Relocation for job - what can be expected?

[pansyflimflam]

I know this is a 'how long is a piece of string' type of question BUT DH has been offered an interview (and has a great chance of getting the job) which will mean relocation across the country. We own our house here and this would eventually have to be sold but how does that work then? I guess we could rent this and rent there but I wonder what do companies do about assisting relocation? This is a big American company, they are already offering 9 day fortnights, great salary and private medical cover for family etc etc so I wonder if anyone here has had experience of relocation with a big company and what if any assistance as given, financially or otherwise.

bump..............

Not sure how it compares as we moved abroad but the company I worked for offered similar for moves within the country:

• housing visits to find suitable housing (travel & hotels)
• practical assistance with finding school places
• removal costs (high quality, stress free)
• storage costs
• mortgage arrangement costs (this has proved well worth while as having company pay up front mortgage arrangement fees enabled us to get an extremely good mortgage deal)
• estate agents costs for buying & selling
• financial help to mitigate double housing costs until our house sold

I have heard of companies which pay allowances for the above so it is up to the mover whether they actually pay for services. My company simply picked up the tab. If you didnt use a particular service then there was no cost. There was neither cost nor benefit.

Thank you so much for that. We needed to know as have never been in this situation before. We live on the South coast and DH commutes into London every day - this will mean moving us all (5 dcs), 5 hours from here to the back of beyond. I wonder how in reality we will maintain 2 houses or whatever.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh! Dh was offered an interview within a couple of hours of them getting his CV, they are already snapping his hand off so we need to be armed with the info to make the right deal so we can actually pull this off. It is a big move, a big life change and we need to get this sorted so it is beneficial for us all rather than bankrupting us! Assuming that if the company pick up the tab then non taxable but if cash allowances are paid then classed as taxable income?

We will also need another car if we go too. Shit. I should make a list....

I know plenty of people who have kept both their original property and their new property going for the duration of the move. I suppose it depends on whether you feel you are moving permanently or that you will move back. A letting agent will manage your property for you. Dont expect to make a big profit but it is manageable.

For expat moves my company recognised that people would move 'home' at some point so made it possible to retain the original home by paying the difference between any rental income and mortgage cost.

However, dont assume that the company will pay this kind of support for the double housing costs for a domestic (in country) move.

There are lots of costs when you move over and above the big ticket items. I think that there is a limit to the amount of relocation costs which can be paid in cash tax free but I dont think that it is all taxable. However the more tabs you can get picked up for you the better!

Be prepared to ask for help when you need it. This may be simple stuff like finding a local doctor. It may be more complicated.

Dont be surprised when you make the move that you and your DH will be on an emotional rollercoaster but you are on different tracks. He will be up (new job, weeee..... isnt this exciting!) you will be down (domestic settling problems) then he will be down (job is difficult/boring) you will be up (getting settled, making friends). Be prepared for this and it sounds trite but be a team.

Good luck!

It varies hugely. A big company is more likely to obviously, and the fact that they seem keen on your DH is a good start, but many companies would offer very little if anything for external candidates who choose to apply for jobs elsewhere that would involve relocation.

When an existing employee is being required to relocate, that's one thing, but in the current job market, unless there is a lack of local candidates, there's not much incentive for companies to pay hefty relocation costs.

Just trying to not get your hopes up too much that you'll have the whole move funded. You might, and it sounds as though your DH is in a reasonable strong negotiation position to get at least some help, but it's certainly not automatic.

Varies hugely - when we relocated for me, we got a £6k allowance that I could claim for moving/rent, and when we moved for DH the company paid legal costs for buying/selling and moving but nothing else.

Friends who work for an oil company got their house bought by the company and all costs paid though!

Ah this is an oil company and no, there are no local candidates for the job - 99.9% of people in this job are in London and this is v rural! I don't think for a minute that the whole thing will be funded just have never been here before and thought I would ask. Just someone to pack and unpack and drive it there would be nice I have 5 dcs, three at 4 and under and not a lot of time on my ands, that alone would be a life saver. Just wonder what people do when you have houses and all...

My friends work for the one whose name is two letters, so you might be lucky!

Basically, your dh would need to negotiate relocation as part of his package, so work out between you what you really need - maybe pack and move plus a couple of months rent would be a minimum to aim for

I would ask for a relocation allowance as well. There are an awful lot of hidden expenses which need to be covered.

Ages ago but rental for 6 months, if required, bought our house at market valuation (not great in our case as during the wrangling over the market rate, the bottom was falling out of the property market!), paid for all moving and purchasing costs of the new one, miscellaneous disturbance allowance (which can really get eaten up, cancellation charges, sign up fees, new uniforms, new stuff for house when existing stuff doesn't fit etc). They also offered a relocation agent who provided a local pack (lists of useful info, doctors, dentists, parks, etc) and should have done an orientation visit and visited the list of possible rental properties (but that didn't happen) and a schools assistance service (lists, telephone numbers addresses and offsted ratings of local schools, saved hours of Internet searching!

Ok the offer is 7k cash and pack, move and unpack. This is the initial offer, what else do I need to consider?

We had full move with pack and unpack, a disturbance allowance of £10k for all those expenses that come with getting a new property, a recce visit with 2 nights in hotel plus transport so we could see what the place was like and visit schools, legal costs of moving including our stamp duty paid for a value equivalent to the value of house we were selling.
We also had 3 months rental in a house while we were trying to sell and buy.
This was in oil and was very generous I think.

I would see if you could get a 3 month rental out of them, and up the cash a bit, and a paid for recce visit to check out schools and have a look at houses/areas.

And if you have children of say 5-6 plus take them with you, but see if you can leave little ones with family. We did this with one of each and 6 year old loved it- really into looking at the schools and houses but the 3 year old got bored, whiny and tired.

This is an oil company too and this was their opening offer, the negotiation has not started yet. They also upped the salary and car allowance (which he did not ask for anyway) and mileage too. I feel like it is a good opening offer but I know they are open to negotiation but both DH and I feel a bit weird about haggling I think we are being too British about it actually and need to be a bit more hard arsed - it all seems a bit vulgar i cannot even haggle over a price at a car boot sale ffs but money is money and it is going to cost a lot to move.

The stamp duty thing I think would be a good one for us too.... but that is a huge lump sum isn't it...and three months rent would take the pressure off. Hadn't even thought about the costs for a recce visit....

Is the disturbance alloance classed as taxable income?

I don't think any of it was taxable- or if it was, it was grossed up , if you see what I mean.
I think we got about £9k in stamp duty- I was pretty surprised at the time how generous it was.
I would certainly push for the recce visit though- they are bound to have a hotel in the area they get decent rates from and a flight/train or mileage won't break the bank for them, but it really helped us out. We managed to view places to rent, choose one and visit the local school from Thursday night to Sunday.

Just ask - its a perfectly reasonable request and one I'm sure they're very used to if they're rural. They probably have a standard package and I would be extremely surprised if they didn't pay most or all of your moving expenses given the circumstances (large company, oil and gas, etc).