Average moving allowance to Australia

[roary]

DH's potential employer has asked him (!!) to give a figure for removals. Any idea as to what is standard? They are floating between $10 and $20k, which is obviously a big gap.

[gregssausageroll]

What will they pay in that allowance.

Factor in:

Removals so packing, shipping and insurance

Flights

Stopover

Rental when you land or a hotel for a couple of weeks.

Work out in £ and then covert to $.

[roary]

Good point. Just shipping and insurance.

[roary]

Ooops. Meant packing, shipping and insurance.

[sunnydelight]

Get a couple of quotes for bringing absolutely everything and you can work out later what you want to leave behind. We used GB liners who I would recommend. My figures are four years old so you need something more up to date, ask the question of recent arrivals on Britishexpats and you'll get a good rough idea.

If you are coming to Sydney I would strongly recommend trying to get them to pay for temporary accommodation for four weeks. Any less and you will be stressed out trying to find something permanent that is (a) affordable and (b) where you really want to live. It can be hard to secure rentals here depending on what the market is doing when you arrive.

[roary]

Thanks for that - they are wanting an average that other employers provide, which is a bit odd. We thought in the range of $10,000 would be about right. IT's a bit complicated as DH will likely have to go 6 months ahead of us, which at least has the advantage of meaning he can find a place to live etc! I wish we were going to Sydney but it's Perth.

[sunnydelight]

That is a bit odd, you would think that HR could do a bit of "business to business" research and set a policy rather than sending your DH off to ask around! You definitely need Britishexpats then - post in the Australia forum and ask "how much did your company pay". You can give the source of your info then if the company quibble it. BE is a great source of advice on general practical matters too such as decent suburbs, schools, cost of living etc.

I assume, if you are going on a 457 visa, your DH has negotiated LAHFA as part of the deal? It will make a huge difference to your income (it's basically part of your salary that isn't taxed) but it's not a set amount, there are guidelines but it's individually negotiable as part of a contract. There is no right to it though and some companies won't do it thinking it's too much hassle so it's worth checking out.

[YeahBut]

Don't forget to factor in an allowance for replacing / rewiring electrical goods, rental car hire until you can buy or lease, buying school uniforms, school contributions and charges etc. etc. Initial outlays can be costly and surprising!

[roary]

Good old mumsnet! You can always find intelligent helpful answers here. (DH asked me to ask mumsnet straightaway when he was told to find out moving costs).

Sunny, you're right - it is very odd but there is a rational explanation I can't give here. Fortunately DH is AUstralian so there are `fewer obstacles in other ways. It looks like my job will provide an excellent removals service but that will all be when I move over later on with the kdis.

Yeahbut that's a great point about rewiring, we have the largest collection of adapters you've ever seen for our Australian appliances here but rewiring is a much better plan.

[ninedragons]

Are you bringing pets? That will have a huge effect, as they may need to be in quarantine for months.

Same if you are planning to bring things like rattan or cane furniture - if your stuff ends up sitting in a warehouse for weeks being fumigated it can really add up to an eyewatering amount very quickly. Don't bring anything with visible insect damage - even if you know that the last woodworm to nibble your chair died in 1834, you'll still have to pay for fumigation.

[ninedragons]

And only get quotes that include packing - packing for a sea journey is fairly complicated and most companies won't pay for breakages of anything they didn't pack themselves. It also means that your consignment will be much bigger than you think - everything will be wrapped in so much paper you'll end up with tea-chest size boxes that only have a few vases and plates in them.

Probably cheaper to buy appliances in Aus. Sea freight is rough and it would be a PITA to get to Australia and discover your fridge had been damaged by the pitch (or is it yaw?) of the boat.

[ninedragons]

AUD10k got us a TEU (twenty-foot container, ie half of those ones you see on the back of a lorry) door to door from China to Aus. No pets and nothing that required quarantine (am Australian and was VERY careful about packing. Except for the bit of pot that somehow got through in one of my desk drawers, that I didn't discover until I unpacked ).

[gregssausageroll]

I agree. Get them to pack. A professional pack will still be checked by customs a home made pack is likely to have everything checked.

AUD10K is not a lot when it comes to shipping. It got us 20 ft container back to the UK.

[echt]

There are all sorts of rules about the refrigerant gases in fridges which make it a waste of time to take it.

How long are you going for?

We brought everything except the fridge - pets, car, but then we were backed by government money. They paid for the kitting out of the rental until the shipping turned up.

Everything survived the shipping except standard lamps, for some reason.

All bikes, garden stuff, shoes will have to be scrubbed to death. And packed at the front of the container. Customs will hunt then down and will not re-pack with due care and attention. all our stuff got through.

[ninedragons]

Echt makes an excellent point. It's almost not worth bringing anything like football boots, golf cleats or cricket shoes.

One standard lamp was the only thing that broke in our shipment too! They must have a weak structural point.

[roary]

Ninedragons very impressed by your unintentional trafficking. IT must have freaked you out when you found it!

This is all sensible and excellent advice. We will, in the end, have 2 moving allowances so I think we will be ok with the smaller amount for DH. But I hadn't thought through any of the quarantine issues. I take it my teak outdoor furniture is not a good thing to bring!

Unlikely we will be bringing anything like bikes, fortunately DCs very small so not a lot of that sort of thing yet. We do plan to bring the car.

Echt it will be permanent (yikes, yikes, yikes!). We don't have pets but will be bringing everything else.

Anything that you found much cheaper over here and worth getting before leaving? We have heard tvs are much cheaper.

The expat forums are great but I find them difficult to weed through, everyone has very different needs (and spelling - I am too much of an old grump to read text speak at length!)

[chloeb2002]

hi roary we brought just about everything.. except electrical stuff as the warranty wouldnt be valid so we bought new stuff here. I do however regret bringing so much stuff. to do it again i would just bring sentimental stuff and the kids stuff! ( even tho half of that was binned by the time it arrived it made the move easier).We made the error of leaving pine cones in a christmas box and they cost $100 to burn! so be very careful not to pack stuff on the banned list! I add however our funriture wasnt the greatest and other than a coupe of sentimental pieces we should have left lots more behind as we could have just gone to ikea and bought new stuff!