Terms of Service

These terms do two jobs. The first part governs your use of this website. The rest sets out the basis on which Seemleius International Pvt. Ltd. quotes for and carries out moves and freight shipments, so that you can read the commercial reality of an international move before you commit to one rather than after something has gone wrong.

Where we issue you a written quotation and booking confirmation, that document and these terms together form the contract. If the two disagree on a point, the quotation wins, because it was written for your shipment and this page was not. Nothing here removes rights you have as a consumer under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 or any other law that cannot be contracted out of.

Last updated: 5 September 2026.

Who you are contracting with

Seemleius International Pvt. Ltd., a company incorporated in India, with offices in Cochin and Mumbai. Our addresses, phone number and email are on the contact page. In these terms "we", "us" and "our" mean that company; "you" means the person or business we quote for or move goods for.

[To be supplied by the company: Corporate Identity Number (CIN), GSTIN and Importer-Exporter Code (IEC), for printing in this section.]

Using this website

You may use this site to learn about our services, read our guidance, and send us an enquiry. You may not attempt to disrupt it, extract data from it in bulk, misrepresent yourself when submitting a form, or use it for anything unlawful. We rate-limit the enquiry forms and screen submissions for automation; if that catches you unfairly, call us and we will take the enquiry over the phone.

The written material on this site — corridor guides, service pages, customs notes, transit times — is general information, given in good faith and kept as accurate as we can. It is not advice for your particular shipment, and it is not a quotation. Rules, rates and schedules change; the customs administration at the destination decides what happens at the destination, not this website. We are a movers and packers, not an immigration adviser, and nothing on this site should be read as guidance on residence documentation.

The content, layout, photography and branding of this site belong to us or are used with permission. Read them, quote a line with attribution, send the link to a colleague — but do not republish the pages, and do not scrape them to train or populate another service.

Quotations: what they are, and what changes them

A quotation given before a survey is an estimate. It is priced on what you have told us — a room count, a rough volume, or an inventory typed into the volume calculator. It becomes firm once a surveyor has seen the goods, either in person or over a video call, and confirmed the volume and the access at both ends.

Prices change for reasons that are usually predictable and always explainable. The most common are:

• Volume. The estimate said 22 cubic metres and the load is 31. Volume drives the container size, the crew, the packing materials and the freight, so it drives almost everything.
• Access. Stairs where we expected a lift; a lift too small for a wardrobe carton; a long carry from the nearest legal parking; a road too narrow for the vehicle, requiring a shuttle; a building that only permits moves on certain days or after a deposit.
• Items not declared. A piano, a safe, a gym rack, a large aquarium, a motorcycle, a garden of potted plants. Each changes crew, materials, packing time or the permission needed to ship at all.
• Freight market movements. Ocean rates, general rate increases, peak-season surcharges, bunker adjustments, air rate volatility and currency movement. Shipping lines and airlines commonly hold a rate for a fortnight or a month, not a quarter.
• Charges at the destination. Terminal handling, quarantine or fumigation, customs examination fees, port storage. These are set by the terminal, the line and the destination authority, and we pass them on at cost.
• Dates. Moving a booking into a peak window — the Indian summer school break, the weeks before a major festival, the pre-Chinese-New-Year rush on Asian sailings — can change both price and availability.

Unless the document says otherwise, a quotation is valid for thirty days from its date, and the freight element within it is valid only for as long as the carrier holds the rate, which is often shorter. Where a quotation is in a currency other than Indian rupees, the conversion basis is stated on the quotation.

Booking

A booking exists when you accept the quotation in writing and pay the booking amount stated on it. At that point we allocate a coordinator to your file, reserve crew for the packing dates, and book space with the line or airline. Provisional dates given before that are held in good faith but not reserved.

Payment, GST and currency

Our charges are quoted exclusive of Goods and Services Tax. GST is applied at the rate in force on the date of invoice, and where a supply qualifies as an export of services or is otherwise zero-rated, the invoice shows that treatment. Duties, taxes and destination charges are separate from our service charges and are dealt with in the customs section below.

The booking amount is payable on confirmation. The balance of origin charges is payable before the goods are handed to the carrier — before a container is sealed and moved to the port, or before cargo is tendered to the airline. Destination charges are invoiced by us or by our destination agent as they arise. We do not release goods, documents or a delivery order against unpaid invoices.

Payment is by bank transfer to the account named on the invoice. Bank charges on international transfers are yours, so please instruct your bank to send the invoiced amount net of their deductions. Overdue amounts may carry interest at the rate stated on the invoice, and we may suspend work on your file while an invoice is overdue.

Cancellation and postponement

Tell us as early as you can; almost everything is easier with notice. If you cancel, you remain liable for costs already committed on your behalf — freight booked, materials purchased, a crew rostered and turned away, port or airline charges already incurred, and any work already performed such as a survey or a packing day. The cancellation scale that applies to your booking is set out in your quotation.

If you postpone, we re-book subject to availability. Peak dates cannot always be recovered, freight rates may have moved, and if the goods are already packed or in our care, storage and handling charges apply from the original date. Where a postponement is caused by something outside your control, we do what we reasonably can to hold pricing, but we cannot hold a carrier’s rate that has expired.

