WelshDragonsWales

Hi

Just wondered if any of you would be willing to give a rough guide to your total relocation costs...

Ie if you paid for removals from uk to canada a rough estimate

also if you purchased everything you needed when you got there what rough cost was to refurbish yr home etc and just average family car etc...

I guess i am really asking what the average total relocation costs are. I know it will be different for everbody ( prob quite substantial in some cases ) but just wanted a rough guide.

many thanks

Mrs WDW

Paul Wildy

I worked out once that the whole excercise of moving from the UK to Canada cost about $100k. I posted it on this forum ages ago but everyone told me off and said it was ridiculous. But I really do think thats what it cost. It included immigration fees (which were more than usual as we had additional PNP application fees to pay - about $5k I think); the cost of shipping our stuff in a 40 ft container; flights, hire car and hotels for both the actual move and also a couple of visits we had to do for job interviews and immigration interview; estate agent fees and legal fees to sell out house in the UK; fees and deed transfer tax for the house we bought here in Canada; the cost of paying our mortagage in the UK for several months because the house didnt sell before we moved. We also had a couple of unforeseen expenses like customs charges.

Note that this didnt include actually buying new cars or a house here or any new furniture.

So, $100k. I can provide a detailed breakdown if you are interested.

Judy in Calgary

Glad to know I'm not the only one whose opinions about costs are discounted.

Paul Wildy

I think its easy to kid yourself about the cost. Nobody wants to accept that they spent that amount of money! You end up saying things like "but our reccie trip was also our holiday so we shouldnt include that cost" and "but we would have had to pay estate agent fees if we moved house in the UK so that isnt really part of the expense of moving to Canada" etc. etc. But if you actually add up ALL of the expenses it really does come to a lot of money.

But IMHO it was worth it

WelshDragonsWales

WOW... that is a lot - but i guess when you stop and add everything up that is a realistic price.

Don't worry about breaking it all down for us - we just really wanted a rough guide and by asking on here and hopefully getting a few more replies like yours we can work out figue that should be somewhere near handy.

Hope you think it was all worth it.

Many thanks for taking the time to reply.

Dawn

WelshDragonsWales

But IMHO it was worth it [/QUOTE]

I missed that bit first time round - glad you think it was worth it.

Paul Wildy

Well there are things you cant really put a monetary value on. Like our kids are now really happy at school and werent in the UK etc.

I think there are some expenses we suffered that a lot of people could probably avoid. E.g. we paid a few $k in "deed transfer tax" on buying a house here in NS but I understand not all provinces even have that. The customs fees were bad luck. Our house in the UK not selling before we left cost us plenty! And a few months after we landed the NS govt anounced their decision to abandon the $5k fees we had paid for the PNP skilled worker stream!!! And unlike the cut in the federal landing fees it wasnt retrospective so we couldnt get it back. I think if we were lucky we might have got away with spending 20-30% less than we did.

Posidrive

It's difficult to come up with a total cost that reflects purely the "moving to Canada" aspect, but as you will see from the following costs it soon adds up.

Removals (We shipped everything) $20k
Shipping Dogs $5k
Plane Tickets $2k
Duplicate accomodation for 6 months $12k
Net cost of replacement (2nd hand) cars $38k
Replacment TVs, stereos, etc $6k

This excludes immmigration fees becauise we came on WPs, but quickly added up to over $80k. I didn't even factor in estate agent costs because these would have been the same had we moved in the UK or the fact that we had to sell our house for far less than the original valuation because we didn't want the familiy to be separated for any longer than the 6 months that we were. The car replacement cost seems expensive, but in general 2nd hand cars of reasonable quality appear far more expensive in Canada and although we could have bought cheaper we didn't want to risk an unreliable car in the Calgary Winter

Almost Canadian

20ft container - $8,000 ish
Flights - $2500 ish
Two dogs - $2,500 ish I think (but I could be thinking sterling here)
Two vehicles - $36,000 ish 3 year old minivan and 3 year old sedan
New electricals - $4,500 ish

We moved into our house the day we landed so didn't have to pay rent etc and most of our other expenditures have been similar to what one would expect to have to pay regardless of where one lives, replacements, something fancier etc.

I would say that the above summarizes the "additional" cost of relocating as opposed to "upgrading"

HTH

WelshDragonsWales

Thanks for the replies - they are very helpfull.

Cheers

Dawn

fuschiagirl

What were the customs fees for? Was your container chose for a random search

Thanks

gryphea

Like the others- it all soon mounts up. We are getting a relocation allowance but it is not enough (especially as its fully taxable!!).

Unexpectedly high costs creep in everywhere, everywhere. Things like having to get replacement child car seats. Selling our cars and buying two more in canada is a big hit. Hire car for first two weeks etc. Downtime whilst not earning is only about 10 days but is still a big hit. etc etc.

Gryphea

Piff Poff

2.5 years on you forget what you spend.

Our part container was about 2K (pounds)
Flights around 1,500 (pounds)
New furniture/kitchen equipment, I should think 10k (dollars) over time - we got stuff bit by bit and as we saw it and liked it.
1st car 2.5k (dollars) second car about the same, then another one that could be used in the winter 1,500K - slowley worked our way up to newer better cars.

I suppose some of it depends on what you think is necessary to start with and what you are prepared to wait for. We still haven't furnished our basement properly - just a corner suite and a telly down there, we only had one telly in the house for about a year.

Rob4BC

Well, we've been here a month now so I guess not all costs are in, but the actual moving costs are as follows.

£4000 - 20 Foot container of household goods and car.
£1700 - Flights - Recce and move
£807 - 2 x Cats relocation through Airpets
£400 - Caterry for a month (we staying with alergic cousin)
£600 - Carhire while waiting for ours
£1000 - Work Permits and lawyers fees (paid by OH employer)
£1000 - replacing electricals (we gave such good stuff away)
£200 - Winter tires (especially for Iaink)

After all is said and done, I feel it's worth it as we are loving it here.
Early days I know, but it feels so right.

Rob.

ann m

I run all our household accounts on Microsoft Money - so I have just had a quick scan through what we have spent - and it all rather terrifying !!

Immigration Costs - £8,000 - this includes all fees, medicals, flights, car hires, bank fees (for drafts), equifax fees, 'proper' photograph fees and our leaving party !

Removal Costs - £4100 - 20 ft container

No estate agent fees as we sold privately

New cars x 2 - £14,000

New household furniture and electricals - [switching to dollars now] $21,000 - and that includes everything, from new washer and dryer, new lawn mower, huge new bed, two sofas, two new kids rooms, right down to a new hairdryer, and a rug I didn't need and some fab new ridiculously expensive bedding !! However, the basement is still empty and we still want (but don't need at the moment) some other furniture.

Other incidental costs are: $388 at Petland on an aquarium and fish and all the other unknown costs .... well, it's still cheaper than the dog I don't want

$2,200 on a new mountain bike - just because (he says)

$2,300 on new ski equipment for all of us - also not exactly essential - but hey, if you come here, you have to really, don't you? That all part of the set-up costs too!!

So just that lot - that I have quickly located (and am happy to cough to) comes to just under £80,000

Like I said -