simon-nall

Hi all

After 2yrs and an up hill all the way we sold the house we are soon off to join you all in New Zealand. Now we are cleaning like mad before the container comes to ship all our worldly good.
After 40 yrs we are going to be homeless for a few mouth strange felling, and never done suitcase living before.
I have one question dose any one work for M.A.F who can list a few pointers how to with out door stuff like hand tools. Such as brick trolls, and garden tools and Fishing stuff. As this would be helpful to and one coming in to NZ.
At the moment I am cleaning with jays fluid and I smell like a public toilet not a good after-shave.

So if any one can help or list there experiences with M.A.F this would be helpful.

sparkie down under

Doesn't matter how much Jays you chuck on MAF will sting you. And they have the best excuse ever. "don't want your bugs in our country".

We had our stuff steam cleaned, washed and certificated and still we ended up with a 2K bill for cleaning!!!!!

Best thing I can tell you is to be there in person, with a camera, when they open the container and ask, politely, why they reject stuff and take photos and tell them that you'll be making a formal complaint. I heard of someone who did this and MAF didn't back off but they certainly stopped being pricks.

Best of luck

CarolineSwan

we just got our container on thur , we havnt been asked for any cash at all so im hoping everything was ok!!! half our furniture ruined though which was a bummer but hey thats what insuerence is for aye?

teebrown

We cleaned everything with jeys - bikes, tools, shoes, lawnmower etc -we have just had are stuff delivered from MAF, they only pulled 4 things from the container, bottom half of trampoline, Horse riding boots, lawnmower & clothes line, they charged $390 for fumigating or steaming it. They didn't pull the fishing gear or tools or even the tents, so we were happy with all that, they did open a few boxes and had a look, you know they have done this because of their security tape on the box.

Everything went well and all our stuff is now with us, when you do the paperwork for the customs declaration you actually put down on the form which box certain items are in so they can can.

Good luck, it all went easy this end.

sparkie down under

See this is my point:curse: How can a clothes line be more likely to harbour bugs than a tent, which will have been used outdoors, with all sorts of insects etc being in contact with it

No-one is saying MAF don't have a job to do, but sometimes how they go about that job just bewilders me

pixi-dust

I think it must be the luck of the draw as we had no extra MAF charges as they were all taken care of by Crown.
The MAF man arrived to check the boxes that we'd been asked to put aside.
He was lovely and friendly.
We had some stuff that was dirty - like when he shook out our tent a whole load of stuff flew out! We had a garden spade that had been packed by accident so was covered in mud. I had just washed the bikes with flash wipes!

He said it was all fine. Seeds were the biggest worry.

Caroline, sorry to hear about your furniture

Soppydot4

I think we were definitely done over not by MAF but by the shipping company here in NZ. We were charged the usual MAF charge for checking stuff around $200 but were charged $500 for handling and storing by the shipping company because they had to unload the container at their warehouse for MAF to check and then reload the van and unload at the house.:curse::curse:

BEVS

MAF Bio security - Containers and Cargo

Fees and Levies

If there is no inspection ,then there is no charge. There is a small levy however. Non-complying container inspections are charged by the hour .

What on earth did you have in your container to warrant those charges?

MAF look at the declarations and decide what they will or will not inspect. It could be your working boots and tools. It could be camp gear etc or it could be nothing. Our container wasn't even inspected even though we had boots, tools, garden stuff , wood artefacts.

If they find something they are not happy with , then they give you the choice to fumigate or destroy.
In these cases there are hourly rates and the cost of fumigation etc.

MAF will have invoiced your shipping agent with these details. Ask to see a copy of that invoice. :curse:

It's well known that The Moving Co. and NZ Van Lines will always try to scam an extra service fee on top of the money you have already paid your UK shipper. It's all rubbish of course because only you can fill out &sign the MAF declaration forms and you are perfectly entitled to be present if MAF decide to inspect your container. Be that at your home, accommodation or at the port of entry.

Wooly_Cow

Once again, whilst I cannot say why some shipments have attracted such high MAF charges, I can only repeat that I did not find the process bad at all.

During the delivery, the shipping guys put aside about 7 items that MAFF wanted to look at. They came later that day and had a quick look at the Chimnea (“You can’t use that here sir…it’s a no fire zone”….bummer), the BBQ (“You can’t use that here sir…..it’s far too small the Kiwi’s will laugh you out of town” – who said they don’t have a sense of humour), the bikes (“Wow they look like new…you really didn’t need to clean them that well”), the boxes of soccer boots (15 pairs – “Planning on starting your own team”) and two boxes that my muppet movers labelled as ‘miscellaneous’ which contained a sleeping bag, and a kids rocking chair.

The total bill was $270 – but this included a mark up by the shipping company – next time I will ask to pay the MAFF direct.

…and I declared and didn’t pay for wine and whisky.

My tip: be open and honest and nice and things can go very smoothly

pixi-dust

Absolutely agree. When the stuff flew out of our tent and we saw the spade I was horrified - the MAF man just laughed at the look on my face.
We offered him the spade and he had another laugh!
Then we all had a beer

BEVS

I also agree.
We declared all sorts of items and our container wasn't even inspected .

Moving Company tried to charge us $275. After checking with MAF and Customs direct we were finally issued with a refund . There had been no charge as nothing had happened. No inspection took place.

sparkie down under

Hum
- we declared everything as well, 16 pages of it and we certainly were picked out at random????? and done over.

Luck of the draw eh.

Rustie

I argued with my shipping company over their insistence of a $350 MAF bill when the MAF man had given me a copy of his charges of $125, the shipping company backed down because they hadn't worded their invoice well enough to get me to pay for 'Administration', etc. which is the usual rubbish they add on!

I had my container unloaded at my house and several boxes that were vague in description (miscellaneous!) and bikes were left in the carport for MAF inspection, that i could've easily removed stuff from!! Unfortunately my packers were in such a rush they packed a black bin liner of rubbish plus shoved a box of seeds, labelled 'SEEDS', in there as well! I couldn't get over that one and the MAF man offered to check all of them for me (for a fee!) or incinerate, i went for the incinerate option!!

I would definately recommend instructing your removals company that you will pay MAF direct, as it's much cheaper!

I also agree with being open and honest with MAF and try and ensure everything is mud/seed/fungus free and clean and it shouldn't be a problem. Don't forget the idea isn't to just 'pass' but ensure you don't bring anything into the country that could put the eco-environment at risk