PLAN YOUR MOVING CHECKLIST
Give yourself plenty of time to prepare for moving. You will be surprised how long everything takes to do.
I would recommend you plan your moving checklist as early as possible at least 18 months before you plan to immigrate to Perth if you can.
I have detailed in the links below some of the key things you need to think of. If you click on each link you will be taken to more details further down the page.
SEE A FINANCIAL ADVISOR EARLY IN THE PROCESS
IF YOU OWN YOUR OWN HOME SELL OR RENT IT
TRANSFERING YOUR PENSIONS TO AUSTRALIA
MOVING YOUR £ INTO $
OPENING AN AUSTRALIAN BANK ACCOUNT
TAKE OUT A MORTGAGE BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE UK
MAKE A WILL
LIFE INSURANCE
WHAT NOT TO PACK
WHAT TO PACK
BOOK A SHIPPING COMPANY
REMOVAL DAY IS HERE
BOOK YOUR FLIGHT
CLOSE THE BANK ACCOUNTS YOU WILL NO LONGER USE
SEE A FINANCIAL ADVISOR EARLY IN THE PROCESS that specialise in Australian Tax Law they will probably be able to save you heaps of ££££ & $$$$$.It may not be money you have in your pocket now it may be money they can save you having to part with.
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IF YOU OWN YOUR OWN HOME SELL OR RENT IT
We seriously considered renting out our flat in London before we left the UK but decided against it. In our case we felt that the market had flattened out and we would not expect to see the value of the house increase very much over the following 5 years. We wanted to have the all the money we would have made on the house now to use on our move down under.
Of course this may not be the best decision for you, all circumstances are different and you may find a lot of people advise you to keep your home in case you don’t like Perth and want to move back to the UK.
Explore your options, discuss with your Financial Advisor, preferably one with an understanding of the Australian Tax system. REMEMBER once you are a permanent Australian resident you will be subject to the Australian tax laws.
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TRANSFERING YOUR PENSIONS TO AUSTRALIA What, Why? We hear you saying!TAKE ADVISE ON YOUR UK PENSION. Australian tax laws are different to the UK. In Australia you pay tax on the capital growth of your UK pension. This could potentially cost you many $$$$
DO YOU HAVE AN ENDOWNMENT MORTGAGE ON YOUR HOME?You will be required to pay tax on the growth of the UK endownment in Australia so you may want to cancel your policy. Take advise from a specialist.
Following financial advice we asked for a review to be be completed on our Endownment to see if we had been miss-sold it. Last week we received a cheque for just over £3,000.
MOVING YOUR £ INTO $ Don’t leave transferring your £ into $ until you have the cash. Speak to the Currency Specialists and order your $ in advance. If we had forward bought our currency 8 months earlier, we could have got a more favourable exchange rate resulting in an additional $32,000 (ooouch). Watch the exchange rate and you will undertsand how it can make such a big difference. Click on the HIFX logo and you can check out the exchange rate.
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OPENING AN AUSTRALIAN BANK ACCOUNT One thing you will need if you are moving £ into $ is an Australian bank Account. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia have a London based migrant banking service. Click on the logo to oprn an account
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GET AN AUSTRALIAN MORTGAGE BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE UK
If you want to buy a house as soon as you arrive in Perth or buy one before you even get there then organise your Australian mortgage in the UK. You will find it a big help. Australian Banks won’t give you a home loan until you have been working for a minimum of three months some longer so it makes sence to sort out your finance while you are still earning in the UK. WANT to LEARN MORE
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MAKE A WILL Update your will before you move and get a new one done after you arrive and settle in Australia. If you die without a will in Australia your estate will be distributed different than in the UK. Some of your estate will go to the government.
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LIFE INSURANCE Make sure you have insurance cover for medical and personal effects that will cover you while you are moving to Australia and covers you until you have your Australian insurance in place.
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WHAT NOT TO PACK Leave your large white goods behind, fridge, freezer, washing machine, tumble dryer, microwave etc these are all very large and bulky and when you look at the cost of shipping them against the cost of buying new they are just not worth shipping. UK Fridges and freezers would not work as effectively in Australia. The weather is much hotter in Australia, so fridges and freezers are built with larger motors so that they can withstand the heat. Beds and Sofa’s are large and bulky and will cost a lot to ship. Unless large furniture is of good quality you may want to consider leaving them behind.
WHAT TO PACK Take a portable TV with you, if you have one, you will still be able to play videos and DVD’s through it. DVD’s and video players also work and videos and DVD’s work when played through Australian televisions. It’s just the sound from channel TV you can’t recieve. Take anything which is nearly new, small and will be used. Items such as step ladders, ironing board, iron, toaster, kettle, table lamps, computer, and extension lead etc…. Australia uses the same voltage as the UK so all you need to do is change the plugs. We have a lot of English plugs still in use in our home all we did was put an Australian plug on the extension lead then plug the English stuff into the extension lead.
