, approved and signed!!. See you in Varna!
