The survey is the moment a move stops being a thought and starts being a project. Our coordinator walks through your home with an iPad, room by room, listing what is moving, what is staying, what needs special packing and what needs to be quoted separately. The output is a volume estimate, a corridor and routing recommendation, and a firm cost band. If the survey is thorough, the rest of the move is mostly execution. If the survey misses things, every later step has to absorb the gap.
The single most useful thing a client can do before the survey is to have the answers and the inputs ready when we arrive. Below is the checklist we send ahead of every survey appointment. None of it is mandatory — we will run the survey either way — but having these items in place typically shortens the appointment by an hour and tightens the quote by ten to twenty per cent.
Documents to have to hand
Identity and residence
- Passport copies (photo page) for every member of the household who will be on the bill of lading.
- UAE Emirates ID copies (front and back) for every adult.
- UAE residence visa pages, ideally the most recent renewal.
- For the destination country: any residence permit, visa, employer sponsorship letter, work-permit approval, or invitation letter already issued. If a visa is in process, the latest status update is useful.
Property and tenancy
- Current UAE tenancy contract — Ejari (Dubai) or Tawtheeq (Abu Dhabi). The lease expiry date and your notice-served date drive the move-out timeline.
- DEWA, ADDC, SEWA or FEWA latest bill — the final-settlement workflow uses the account number.
- Chiller / district cooling contract if applicable (Empower, Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation, Tabreed).
- Destination property contract if signed, or temporary accommodation booking confirmation if still in interim housing.
Vehicles and pets
- UAE Mulkiya (vehicle registration card) front and back if any vehicle is moving.
- Vehicle service-history summary — especially useful for destination registration in countries that ask for it (Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand).
- Pet records: microchip number, rabies vaccination dates, recent veterinary health record.
Decisions we will ask about during the walkthrough
The survey is partly a measurement exercise and partly a decision-making session. The most accurate quotes come out of surveys where the client has already made these calls.
What is moving, what is staying, what is being sold
Most households fall into three buckets: items moving internationally, items being sold or gifted before the move, items going into storage in the UAE. The biggest single error in volume estimates is “we’ll decide later” on furniture pieces — the survey then has to assume worst case and the quote inflates. Walk through each room before the survey and tag items mentally as move / sell / store.
Insurance and valuation declarations
The marine cargo insurance is sized to the declared value of the consignment. We carry standard cover as part of the move, with optional all-risks upgrades for high-value items. Have a rough valuation in your head for the contents of each room, and a more specific number for any item over AED 10,000 individually — art, jewellery (we recommend hand-carry, not container), high-end electronics, watch collections.
Special items that need their own quote line
Several categories need separate handling and the survey is when we flag them: pianos (upright is simpler than grand), gun safes, billiard tables, gym equipment, large mirrors and glass-top furniture, oil paintings and original art, fine wine collections, white goods that are not moving and need disposal, and any item that exceeds the standard packing-crate dimensions. Prep a list before the survey if you can.
Pack day, container availability and family logistics
The survey appointment is also when we lock in indicative pack dates. Pack day is typically one to three days for a typical UAE household, scheduled to align with container availability at Jebel Ali or Khalifa Port. Family logistics matter: school terms, work-leave calendars, the date the destination property becomes available, the date the UAE property must be handed back. Bring the calendar.
Physical preparations before the appointment
The walkthrough goes faster if the surveyor can see the inside of every cupboard. We are not measuring the contents one by one; we are estimating volume by spatial pattern. A few practical things:
- Clear access to every wardrobe, storage cupboard, attic and store room. Locked spaces or spaces piled with random items in front of them get estimated as “assume full” and the volume balloons.
- Pull out anything in deep storage that has not been used in months and decide before the survey whether it is moving.
- Lay any oversized items (artwork, mirrors, glass-top tables) somewhere visible — the surveyor needs to see them not just hear about them.
- Have any garage, balcony, terrace or maid’s-room contents accessible. Forgotten outdoor furniture and BBQs are the single most common late-stage add to a UAE move.
What we leave with at the end of the survey
By the time the coordinator drives off, the file should contain: a room-by-room inventory with volume per room, a destination corridor decision (sea or air; port choice), an indicative customs framework for both origin and destination, a vehicle plan if applicable, a pet plan if applicable, insurance valuation declared, special-items list with separate line quotes, the pack-day window, and a written quote that arrives by email within forty-eight hours.
The client should leave with: a clear picture of the next two weeks, a contact number for the named coordinator, and a single follow-up appointment if any decisions were deferred (most surveys produce one or two of these).
A note on remote and video surveys
When an in-person survey is not possible — the client is already at destination, or the schedule does not allow a visit — we run video surveys over WhatsApp or Zoom. They work, but they rely entirely on the client doing the walking and showing. If you are booking a video survey, this same checklist still applies: have the documents ready, make the decisions, and clear the access in advance. A well-prepared video survey can produce a quote almost as accurate as an in-person one. An unprepared in-person survey often does not.
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