Mallory

Did you say why Scouse didn't settle down - I didn't see that part? Is it the weather? Congrats on the house sale. Oz is like US, once you have signed the contract it's yours, or you give up the earnest money.

spouse of scouse

Sounds like there's quite a bit of protection against buyers who go west, which is good. I'll go and have a sticky beak at those threads, I like being a sticky beak

spouse of scouse

Thanks Caroline, they actually are airbnb prices! To be fair though, most of the more reasonably priced accommodation has already been booked for the summer, leaving overpriced ones that are owned by businesses rather than an individual. I did find something evenually, a nice little house that will comfortably fit scouse, me, and my two sisters who are coming to visit

spouse of scouse

Ta VS - we ended up getting a nice house in Hunts Cross. Needed to be handy to Liverpool city via public transport, as one of the sisters who's coming over hasn't been before so will want to do the tourist thing.
Once again, I will be smiling benignly at a sister who's singing Ferry 'cross the Mersey, very loudly and probably off-key

Funny you should mention St Helens, I had an idea that it didn't have the best rep but mentioned it to scouse anyway - let's just say he wasn't too keen

spouse of scouse

Thanks Mallory. No one reason really, the winters were part of it though.

spouse of scouse

Five appointments over the next week with removal companies - they call the people who come out, look at your stuff and give you a quote 'surveyors'.

Also over the next week is a home survey commissioned by the buyers, and a home valuation by the buyers' mortgage provider.

And then Scouse and I are off to Porto for a week of R&R

alfista1

We're in the same boat.

Just extended my wife's visa but she can't stand another moment. Also my 8 year old is not happy and missing his childhood years with his family in Uruguay. His cousins are like his siblings. They'll spend almost every day together in Uruguay along with his aunties and uncles.
Here his British cousins come to visit once a year. He even forgets their names!! No connection at all.
My son gets on skype every week with his family in Uruguay. Deep feelings there. (family, weather and culture all too different)

Tough choice and we're hoping to be gone by November.
Now got to plan to move (with a dog).

Let me know how you get on with removal companies. We're not sure if to rent a 20ft container, or sell a lot of things and take the remaining things in many suitcases paying the airline for extras.

good luck

spouse of scouse

Sorry it hasn't worked out for you and your family. There's just no way of knowing until you actually do it, is there? I hope you're ok with the move personally, I know how hard you worked to get here.

We've booked our removal company (local one) and will have sole use of a 20' container. Totally different to when we came over, then it was about 20 removal boxes of personal stuff, household linen etc. But since we thought we'd be in the UK for the long term, when we got here we bought really nice furniture that would last so I'm buggered if I'm leaving all that behind! It would cost a fortune to replace it all, and with all this running around the world our finances have been somewhat depleted!

As long as you and your family are together and happy, anything else is just 'stuff'. Let me know how you're getting on, best of luck and thanks for your good wishes

alfista1

Thanks for the best wishes. Yes we had so many months of thinking about this and revisiting family in Uruguay.
Realising these childhood years for our son are more important than we had ever imagined. Being part of a big close caring family brought us to this decision.
If he was older then the case would most likely be different.

We can always go through the process again in the future. At the end of the day its only money and paperwork.
Time lost with your family can never be recovered.

Also I would say 8/10 days for my wife are bad. She needs that latin culture back with the late evenings, sun, warm days and lively culture. dull rainy days in England have just worn her down to nothing. The dinner at 6.30pm kids in bed by 7.30. everything has to be arranged in advance etc. Not saying its a bad thing but she has tried and just hates it.

Would you mind providing some more information about the 20ft container/company you are using? Do they do the packing for you as I imagine it needs to be packed a special way to go in container with all customs lists of items? Do they provide all the insurance etc?

spouse of scouse

You've both done the right thing - you've given it a good go, it hasn't worked out, you've discussed it and come to a decision. Onwards and upwards now.

Re the removal. The first thing we did was organise three companies to come and give us quotes. Actually, I went to one of the website that allows you to call for quotes, and ended up being inundated with phone calls! I discounted the ones who quoted based solely on the little information I provided, and went with the ones who offered to come to the house. They call the home visits surveys, and they go from room to room and see what you want shipped. They calculate the size of the container needed based on the volume of the goods.

You can choose whether to do the packing yourself, or for the company to do it. We chose to let them do it all as we're not spring chickens. In their 'terms and conditions', most of the companies who quoted place limits on their liability for owner packed goods, as opposed to their crews doing it. They'll create a list for customs as they're packing.

The removal company included insurance against damage and loss for our stuff in their written quote. This insurance covers them packing/removing the goods from our home and transporting them. I'm having our stuff stored for a while in their storage facility, insurance for that is extra (about £30 per week).

Insurance for your container while being shipped is another extra, it's called Marine Insurance and most companies seem to have their preferred insurers (a business relationship, no doubt!). From my research it appears that the marine insurance I chose it pretty typical - 3 levels of cover to choose from - total loss of goods only (think container overboard) at a premium of 3% of your declared value of the goods, full cover but with an excess to pay and a few exclusions, premium 4% of the value of your goods, or full cover, no exclusions, no excess for 6% of the value.

Customs clearance is included in the quote, but if customs decided to open the container and levy any fees/fines as a result, Customs will bill you direct for that and you need to pay.

The quote included transportation of the goods from the port to my home in Oz, everything placed in the designated rooms and all packing materials removed.

Read the fine print of your contract with the removal company. I picked up a few things that they were happy to fix - eg the bloke who did our survey told us that they'd dismantle the furniture, but the contract's fine print said no furniture would be dismantled unless by written agreement.

I can't recommend the removal company I'm using until the move is completed - they might turn out to be a lemon!

Happy to answer any other questions if I can.

alfista1

Many thanks for the detailed write up! I know my wife as a returning citizen is allowed to bring some things in without import duties so we need to check all of that.
Once we have our house ogranised a bit more I'll contact some companies for quotes (renting with some furnitire included). A lot of things are my sons toys etc which we really want to keep to make him feel more secure.
I grew up in Meols and West Kirby as a child. Miss the promenade and ocean a lot!

BuckinghamshireBoy

S O S, purely as a matter of interest, what kind of time frame are they estimating for door to door, Liverpool to Perth?

spouse of scouse

Door to door in our case will be at least 6 months, but that's a long story Port to port Liverpool to Freo is estimated at around 40 days. If you have sole use of a container there's not much of a wait for a ship, if it's shared it generally takes a bit longer.

spouse of scouse

Meols is so close, I could almost walk there! On a good day. With a back-up support vehicle.

I don't think the Customs rules are any different for me as a returning Australian - you can take all your used household goods without tariff, with the exception of prohibited items. Biosecurity is very strict in Oz, so Customs will search any container they're suspicious of and a percentage of those they're not.

Put it this way, if my shipping manifesto said there were a couple of house plants, a dozen eggs and a squirrel (dead or alive) in the container, I'd be in big trouble!

scrubbedexpat094

Yeah, they'd want to know why you were shipping an 80's pop group into the country