Hi, Our container has arrived 10 days ago and is now in the delivery warehouse. All customs have cleared and have been told that we have to wait for quarantine clearance which will incurr a cost of $333 Is this fee for inspection and do all containers get inspected? Just desperate to have it delivered now as the original timescale when payment was made in the UK was 6-8 weeks only to find out when i was here i was told it will still be delivered within the original timescale of 10-12 weeks that one has already P****d me off!!!!

Anyone any info on this

cheers

Yes, all containers with household effects get inspected. Once AQIS do the inspection they may also charge you for fumigation or destruction of certain articles and/or for cleaning the container. But if you're lucky then the $333 is it.

Gina

Our container was inspected but we didn't pay anything at this end?

All our costs were handled at the UK end, no extra costs at this end (our container didnt need cleaning though)

It depends on who your removal company is. We're going with Crown and the AQIS inspection fee is included in their price as well. But many removal companies charge the inspection fee seperately.

Gina

But beware because even if the inspection fee is included, if AQIS decide to destroy or treat anything you will have to pay extra for that.

That's what I wrote in post #2 above: "Once AQIS do the inspection they may also charge you for fumigation or destruction of certain articles and/or for cleaning the container. "

Gina

ours was delivered the other day after 14weeks and 2days. we were told the same timescales as you originally.Apparently customs have been inundated with expats this month...

we were just glad to see our stuff. You are nearly there and it will all be yours again very very soon. x

When our stuff was delivered a few weeks back Quarantine had opened/gone through three boxes and then obviously just chucked the stuff back in. They were the only boxes where things had been damaged including a bowl that was smashed in pieces where it had been put back in without anything to protect it. Sods law it was a wedding present so of huge sentimental value, but not really worth enough to bother claiming on insurance. Some personal items were also missing. When I spoke to our (lovely, helpful) removal guys they said unfortunately that was common. Quarantine are a law unto themselves and basically don't give a sh*t. When you get the inventory you can see which boxes quarantine have opened so my advice would be to open those first and go through them with a fine tooth comb.

Martha

thanks for that. Will write a list of what in the 3 toolboxes when we go. Will lock them up as well.

They will cut off all locks to check the contents. Paul

No one should be give a 6 - 8 week timescale unless they just mean the actual travelling time. There's no way you could get it out in that time.

I was told by all of the companies I had out to give me quotes that the actual sailing time is only 3 and a half weeks, that is how they can give a timescale of 6-8 weeks. Obviously you don't know when the ship actually sails, it might not be straight after they leave your house.

Sarah

Once you've got the shippers booked to come to your house on a certain date, they can tell you when the ship will leave the UK and the due date for docking in Fremantle.

For example, before our house sale fell through, we had Crown booked in June to pack our stuff 25/26/27 July. We were told the ship would leave 3 August and was due to dock in Fremantle 6 September. We were told to then allow a minimum of two weeks for it to clear customs/quarantine inspection.

Gina

Well they must have been using bloody fast boats then Unless you had a personal door to door boat with no stops anywhere else on the way. We tracked our container, It left Tilsbury on the 21st October, went to a few ports on route to either pick up or drop off other containers and arrived at Brissie on the 26th November. They tell you what boat it's going on, in fact if memory serves, they gave us the choice of two sailings. The other one would have taken longer because it was doing a different route.

oh folks, our timescale was 14th May, pick up stuff from house. Then was held until 20th June to sail and landed in oz on 24th June, then took a month to clear customs.