Hi,

We have been in Perth since August 08. We have realised that Perth is not for us so, Myself and my three kids will be going back to Ireland in June. My husband will stay here if he cant get a job in Ireland before June. As soon as he can get a job he will come home. It's not an ideal situation but our eldest daughter who will be 16 in June has not settled at all and she is very unhappy. In hindsight it was a really bad time to move her but we thought she would have a good life here, sadly its not the case. My second daughter who is 6 is also very homesick and keeps asking when can we go home.

So, I wondered if anyone could give us info on bringing our dog and car back to Ireland. Our dog came with us from Ireland and had his vacinations in Aug/Sept and arrived in Oz in Oct 08. Does anyone know if he is still covered by his vacinations and will he have to have blood tests.

We bought a new car when we got here. We will have owned it 10 months by the time we get back. Can anyone tell me if we will have to pay vrt on it, as far as I can tell once we have owned the car for 6 months we will be exempt from this tax. I have heard conflicting info on this though, so am not too sure.

Thanks for reading my post and I hope someone can give us some info. Take care.

Dor

Hi, I am from Dublin and have been in the US for 5 years.
There was a family who moved back from Australia to Ireland just a few weeks ago. I am sure her username was baby75. Maybe now she is back and seems very happy she doesn't log on here anymore. But if you do a search on her posts you might find some useful information.
Good luck with the move. Where will you be going back to?

Susie.

Hi Susie,

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I have been reading Baby 75 ( I think her name is Niamh) posts and am really happy for her that things are going well. I don't think they have brought a dog or car back with them though, I could be wrong. We will be going back to Dublin and I have to say, recession or not I cannot wait to be home. Australia is a great place for some but not for us and it will never be home to us. It took coming here to make us realise how good our life was in Ireland. I think we were in a rut and always looking for something more instead of being grateful for what we had, so we don't regret coming here but want to go home and get on with our lives. Are you still planning on moving back? If so where will you go back to? Best of luck.

Dor

Dor,
I was just thinking, maybe if you posted on the Ireland forum, you might get some folks who have already returned?
On the car, I believe once you are 6 months outside the country and have had the car taxed and insured, you are free to import without paying VRT. That certainly used to be the case, unless it has changed in the last 5 years.
Re. the dog, sorry I cannot help there, as we have never owned a dog here or back in Ireland.
Yes, we are still expecting to travel back to Dublin (Blackrock) at the end of April. We like it here and had (have?) the option to stay, but I was so torn about my parents and kids education and everything that we decided to go back. Having said that the schools here are excellent and the boys have friends etc.
I hope someone has more info for you,
take care,
Susie.

Hi Susie,

I have read reports on how hard it is to import a car from Aus to the U.K it seems mainly due to all the paperwork involved and ofcourse the expense....we have a small dog and was vacc. just over a year ago for Rabbies, I recently phoned the vet and asked how long she was covered before she needed a new vacc I was told the vacc (here in Perth W.A) was for 3 years then she would need another vacc so she could return home....we are just waiting on selling our home before we can return...just phone AQUIS which is in the phone book are find a local vet that supplies the rabbies vacc. they are usually very helpful and will let you know what to do next..as for shipping your pet home it depends really in which state you live in....there have been plenty of threads regarding shipping dogs and who or who not to use in the past..sorry cannot remember myself..here in Perth a lovely lady (who's now back in the U.K) used Roellen Pet Transporters they were very,very good and a lot cheaper than other "bigger" names.
All the best
Jackie

Dor, maybe sell it and buy a new one here. Prices have dropped on cars. Surely the cost of shipping and VRTing it would be quite high, if u do have to VRT it of course. Also rent has dropped here from 1400 a month for 3 bed houses to around 1200. All the 'buy to let' brigade i'd imagine.

http://cars.rte.ie/usedcars/

Thanks Susie, Jackie and Londonuck for your replies. The whole VRT thing is totally confusing me. As far as I can make out from any websites I've looked at, as long as we have been living in Australia for more than 6 months and owned the car for more than 6 months we should be exempt from VRT. I've just been on the phone to the Irish removal company we are using to ship our stuff back to Ireland (their colleagues here in Oz are doing the packing this end obviously) and she tells me that even though we will have owned the car for 7 months and have been in Oz for 8 months we still have to pay VRT because we have not been outside the country for 12 months!!!!I will post in the Irish forum and hopefully someone there will be able to tell me once and for all. Take care.

Dor