Pointer

How stricted are MAF when they inspect your container on arrival?

selondon

Don't mess with MAF. You may be lucky and slip things through, but if they find anything dodgy they will go right through your container and you will get a large bill for the pleasure, and that's a no win situation as if you refuse to pay, they keep your stuff and charge you for that

concretepump

we had MAF come to the house we were renting , had about 25 boxs for garden, had to wait for them to come so they could open boxs they found some leaves and an old snail took it away and destroyed it packers never cleaned pots before packing he was there an hour,

i had steamed cleaned everything but we wait for a month before they came and the wind must have blown some into the pots

nik

Glad you asked this - do we need to make sure all garden equipment and bikes / camping gear are pristine or by the fact we will have this stuff in our container mean that it will automatically be inspected?

concretepump

hi yes you need every thing clean, they will look at your itinerary, and will check garden stuff bikes pots wood ect

you need to pressure wash bikes pots ect and clean with jeys fluid, any bit of dirt ect is a no no

simonsi

They will decide which of your packages they want to inspect from the loading/packers manifest list. They also charge by the package so for instance try and have just one BIG box of shoes etc rather than 5 small ones as the MAF charge will be much lower.

UKNZAUS

It does also depend on your inspector too. Mine only went through a few boxes but didn't check the box of shoes! He pulled the handlebars of my son's bike out of the box, I told him it was brand new, and he ticked it off. He glanced into the box with the Christmas tree in and ticked that one off, and went on his way! He was there probably around 20 minutes after looking through 5 boxes and having a little chat about why we'd moved to New Zealand.

That was 4 years ago though, things may have changed since

Wessa

When do MAF do the checking off? Is it at the docks or when the container arrives or at your place of residence?
Oh, and ive already disinfected the bike tyres etc !..
Thanks.

Gary

UKNZAUS

MAF are sent a copy of your inventory from Customs. It is customs who decide which boxes will be checked and MAF just do the checks. I had to go down to Customs in Auckland to have my stuff released as they lost my copy of my visa. I sorted it all then and they told me which of my boxes would be inspected. If you have a shared container, it is done at the docks or wherever the container is. If it's a whole container, it is done at your home. They did charge us mileage for travelling up to us as well as for checking the boxes

Wessa

We plan to have just a 20ft container, doubt if that will be shared, i dont know yet.. Im due to get a shipping company round soon to explain it all.

Thanks M&C.

simonsi

It can get convoluted. We shipped a sailing dinghy in our 40ft (amongst other things), it is 20yrs old and has never been either registered anywhere or sailed in NZ so it was an unknown type to anyone in the boat business in NZ.

Customs wanted a valuation to assess it for GST, then to included it in the signed doc which makes you liable for GST if you sell within 2yrs, then dropped everything when the valuation came in such that the GST would be sub $50 so not collectable!

MAF just wanted it vacuumed

rushmere

In our case, none of those options! Our two 40 ft containers were both taken to the shipping company's depot about 15km away from the port (and in the opposite direction to where we needed it all delivered!), and they were checked there. However, we had cars as well as household goods, so that may have made a difference.

nik

Thanks for all the good advice - I'd better get cleaning then! Hubby just announced he wants to take his lawnmover-god alone knows how to get that clean!

Sorry to hijack and ask another question, but what about foodstuffs and alcohol - I'm talking Marmite, and maybe some chocolate / biscuits (no meat or honey) and wine /spirits from our drinks cupboard that I don't really want to give away - can they come on the trip too? Or do I need a "drink it before we go" party?

selondon

Alcohol duty here is rediculous. It costs more than the actual alcohol. Have heard of people sneaking some through but it's risky. You can buy Marmite here. Wouldn't bother carting it across the world

louloumama

Hey there - I can let you know all the ins and outs hopefully this time next week........ thats when the container is scheduled to dock ......... fan bloomin tastic . Kids can't wait to be reunited with the
PS 3 !!!!!!!!!

Am really hoping MAF are going to come out to us as we have been told we are just on the border of where they travel to ....It seems like a smoother process if they come to your address to inspect.

Ooooo (and somewhere among 150 boxes is a humungus jar of Marmite (only problem is I can't remember which one it got tucked into )