What you must do

Most claims and most cost increases trace back to something in this list, which is why it is written out in full rather than summarised.

• Give an accurate inventory. Everything that is going must be on it, including what is in the loft, the balcony, the garage and the store room.
• Declare prohibited and restricted items before packing day, not on it. The next section says what those are.
• Be there, or send someone who can decide. Packing day produces dozens of small decisions. If you cannot attend, nominate someone in writing who can.
• Arrange access. Parking or a loading bay, lift booking, building or society permissions, gate passes, and any deposit the building requires. Waiting time caused by access that was not arranged is chargeable.
• Provide correct documents. Identity and shipment documents must match the shipment and each other. An error in a name, a passport number or a value is the commonest cause of a customs hold.
• Keep the irreplaceable with you. Passports and identity documents, cash, jewellery, deeds, medication, laptops and the things you will need in the first week should travel with you, not in the shipment.
• Prepare appliances. Washing machines drained and transit-bolted, fridges defrosted and dried, fuel and oil drained from garden and power equipment, gas cylinders emptied and disconnected.
• Point out the fragile and the valuable. If an item needs a crate, we need to know before we build the load plan, not after.
• Make sure someone can receive at the other end. Delivery needs a person with authority to sign, and address details that a driver in that country can actually find.

Prohibited and restricted goods

You are responsible for what is in your shipment. Some things cannot be shipped at all; others need a licence, a certificate or a declaration.

Never pack, and never ask us to pack: explosives, fireworks, ammunition or firearms; flammable liquids and gases, including LPG cylinders, petrol, kerosene, thinners, solvents, paints and aerosols; matches and lighters; corrosives, pesticides and pool chemicals; narcotics; currency, bullion and bearer instruments; ivory, coral, skins, shells and anything else covered by CITES; perishable food; live animals or plants and the soil they grow in; opened alcohol; and anything unlawful at origin, in transit or at destination. Loose lithium batteries and power banks are restricted in sea containers and are usually refused.

Restricted items — alcohol in sealed original packaging, new goods still in their retail boxes, firearms held under licence, medicines in quantity, drones, satellite equipment, works of art and antiques — can often move, but only with the right paperwork arranged in advance. Tell us early and we will tell you what the destination requires.

If you pack your own cartons, the shipment carries them as owner-packed. We cannot see inside them, cannot verify the contents, and cannot accept liability for damage to what is inside a carton we did not pack. If prohibited goods are found in a shipment, the consequences — detention, examination fees, fines, destruction of the goods, and in serious cases prosecution — fall on you, and we will co-operate fully with the authority concerned.

Customs, duties and taxes

Customs administrations at both ends have the right to open your shipment, X-ray it, examine it in detail, require fumigation, hold it while they make enquiries, and in some cases seize it. None of that is a breach of contract by us, and none of it is something we can override. What we can do is prepare the declaration correctly, respond quickly when a query is raised, and keep you informed.

Unless your quotation expressly says otherwise, all duties, taxes, quarantine and inspection fees, fumigation costs, examination charges, port storage, demurrage and detention arising at either end are your liability and are payable before the goods are released. Concessions that exist for used household goods depend entirely on the destination administration’s own eligibility rules and on the documents you can produce; we present the paperwork, we do not decide the outcome, and we cannot guarantee a duty-free clearance anywhere.

Where a shipment is delayed at customs because a document was missing, incorrect, or produced late, the storage and demurrage that accrue in the meantime are yours. This is the single most expensive avoidable cost in international moving, and it is almost always a paperwork problem rather than a shipping one.

Our liability, and the conventions that cap it

We should be straight about this, because the gap between what people assume and what the law provides is wide.

For most of a shipment’s journey we act as a freight forwarder — we arrange carriage with a line, an airline or a haulier — and where we perform work ourselves, such as packing, local transport or warehousing, we do so as principal. Our liability for the services we perform is limited to the amounts set out in these terms and in the standard trading conditions incorporated in your quotation, and in any event does not extend to indirect or consequential loss, loss of profit, loss of use, or losses arising from delay unless we have agreed a delivery date in writing.

The carriage itself sits under international conventions that cap the carrier’s liability by weight or by package, regardless of what your goods are worth:

• Sea. Under the Hague-Visby Rules, a carrier’s liability is limited to 666.67 Special Drawing Rights per package or unit, or 2 Special Drawing Rights per kilogram of gross weight, whichever is the higher. A container counts as a single package unless the packages inside it are enumerated on the bill of lading — which is why an itemised inventory matters legally as well as practically. A Special Drawing Right is an International Monetary Fund unit of account worth a little over one US dollar.
• Air. Under the Montreal Convention 1999, a carrier’s liability for cargo is capped at a fixed amount per kilogram — in the region of 22 to 26 Special Drawing Rights per kilogram, reviewed by ICAO every five years. The limit in force on the date of carriage is the one that applies.
• Road within India. The Carriage by Road Act, 2007 and the rules made under it limit a common carrier’s liability unless a higher value is declared in advance and a higher rate is paid for carrying it.

