Moving Inventory

It is not a packing list, it is a declaration

The inventory is the document customs uses to decide whether your shipment is used household effects — which enter duty-free within limits — or goods that should be taxed. It is also the basis on which your insurance pays if something is lost.

Those two uses pull in opposite directions, which is why people get it wrong: undervalue it and your claim is worthless, overvalue it and you invite a customs assessment.

What it has to contain

• A numbered list of every package, matching the numbers written on the boxes themselves
• The contents of each package, in enough detail that an inspector opening box 14 finds what it says
• A replacement value per item or per package, in the currency agreed with the insurer
• Serial numbers for electronics and appliances, which is what proves ownership
• Any new or unused item, declared separately — these are treated differently

Valuing it honestly

Value at what it would cost to replace the item today, not what you paid for it and not what you would sell it for. A six-year-old sofa is worth what a comparable sofa costs now, not its original price.

A credible inventory is internally consistent: a household of one value does not contain a single item worth half the total. Inspectors notice that long before they open a box.

What will get your shipment stopped

• Boxes marked "miscellaneous" or "various" — the most reliable way to have your container physically inspected
• Food, seeds, soil or anything with plant material, which Chilean agricultural control will seize
• Firearms, ammunition and anything resembling them, without prior authorisation
• New items in commercial quantities, which are treated as an import rather than household effects
• An inventory that does not match the number of boxes actually loaded

We prepare it with you

On a move we handle, the inventory is produced during packing by the crew doing the packing, cross-checked against the box numbers and reviewed before it goes to customs. It takes longer on packing day and saves weeks at the port.