suefrater

Hi guys We are emigrating to Perth at the end of this month (Jan) One way ticket booked!!! I have informed HMRC here in the U.K of our intended move and they informed me I have to fill in a P85 form. Is this necessary?? I have not worked now for about 7-8 years, I am nearly 65, I already receive my state pension of about £500 a month. I worked part time for many years since I had my daughter and so have not paid tax for many years. I have no intention of working when we get to Oz. So my question is, will I need to fill in the P85 form?? I keep reading conflicting advise on this. Or maybe it's me just not understanding all the advise!!! Would be grateful for any advise!! (that I understand!!!) Sue

Hiya. On reading all your posts regarding getting items though customs..although not really allowed!!! i:e wood, wicker etc, we have some dried flower arrangements, and other wooden items such as brooms, wooden spoons, rolling pins! large church candles etc, ( you might laugh coz non on these are exactly sentimental!!) but my question is, if we were to declare them, would they then give us the option first, so we can decide if we want to bin them or will they discard them and fine us without us having a say??

We will be in Amberton, Eglinton, which is near to the beach and not too far from Joondalup! probably about a 15 min drive! So best of both worlds...we hope!!

HI SpecialK I honestly don't want to bring doubts into your decision but just be aware when they say they will lower their quote because some time back I read a review..and it was for White and Company, so different to who you are using, but in order to make their money up they used a share container instead of the quoted sole container and didn't tell the customer!!! So just make sure that you get the service they have quoted you for!! Like you say, i'm sure there will be hiccups, after all, a company is only as good as their workers!! Wow Woodvale!! that's a coincidence! our daughter lived there for a few years!! I think her address was The Crest?? it was a few years ago now so I can't remember exactly. That's weird isn't it. I do remember it being really nice there, the only thing was you definitely needed a car as there was only a few shops in a mall within walking distance, oh! and a library but it was definitely a lovey area to live. She moved to Burns Beach which is nearer the coast as she has 3 kids and she thought they'd love it there, which they do!! except every now and then the eldest one (11yrs) says " oh do we have to go to the beach again"!!! haha. Kids eh, they don't know when they've got it good! I can understand that you don't want to commute too far! who needs the hassle! Very best of luck for your future in Oz, hope it all goes well for you and your family. Exciting times eh!!!

Hi Specialk. We also had a few shipping companies here to give us quotes. We are going with Pickfords mainly because they were the only ones we found that actually bring the container to the house and load it, where's the others load a lorry and take that to the container and transfer the contents. We feel the Pickfords way is the best because then it is only packed once, so cuts the chances of damage down to a minimum. Our friends had Anglo Pacific and although they were fairly happy with them, A.P didn't tell them about some hidden costs i:e insurance extra's, and also there was some damage to a couple of pieces of furniture. But it's down to the team you get!! whatever one you choose isn't it!! Very good luck with your move. It's all so exciting isn't it! Where are you going? We are off to Amberton, Eglinton. which is north of Perth

Hi We are finally emigrating from the U.K to Perth at the end of January!! One way flights are booked!!!! My question is : Are there any institutes we should/could be informing now, or is it too early yet? I:E council etc We have a house built in WA already, so don't need ref for house rental, we are hopefully retiring so don't need work references, we already have an Oz bank account so don't need references for credit cards. I have heard about getting proof of no claims bonus for future car insurances, is this necessary? What about getting medical/dental records? I did ring my doctors and they said they haven't heard of it before but can get me records for a price!!!!! I feel like I should be running around sorting things out but not sure if it's all too early. I have started to make a list of people I should inform of our change of address but feel like I should be putting something into action...but what???!! We have decided on a removal company, we had about 3 around to give us quotes and reviewed them all! you get so many good and bad reviews that we just stuck to the one that our gut told us!!! Any advice on anything really!!! especially things to do in preparation, will be much appreciated. Many thanks Sue

Hi Pegg I've never heard of a move cube!! so many thanks for that info, i'll look into it.

Hi there We are thinking of our future move to Oz and the insurance of our container. We have been advised by a couple of removal companies that we will need a 20ft container. Has anyone organised their own insurance? We wondered if it was preferable rather than using the removals own insurance, as we have heard it can double the price of the original quote the removal companies give you. Any experiences gratefully received. Sue

Ohhhh that is sooo unfair Plimthing I feel your pain!!

Hi John. I usually do it online these days so don't think I have an actual a/c manager?? although I have spoken to a Chris Dunn in the past. Yes please that would be good to have someone contact me to point me in the right direction. Many thanks John

Oh!! that is soooo unfair for you! Life can def be a b-tch.

