loopylorns

Ok so heres the deal,

we moved to the US approx 4 months ago, flights, shipping, etc paid for my hubbys company (H1-B visa).

when we got here we rented a car and ordered 2 from a leasing company, mine arrived 8 weeks later and hubbys is now ready to collect (took a long time).

any way hubby has now submitted exspenses for rental car which for thr 4 months totals $10,000 (people carrier) and company have more or less said they not refunding us and that if in UK we would need a car, true of course except that in Uk we own a car and have done for a long time so No we would not be paying out on one!

Thing is as weve spent this money out we are relying on getting it back and to be 100% honest if we dont get it we cant pay the rent and so well have to leave the US.

What can we do about this situation and if we are forced to return to the UK under these circumstances do the company have to pay repatriation costs?

any help would be gladly accepted.

ScousePete

Does he have a contract of employment? If he does, does it say anything about paying for a rental car?

If there is no contract of employment, was anything ever discussed about you being reimbursed for renting a car?

You know you should never assume....

UKgirl

What was the agreement between your hubby and his company? Did they in writing specify that they would pay for the cars?
I would imagine if they didn't then you are f---ked. If they did and are refusing to pay, then I would suggest a lawyer. You shouldn't have any trouble finding one of those here in the good old U S of A.

Good luck.

AdobePinon

AFAIK, only if gets fired or laid off.

Bob

If it's not in the contract that they would re-imburse you, your screwed...but play their bluff, they just spent a ton of money on lawyer and visa's fee's to get you here, and they'll probably not want to have to dick around with now having to hire a new person if you up sticks and told them to sod off...

Bob

Don't forget that quite a lot of places will have it in the contract that if you do bugger off on your own accord in x perdiod of time, your liable to pay back lawyer fee's etc.

It's a double edged sword playing their bluff.

But most places wouldn't stump for a car anyway, certainly not more than for a few weeks tops, so you should certainly if you don't want to play their bluff, discuss getting part of the rental paid, as they won't be stumping for it all.

fatbrit

1/ Ask company about loan/salary advance.
2/ Negotiate with the landlord.
3/ Borrow the money -- bung it on a credit card -- UK if you must.

Not the end of the world if he's on an H1b salary. Think you've got a lean couple of months ahead.

ironporer

I find it odd that anyone would rent a car for so long without a written approval to do so from the company, and that a car to lease would take
8+ weeks...when you could have leased from a hundred dealers and had the car the same day.

Rete

My thoughts exactly. Perhaps when you have the golden goose by the tail you might think it is easier to grab its bullocks for squeezing.

dakota44

I'm still trying to figure out how you put yourself in the position of waiting 8 weeks for car, and for what appears to be 4 months for his????? Did youhave them hand made???.....you could have driven away with a vehicle in a day. So...if for some reason you chose not to avail yourself of almost immediate delivery of a vehicle..and instead rent one for what amounts to the price of a good used car, I'd say that was a bad decision and hard to imagine an employer biting the bullet for it.

spuggy

I agree with the others. What made you think they would pay for car rental? Did they say they would or was there a contract that specified they would? Did they say they would cover car rental until you found a leased car? I also have to agree about the length of time it took to lease a car. There is no reason why it should have taken that long.

dakota is right, you could have bought a nice little used car for less than $10,000.

dakota44

and then re-sold it to get most of your money back. Baddddddddddd decision.

loopylorns

Basically yes they told us to rent a car and they would cover the costs.

The cars weve leased are through a relocation dealer and had to be made so this is why the wait time was so long, my car was quicker as I had a cancelled order vehicle.

As for buying a vehicle, we could not take driving tests without a social security card, (took 10 weeks to arrive) and you are unable to have insurance without the social security number being obtain within 30 days of taking it out.

Prior to out move we were told that all associated costs of the move would be covered this is clearly now being welched on, the company have known we rented from the airport on arrival and in December told us to submit the final bill to exspenses whenwe returned the car, as for buying a car iof the forecourt as some of you have stated, its very hard to do this without: insurance, credit or a lump sum of cash to do so.

UKgirl

Basically yes they told us to rent a car and they would cover the costs.


Do you have this in writing? If you do, then you should do as I suggested above and hire a lawyer, if you don't then I don't know what to tell you. You could probably try calling a lawyer as their consultation is usually free at least to see if you could be re-imbursed.
If they are refusing to pay, I don't see you have any other choice.

loopylorns

Without a social security number, USA license, insurance, credit or lump sum of cash to do so who would lease us a car?