Phil & Vikki

Lol good luck with that one. In saying that though we are going to try and keep shipping bits back to a minimum. When we came over we brought everything. Some boxes are still in the garage after 6 years. We will have a big sort out before we go so we don't make that mistake again.

Last year we took our eldest back to start high school with the rest of the kids in the new term. This was in the hope that he would better fit in and to make the move back a bit smoother for us all. Looking back on it now it was the right decision and he has made great progress. He has made friends is doing really well in all of his classes. He has already moved up a set in English and moved up to top set in Maths. We were wondering if he would need to go back a year, but from what we have seen, he has been fine. From your description, your kids seem a little older than our son, but hopefully the move will go as smooth for them, as it did for our son. We know the area that we wanted to move back to and our son ended up going to our old school. We secured him a place via communication with the local council and the school directly. We told them our position (his parents still in Australia) and they were all OK. His form tutor lets know if there is anything that we should hear and we also get his reports via email too. On the whole it is a good arrangement until we get back. From what we have heard kids need to be in the UK for 4 years to get free fees, if not they are classed as foreign students and will have to pay the fees as such. One thing that we have sound fantastic is to get our son into scouts. This gives him something that not only does he enjoy doing, but he gets to meet people with the same interests. He goes away camping and hiking, helping to fill his time and get out and about. He is doing far more in the UK, so much more than he could of hoped to here, simply due to our own position.

I must admit for that kind of money I do not blame you. Sell it here and then take the cash back. You will be able to get something decent in the UK for that kind of money and you will not have the issue of the duty, tax, insurance and all of that fun. Like said before, we would only consider it for a classic, one that had no rust and is worth the effort. Take it from the link that price was just for shipping the car on its own. Have you thought about adding it in the container of personal effects that you are going to ship back with you?

We are in the same in the same position, however our car is not a new as yours and we brought it over with us when we came. It will be coming back with us though as it is a classic we have been working on for a long time now. When we came over it was in the container with all our stuff, which took about three months to get here. That is the kind of time frame that we are working on for getting her back to the UK. Our car is an early 80’s model so hopefully there will not be the tax issues that new cars may face and also ours was first registered in the UK, so she is on the system. You need to check that there tax/import duty will not mean that it is not viable. The cost of the container with the car in was around 3.5k and we have heard that containers back start from 5-8k. Most of the posts we have seen on here say that it is not worth taking a car back, but not sure if that is a new one or any in total. The cost of cars is quite cheap in the UK, so would you be better of selling it here and taking the money back with you to get another one there? The one reason we are taking ours back is due to its age and the fact that we have had it so long and worked on it all this time. Have seen a few posts from Iron Chef before about this and he does seem to be the person to go to for advice. I have seen him advise that it is not worth it with some cars so be ready for tha

After, after, after lol. For us, if we found our self in your position the option we would take is having our baby in Australia and then moving back after a few months. That way you gi through the same process that you have already been through with your first born, you know the ropes. You also do not have to worry about getting registered in the UK and having the trouble of all that. Yes going back with a new born may be a bit of an issue and you will have to take more stuff for them, but it just has to be done. We went back last Christmas with our new born, he was 3 months old. We had sterilised bottled and baby powder in jiffy bags. We made enough bottles for the whole journey and made up his milk when we needed it, an extra bag but nothing too bad. The main driver for us would be the fact that we would be able to stay and get them their birth certificate here and then passport. It will be far easier here. That way, like people have said before both your kids will have the option to come and go as they wish. That is worth its weight in gold. All three of our kids have both UK and Aus passports. We see it as something we can give them for the future as you never know what direction they will take. With the cost, time and troubles we got to get here, the least we can do is save our kids going through that, if they want to live here in the future.

True and that is why it seems that more and more people are realising that the UK is not as bad as what others may have you think and are returning back "home". That is one thing we have never called Australia.

Must admit that we hear this quite a bit these days, that the cost of living is forcing people to pack up and go back to the UK. These days, the whole idea of the work life balance seems to be more and more un-achievable for people. The sheer cost of house prices and general living is going up so much that the lion’s share of peoples wage is spent on just getting through. When it is like this you kind of think what is the point in chasing the dream that is getting further and further away? We are not in that position, but still want to move back to the UK. Our reasons are simply due to missing family members, the desire to be back in familiar surroundings and simply it turning from a dream into something well less than a dream. It is not a nightmare, but it is not the dream we thought it would be.

Not totally sure, but my initial thought would be no. Lots of multi national companies run there separate country operations like separate entities, so a company in one country will not recognise the same company in another country.