Hi Steely Oh if only I did have the answer to the lottery...shame I don't do it!! I put the money I would place in a pot and then at least I have a couple of hundred of pounds a year to give to the grandkids. Thanks for the Moneycorp advice and btw I'll be your new best friend...if you don't mind a poor one!! haha

Hi there Can I direct this question to a money guru!! We have a substantial amount of money to transfer over to our a/c in Oz. We usually use Moneycorp. We know it's at about $2.05 to the £ right now. Should we wait a little while to enable the exchange rate to rise or should we transfer now? Does anyone know what the trend is although I know you can't actually predict the future! We wondered if the Oz dollar is likely to fall or not against sterling in the near future due to their business downturn at the moment. Many thanks Sue

That's brilliant Druid, thanks for all that info. I'll get back on to my settlement agent, anything back is better than nothing! We are also still building, the roof is going on as we speak!! Good luck with your move in August. Thanks again.

Thanks for the info Druid. Would you happen to know, if for any reason, i:e we aren't able to emigrate and consequently not be able to move in to our new home in time to get the FHOG, will we still be eligible to get the stamp duty rebate? or do you have to have the FHOG in order to get the stamp duty rebate? Thanks for your imput.

Hi all Not sure if anyone has come up against this issue but I thought i'd ask. We have now been issued our parent visa's and are in the process of having a new home built in Amberton, Eglinton, which is North of Perth. We are still in the U.K until my other half can get an early retirement package from his work which unfortunately doesn't seem to be in the near future!! We hoped to be eligible for the $10,000 FHO grant but apparently you have to reside in your new Oz home within 12 months of the build being completed, which is highly unlikely for us as things stand. I have been informed we can apply for an extension on the 12 month rule and I wondered if anyone had applied for this extension and know how long they will extend the time or whether it all depends on your circumstances. Also a Stamp Duty Rebate can be applied for but I think this also ties in somewhere with the FHO grant, so we could well miss out on that too. If anyone has any useful info on this it would be gratefully received!!!

Hi there Don't know if anyone can help us with this information. We are expecting to obtain our Contributory Parents visa's soon and our Son In Law is our Assurance of Support. Apparently he has to open a Commonwealth bank a/c to enable him to pay the $14,000.00 to the government and to receive the interest on that sum for the next 10 yrs, after which we obtain the money back. Our question is:- does he have to have the a/c in his name only or can our daughter (his wife) have her name on the a/c too? in other words can the a/c be in both their names? Obviously we want to be sure that the money is safe and that if something happened to our Son in Law (G-d forbid) the money could still be accessed by our daughter. Any info on this subject would be gratefully received!! Sue

Hi there. We have opened an Oz bank a/c because we are emigrating from the U.K in the not too distant future. My question is: Do we pay tax on the interest earned from the money in the Oz a/c. Here in the U.K I do not work and so I am a non-tax payer and I fill out an R85 form in order not to pay tax, so I wondered if the rules were the same there. I don't want to pay unnecessary tax on the money in the Oz a/c while we are still here in the U.K. Thanks for any info

Are you saying then Cerberus1 that even though we aren't residents yet we can still withdraw money whenever we like, either when we are just visiting Oz or if we are buying land/house? We thought maybe you had to have actually emigrated there or at least intend to emigrate within 12 months, which actually we may not have emigrated within the 12 months.

Hi all We are still in the U.K awaiting our parents visa's which should be issued to us early next year ...we hope!! Does anyone know and is 100% sure! if we can open a bank a/c in Oz and be able to make withdrawals when we visit Oz between now and when we emigrate. The reason we are asking is that we have just purchased a plot of land and we will be having a new home built, so we wanted to be able to transfer money over now, with exchange rates being good, to finance the build. Thanks for any help. Sue

Hi all Is there someone out there who can help clear this up for us. We have just purchased a plot of land, we have applied to FIRB and they say that we have 2 years to build on it. So our question is...we know this is a condition for non-residents but we will become residents early next year due to our visa's coming through, so is that 2yr condition from FIRB wavered after we become residents? Hope you can help Sue

Hi VS We are building with Collier homes but we probably won't start a build until sometime next year because my other half has to leave work yet. We are waiting for our Contributory parent visa to come through which they reckon should be early next year. Ideally we'd like the house built before we emigrate...in an ideal world!!

Hi We are at the very beginning stage of buying a block in Amberton WA, actually we've just found the one we'd like and we are soon to put a deposit down, but we've heard that you have to have an agent in order to buy it?? We are a bit confused as we had no idea that this was the case but we're not sure of the facts ie at what stage do you need him?, what does he do? etc. We are in touch with the land sales bloke and he hasn't mentioned it but we heard about it from the builder we are going to use. Any clues? Bit daunted about the water/gas etc bills during the build!! Yikes!! Thanks to any replies Sue

I don't know if it's the same rules for you but we are waiting for our visa's after applying for Contributory parents visa, and were told that we only have 1 yr to validate after having the medical/police checks, so not to have them too early. Don't know it that helps you.