MAKE A CHECKLIST of what is staying and one of what you don’t want to take with you. Anything you don’t want you can giveaway or throwaway. If you can make some £££ on the things you don’t want then why not?? It will all go towards giving you a better start when you get to Perth. Give yourself plenty of time for those items you want to sell or you may find you have run out of time and will just dump them anyway.
Click here for some ideas on how to sell your unwanted items.
BOOK A SHIPPING COMPANY Be careful when you select your removal Company you want to be sure your belonging arrive when you want them to. We used John Mason to ship our things over and we found them an excellent service.
A tip I learnt recently that you can pay to have a container delivered direct to your home, it is packed by the removal Company just the same. The difference is when the container is collected it will go directly to the port to be shipped. I haven’t any contact details for companies that provide this service so it will be a case of looking in the yellow pages and ringing around.
REMOVAL DAY IS HERE when the shippers arrive. They are usually a team of two or more and they work very quickly. (They packed our 2 bed roomed flat in a day). You will not have time to sort, organise, or decide if you want to ship an item or not once the team has arrived. Be organised and clear out any items you don’t want to keep ot to be packed beforehand(you don’t want them accidentally packed. Be warned they will pack everything unless you are very clear in telling them what not to pack. Clear all garbage and rubbish from the house. You will not be able to do this once the movers arrive. And yes, trash has been packed and shipped or stored!
TIP Place items that will accompany you on the plane (suitcases, bags, passports, keys, medications and any important documents) at a neighbor’s or friend’s house; or at least well out of the way of the shippers! Oh and consider leaving highly valuable items and irreplaceable items with friends or family. Moving insurance will only cover replacement cost, not sentimental value. Further, they cannot guarantee 100% safety of the items. An inventory of items and estimate of the replacement value in Australia must be prepared for customs officials in Australia.
Although the movers will make a list as they box items, their list will be extremely vague and not include an estimated value. Make your checklist BEFORE the movers arrive. The shippers will tell you of any items not allowed, i.e., guns, ammunition, fuel tanks, matches, and so forth.
ALLOW A MINIMUM OF 12 WEEKS SHIPPING TIME for your possessions to arrive in Australia once they have been packed away. If there are some possessions & documents you just can’t do without. You may want to airfreight them but it is expensive so you want to limit your air freight requirements. In fact send everything by sea freight if you can, or take them as baggage when you get your one way flight to Perth.back to the top
BOOK YOUR FLIGHT The time of year you want to fly will determine the cost and the amount of time you need to allow before you book your ticket. You can book your flight online or with a local travel agent. Be sure to check with your airline what the baggage allowance is. Some carriers allow you to take additional baggage allowance if you are emigrating but PLEASE CHECK. We thought we could but when we went to book our flight found we were wrong. It would have cost us an additional £800 to take our extra suitcase (lucky for us our belongings had only been packed the day before so we added it to the sea freight. Also check if any additional baggage allowance is covered on a stop over.
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CLOSE THE BANK ACCOUNTS YOU WILL NO LONGER USE Remember to leave at least one current account open, preferably one that provides interenet banking. Even though you are moving to another part of the world you will you still have the need to keep some £££.
OPEN AN INTERNET BANK ACCOUNT IF YOU DONT OWN ONE ALREADY I have an account with First Direct who offer an excellent internet banking service. I can see what’s happening with my account and transfer money to pay bills such as my credit card from the other side of the world.
CANCEL CREDIT AND STORE CARDS NO LONGER WANTED. Make a checklist of all the credit and store cards you have. If you are anything like me you will have a little collection. Before moving clear all outstanding debts and cancel the cards you no longer need marking them off as cancelled on your moving checklist as you go.
DO KEEP one of your UK credit cards as you will need it on your arrival in Australia, it makes booking & paying for accommodation, rental cars etc much easier when you first arrive in Perth. We have found our English credit card useful for birthdays and Christmas back in the UK. We can order from UK based companies and have presents delivered direct without getting stung by the exchange rate. Leave some money in a UK bank account then pay the balance off the card each month in full. If you leave enough behind it will always be a useful fund if you make trips back to the UK.
CLAIM ANY TAX WHICH MAY BE DUE FROM THE INLAND REVENUE When you finish working and befor you move you need to inform your tax office that you are leaving the UK and moving to Australia permanently. You will need to complete form P85 and leaflet IR138
PRESCRIPTIONS Check they are up to date (and sufficient supply to last at least your first month after moving to Australia) for any prescription medicines or treatments. Also, get a copy of all of your medical and dental records and bring that with you to Australia.
IMPORTING PETS Moving a Pet to Australia is a long way to take them and although it is possible I would seriously consider finding your Pet a new home with a friend or neighbor. Taking them with you would be very distressing for them. The Australian Quarantine & Inspection Service have put together an information sheet.
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