Everyone has a little bit of blame in the overall game of life. May be if there were not so many false or “enhanced” claims to start with, then possibly the insurance companies would not be making people dishonest? Everyone on this merry go round has a hand in spinning it faster and faster, resulting in the situation we have now. One thing is for certain though, if there were no more claims, the premiums would not go down.

True and they should not be allowed to get away with it. However, if you look further back, people are coming up with ways to play the system, because they know someone will listen and get them money for it. Take these people away and then the number will come down.

I personally feel that things like this are getting out of control. These days’ people do see things like this as winning the jackpot, a way of getting a nice payout at the end of it. It is a shame as the genuine cases get treated as frauds. The trouble is that it affects us all. For example, the price of insurance goes up for everyone and then you find yourself living in a “nanny state”. Governments go all H&S mad to try and eliminate any chance of claims being brought. However, we cannot blame to people bringing the claims. They are just doing what they can get away with and it is only human nature to do so. The people to blame are the ones who are promoting this and letting people get away with it. No win no fee layers and such like. They are the ones who should have to answer here.

It is great to hear that making a list is helping you with all the planning that you have done and still need to do. Oh yes they can be a bit daunting at the start, but the one good thing about them is that when you start marking things off, you get a great feeling of satisfaction knowing that tasks are getting completed. We use an online site called “Trello” for all our lists and tasks. This way we can have all our devices connecting to it and can see the list when we want. Being only half way through the year though, the to-do list is still bigger than the done/closed list. This is for work on the house and the car to name but a few lol. It would be good to hear more about the pension and super situation you find yourself in.

That is true and the one thing that anyone moving back to the UK (including us) needs to remember. They done it one way, when most of the time they were moving to new areas which they did not know about and had limited friends there. So moving back to the UK should be slightly easier in that aspect, especially if people move back to areas in the UK they know well. “You are moving to the greatest place on earth” cannot disagree with that at all. The good thing about living away is that you realise how good things were in the UK.

What is/was the rental market like where you are? If you were not making anything on the house (or even making a loss), could you not rent it out a bit and see if the market picks up? That way you might stand a chance of making some money on it or even not making such a loss.

Sounds pretty much like us, but we do not plan to sell our place, so we can take advantage of the Sydney housing market. That may change in time, but for now it seems the right option. We too brought a car over with us, a classic and that is going to go back with us too. What car did you bring over and will you be taking anymore back with you? We too kept the UK bank accounts open which for sure will help out a fair bit when moving back and trying to get things sorted. Shame you had to sell the house though as if you had not, it would have been a place where you could have moved back into short term if needed. At least you have the money from the sale.

Totally agree with you on that one. Christmas in Oz just does not seem right at all. We did it once and sat eating our Christmas lunch in shorts and t-shirt sweating our socks off (as they say). Since then we have spent every Christmas back in the UK enjoying the festive feeling, the bag songs in the shops that get dusted off every October to be played again and most of all the colder weather. Christmas in the heat is not right for us at all.

@paulswin a bit of time has passed since you posted your original question, it would be interesting to hear how things are going. There has been some very good information here for you and by far, creating a list is really good idea. If we were in your position the first thing to go would be the boat. Pack its bags and tell it to leave, then shortly followed by one of the cars. That would be a bit of a weight of your shoulders and it should be possible to live without them. With the house I personally feel that it will be one of them things that if you take one option, you will look back and wished you had of took the other option. The worst thing that can happen is that you sell the house and then have to rent for a long time. The option of completing the sale once you are in the UK and going to London to sign may be the best option overall though. From reading a fair few posts here, Chess seems to be one of the better shippers out there. We have not used them our self, but others who have, have nothing but high regards for them. The costs range from $3.5k for a shared container to $8k for a sole container. We have a car to take back with us, so not too sure if we will get it all in a shared one. Also read here that it is around $3k to get pet back, think that was a dog, but not totally sure. We hope to head back late next year and are using this time to save for these costs and do the house up. We do not want to sell, but rent for a bit. It would be good to hear how you are getting on.

From what we can see the prices do not seem to be too bad at all. We still have to go through our stuff again to “cull” it down and make sure that we only take what we need. Or really need. Not heard about the ToR though, that will be something that we will have to look into closely and make sure everything is sorted. Any more information that you can give about this would be more that appreciated.

