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I am planning to go to England for 2 days in preparation of moving (I already have a place rented and would be staying there) a few weeks later. I am coming from a country where I would need to do a 14 day quarantine as soon as I enter England.

Does this mean that I have to stay in England for 14 days or can I leave the country before the end of the 14 day quarantine without facing a penatly?

I have found no information about what the rules are for planned stays of less than 14 days on the official website, while this site seems to say that short trips are OK.

Official sources would be appreciated.

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    @JonathanReez it is perfectly possible to prepare for moving while staying at home... for example to move and assemble furniture and buy things that I will need when I live there
    – fishlein
    Commented Aug 15, 2020 at 14:28
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    @fishlein How do you know what is relevant? Realistically 80% of the time when a person is mercurial about underlying facts, it is because those underlying facts do not favor the answer they're prefer to get. Nobody's saying you are up to that, but from our perspective it's the way to bet. It would be doing you a grave disservice TO YOU to say "Sure, you can do that, no problem", only to have you pinched because of one of the X-factors that you didn't offer and we didn't ask. So yeah, I ask about X-factors. If you want to harbor negative emotions about that, have a field day.
    – Harper - Reinstate Monica
    Commented Aug 15, 2020 at 18:43
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    “Buy things” obviously means you need to order them online as you can’t get out of the house to go shopping. Also remember that you are not allowed any contact with delivery personnel, and of course any installation or even delivery people entering the place is not allowed in any way, shape or form.
    – jcaron
    Commented Aug 15, 2020 at 20:16
  • @JonathanReez depending on how far through the moving process OP is, maybe they could be defined as "staying at home" if they're in their new home? And also "staying at home" if they're in their old home? And possibly "travelling home" if they're stopped and questioned in between both old and new homes?
    – Aaron F
    Commented Aug 16, 2020 at 1:04
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    @Aaron F I think the point is that, once arrived at their new home in England, the OP must stay in it until they leave to go back to their previous home.
    – Traveller
    Commented Aug 16, 2020 at 7:49

1 Answer 1

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Quote from an .gov.uk site:

Coronavirus (COVID-19): how to self-isolate when you travel to the UK When you arrive in the UK, you will not be allowed to leave the place where you’re staying for the first 14 days you’re in the UK (known as ‘self-isolating’) unless you’re arriving from an exempt country.
This is because it can take up to 14 days for coronavirus symptoms to appear. If you’re travelling to the UK for less than 14 days, you will be expected to self-isolate for the length of your stay.

From that I read that you can leave your location of self isolation to return home.
But you will not be allowed to leave your place of self isolation, not for exercise, not to get food and not to 'walk the dog'. So it will only help you if all you need to do is inside one house and its garden and you do not need to go to a shop to buy anything while there or on your way there.
But you can ask friends (or shops) to deliver to your door or your garden.

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    If you’re travelling to the UK for less than 14 days, you will be expected to self-isolate for the length of your stay. So you have to get off the plane, go to your destination, stay there - not meeting anyone, no going out. Then go back to the airport and fly home. The obvious conclusion of this is that you should not bother to come for less than 14 days.
    – Oscar Bravo
    Commented Aug 17, 2020 at 8:50
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    @OscarBravo Unless you have things which you can prodoctively do in your destination which you can't do from somewhere else. In my case, I will be bringing furniture from my old home to my new home and assembling it which I cannot do next time I am in England because I do not have a place to store it in between.
    – fishlein
    Commented Aug 17, 2020 at 9:24
  • @OscarBravo You are right based on the guidance, which says "It’s important to avoid as much contact with other people as possible in your home in order to reduce the risk of transmitting coronavirus". However the law explicitly does not require isolation of a person P from "where P is self-isolating in their home, from any member of their household" or "where P is self-isolating in the home of a friend or family member, from any member of the household of that friend or family member." The restrictions are about reducing the chance of spreading covid, not necessarily making it impossible.
    – bdsl
    Commented Aug 17, 2020 at 18:16
  • legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/568/regulation/4
    – bdsl
    Commented Aug 17, 2020 at 18:16
  • @OscarBravo I don't have any personal knowledge of the OP. From what I've read on this page it doesn't seem that there will be other people in the house.
    – bdsl
    Commented Aug 18, 2020 at 10:53

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