Moving possessions back to UK

[soundevenfruity]

First, apologies if the question is in the wrong place. We are moving quite a lot of stuff from abroad to UK. It's partly what DH accumulated before we married, partly what we bought when lived in that country for a year. It was all stored at his mum's and sisters' so last year we finally found time to arrange a container to move it to UK where we are settled. Now the customs are saying that if possessions are not moved within 6 months the ownership passes over to the person who kept them all that time and we need to pay 20% on the total value. DH thinks it will be easier to put low second hand value on all of it and pay the tax but I just don't think it's right and we shouldn't pay anything.

Where is the container now?

Arrived to UK. We used a reputable company but they are not being very helpful.

So the issue is that you are living in the UK, but you had a load of stuff overseas, in the custody of your DH's family. Then you arranged to have it shipped back?? i.e. you came back to the UK >6 mths before the stuff.

Unfortunately I think the customs people are right (I remember something similar happening to a friend of mine in Dubai). What does their website say (HMRC)?