@Buyer71, we will be in the same position as you next year. Not too sure about you, but we have not needed to get a car over here, so we have not even got any no claims bonus here to take back with us. On the whole (from what we have heard) insurance prices seem to have gone up. Hopefully, you may be able to use any NCB that you have built up here. We will go and see our broker who we used when we were in the UK and see if they can do anything for us. It would be very interesting to hear what you find out though. Just done a quick duckduckgo search and there appears to be a few ex pat insurers out there or people who will deal with us, but it all depends how much it will cost.

The cost of storage when your container arrives sure is high. As said it would be better to get a storage unit and store your stuff in there until you can move it in with you. That way you can get your stuff when you want and not have to worry about paying someone 30 pounds for the pleasure of them opening your lock. We were lucky when we arrived in Oz as we had a garage for all our stuff to go into. However, when we return back to the UK we might not be so lucky so we may have to ask parents really nice if they can help us out this time.

It sure sounds like it has all worked out for you and hopefully the jobs will follow shortly. Totally agree that it is a nice tome to land, you can enjoy the British summer without the fear of burning to a crisp and having to slap on loads of sun block. Was over last year around this time and I had forgotten how nice it was to go around without a vest on all the time and not fear about looking like a sweating pig. The long summer’s nights and sitting in a beer garden enjoying them. Was also back at Christmas time and it was so nice to have the crisp mornings and wrapping up nice and warm. I bet some people will read this and think “not for me, I would rather have the heat”, but we have found out that the heat is not for us now. We hear so many times that when Brits return, they have a far greater appreciation for what the country has to offer. We feel that will be the case with us and it sure sounds like it is for you. We are planning the move back (still early days), but we are getting excited about what we will do and the things we will be enjoying. Good one for you moving back.

It may be hard, but emailing to chase, could be the worst option here. That way if you do, the seller knows that they have someone very interested, so they will try holding out to see if anything else better comes along. If they think that you have moved on (or thinking of moving on) they are more likely to come around to your way of thinking.

This is very interesting for us as a family. We are looking to move back next year and this si the one thing we were unsure about. The costs that have been quoted do appear to be very reasonable thought. We would be looking as a shared container, but we would not be bothered too much by the time it took to reach the UK. We have a car to take too, which we brought over in a shared container also. We will be putting things together though to help with the packing. The example we always use is that when the packing company were doing their bit for us coming over they were throwing 10 wooden coat hangers in a tea chest size box and packing that up. So this time we will be cable tying them together to help them fit in the boxes better.

It is true that if you try to enter the UK on a one way ticket, you will be questioned and probably held up. They may even decide to deny entry to one or all of you and send you on the next available plane back. It is really not worth the risk. The move back itself will be stressful enough without having troubles like this, even before you get into the UK. For the cheap cost of the passports that you need and the fact that you have a few months still, get them sorted before you leave, if only for your own piece of mind. We applied for one for our newborn recently. It was simple and pain free and we got it back within a few weeks. From memory, you can even request (or more likely pay for) an express service, if time is tight. This way you all can fly into the UK and get past border security without any issues.

That is good that you have been able to case in your super, take it you were on a 457 visa? Be careful though. Had a friend who took that option and the amount she ended up in the UK with was only 60% of what she had in Australia. She paid 40% in tax. Just be prepared to help pay for the taxman’s Christmas party. Oh yes there is so much to try and organise and get sorted. Sometimes it has been said that there is far more to sort out going back home, than there is when you initially came out. We are planning the move back and have decided to try and break it down into little bite size bits. We have an apartment that we are going to rent out, so that means completely doing it up and getting ready for renting. With regards to as where to start, we have a online account in a free project management site. We use Trello, but there is Kanban and others out there that are free, that you can sign up to and use. We have this and have listed down all that we can think of that we need to do. This way we can check our progress and make sure that we have covered everything. Just a though, but for you (like us) it may help writing things down and seeing the list visually. With regards to the furniture it is true what has been mentioned before, that some/most of what you have here may be too big for a place in the UK. Have a look at what you have and what you can do without. When we came over we brought everything we owned, we put it all in a box and shipped it. We still have boxes in the garage that we have not opened/used in 7 years. So going back, we will have a big clean out and take back things that we use/want. The other thing to think about is that true you can shop for things, but knowing that your stuff will turn up after you land in the UK, may be what you need to make a place feel like home. You can get all new stuff, but you may want your old things to help you settle back into life in the UK. It is a good idea though not to take the white goods. Things are cheap enough in the UK, to buy new ones.That will help cut down on the cost of shipping too. From what has been said it seems that your pets flying within a day or two of you will be the cheaper option. When they land, you will be able to put there somewhere, with family or friends for a few weeks till you get your own place.