Put in ordinary terms: a 400-kilogram air shipment carries a limit of roughly 8,800 Special Drawing Rights, somewhere near eleven thousand US dollars, however much the contents cost to replace. Worse, on a sea container whose contents are not enumerated on the bill of lading, the entire container can be treated as a single package, capping the carrier at 666.67 Special Drawing Rights — under a thousand dollars for a whole household. These limits are not something we chose and not something we can waive on a carrier’s behalf.

Transit insurance is how value is actually protected

Because of the caps above, marine transit insurance — not the carriage contract — is what stands between you and the replacement cost of your goods. It is priced as a percentage of the value you declare, on a valued inventory that you complete and sign, and it must be in place before the goods leave your address. Cover cannot be added afterwards.

Read the policy wording rather than assuming. Typical points to check: the excess or deductible; whether pairs and sets are covered as a set; whether mould, mildew and rust are covered on a sea shipment through the monsoon; how mechanical and electrical derangement is treated; and the treatment of owner-packed cartons, which most policies exclude for internal damage. Where you ask, we will introduce you to an insurer or broker and pass on the valued inventory, but the contract of insurance is between you and the insurer, and their wording decides what is paid.

Making a claim

If something is missing or damaged, the process is straightforward but the timing is not flexible:

• Note the damage or shortage on the delivery paperwork before the crew leaves, and have the crew leader sign it. An unmarked clean receipt makes every later step harder.
• Keep the item and its packaging. Photograph the item, the packaging and the carton number.
• Send us a written claim within seven days of delivery for visible damage, and within thirty days for damage discovered on unpacking, listing the inventory numbers and the amounts claimed.
• Where the goods are insured, we will help you file with the insurer, whose own notification deadlines run from delivery and are usually shorter than you expect.

Separate legal time bars apply to actions against the carrier and cannot be extended by us: one year from delivery under the Hague-Visby Rules for sea carriage; and under the Montreal Convention, written complaint within fourteen days of receipt for damage and twenty-one days for delay, with two years to bring an action. Claims are considered once the invoices relating to the shipment are settled.

Storage, demurrage and detention

Ports and airports allow a limited period of free time. After it expires, the terminal charges storage, and the shipping line charges detention on the container itself. Both accrue daily, both can exceed the freight cost if a shipment sits for weeks, and both are yours where the delay arises from documentation, duty payment, customs examination or your not being ready to receive.

Where we store goods for you, storage is charged monthly or part month, with a minimum period, plus handling charges in and out. Goods in storage should be insured for the storage period; transit cover usually stops on delivery into store. We have a lien over goods and documents in our possession for sums owed to us, and after written notice and a reasonable period we may sell stored goods to recover what is owed, accounting to you for any surplus.

Delay and force majeure

Transit times are estimates based on carrier schedules and normal customs processing. We are not liable for delay or additional cost caused by events outside our reasonable control, including: weather, monsoon conditions and cyclones; port congestion and blank sailings; vessel or aircraft schedule changes, roll-overs and equipment shortages; strikes, lockouts and industrial action, including at a port or by a carrier’s staff; war, sanctions, civil unrest and terrorism; epidemics and quarantine measures; the closure or disruption of a canal or trade route; and any act, requirement or delay of a government, port or customs authority. When one of these hits your shipment we will tell you what has happened, what the options are and what each costs, and we will re-plan with you.

Subcontracting and destination agents

We appoint destination agents, shipping lines, airlines, hauliers, packers, warehouses and customs brokers to perform parts of the work, and they perform on their own trading conditions and their own liability limits. We choose them on the basis of who we have worked with successfully on that lane, we remain your single point of contact throughout, and we chase them on your behalf. We are not, however, liable for their acts beyond the liability we ourselves accept under these terms.

When we may refuse or stop work

We may decline a booking, or stop work on one, where goods are prohibited or misdeclared, where a shipment would breach sanctions or export control, where documents cannot be produced, where a survey reveals a materially different job from the one quoted, or where invoices are overdue. Where we stop for one of these reasons, charges up to that point remain payable, and the storage and lien provisions above apply.

Complaints and escalation

Raise it first with your coordinator, who has the file and the fastest route to the answer. If that does not resolve it, write to us at sales@seemleiusinternational.com marking the message for the attention of the management team and quoting your reference. We aim to acknowledge within three working days and to give a substantive answer within fifteen. Unresolved matters escalate to the Chief Executive Officer — this is a company small enough for that to mean something.

Privacy

How we handle personal data, including what the enquiry forms collect and who your details are shared with in order to perform a move, is set out in the privacy policy. Cookies and browser storage are covered in the cookie policy.

Changes to these terms

We may update this page. The terms that apply to your booking are the ones in force on the date your quotation was issued, and we will not apply a later change retrospectively to work already agreed.

Governing law and jurisdiction

These terms and any contract formed under them are governed by the laws of India, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. Subject to the complaints process above, the courts at Kochi, Kerala shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising out of or in connection with them. [To be confirmed by the company: the seat named here should match the registered office; amend if the registered office is elsewhere.]

If any provision of these terms is held unenforceable, the rest continues in force. A delay by us in enforcing a term is not a waiver of it.