Immediate long-term storage in Australia - what's your experience?

[Mopoke]

Most people have a home to move to but we don't so long-term storage becomes the burning issue. Although we have a house full of stuff in the UK we need to move to a capital city in Oz to work but we don't want to buy there. The net result is some Air BnB living and then find a unit/flat to rent depending how the job hunt goes. If work doesn't work out we plan to go travelling so even more need to keep stuff in storage.

I'm interested in any experience in using long-term storage in Australia. Did you break your possessions into long-term and short-term storage so you can have access to the latter - although you end up having to pay for two lots of storage? What did you do for insurance - I've spoken to Letton Percival and their policy is a marine policy so they aren't geared up for long-term storage in Oz. PSS and I'm sure other removal companies will offer insurance for long-term but it is expensive. 

I'd really appreciate any insight people have on how they managed long-term storage because there is a natural assumption that everyone has an address to arrive at, so information is lacking a bit about people putting their possessions away. 

[Marisawright]

Actually, most people don't have a home to move to.  Most migrants spend the first month in AirBnB, then take a long-term rental for six months or so, so they can work out the suburb they want to live in.   So your situation isn't any different, except for what you may do after those first months.

Why would you not move your  house contents into your rented unit/flat?  Rental flats are not furnished in Australia, so you'll need furniture, bedding, kitchen equipment, appliances - most of your container contents, in fact.

Then you just put the surplus boxes in a self-storage place, there are dozens of them in every capital city, and the contents can be covered by your usual contents insurance.

 

Edited October 27, 2018 by Marisawright

[ali]

We didn't have a home to come to - just a furnished rental - our furniture left the UK the same week we did (taking 12 weeks to arrive). As Marisa said, many people get a holiday let for a few weeks and then a longer term rental and their furniture/belongings are delivered to the rental.

[Mopoke]

Thanks all, I'm still keen to hear the experiences of anybody who has done long-term storage for longer than a year.

On the "why wouldn't you move your content's into a flat?" question, we have a house in the UK and will be moving into a one bed flat [most likely] while we look for work - I'm not convinced it would fit in a way we would be able to live normally without falling over boxes or furniture. 

[Marisawright]

10 hours ago, Mopoke said:

On the "why wouldn't you move your content's into a flat?" question, we have a house in the UK and will be moving into a one bed flat [most likely] while we look for work - I'm not convinced it would fit in a way we would be able to live normally without falling over boxes or furniture. 

Fair enough, but you will still need all your kitchen equipment, washing machine, tumble drier, fridge, bedding, clothing, basic furniture.  No point replacing all of that.

So, what you do is pack your container so the stuff you'll need for the one-bedroom flat is at the front where you can reach it.  Container arrives, essential items are unpacked - then the container is taken to a self-storage facility and the rest of it is unloaded.

Result:  you have what you need to live. You can access the self-storage facility any time you like, to remove or return items.   If you decide to do more travelling, you can put the stuff from your flat into the same place.   Next time you need to move, you hire an ordinary removalist.   

I can't see any point in paying to store an entire, half-empty container, and then paying separately for short-term storage.  Self-storage places can be used for both - we have a self-storage unit where we've had books and pictures stored for over five years.  

Edited October 27, 2018 by Marisawright

[Mopoke]

Thanks Marisa, yes it would only work if the short-term storage was not for a long time at all. In the scenario you map out above, this would mean that you would need to unpack everything to check for insurance purposes. Palmers have told us that to move to short term storage in Sydney everything would need to be inspected before they would insure it. With long-term insurance you can continue the cover without inspection, for years if need be. Seems there are lots of pros and cons. 

[Marisawright]

So what you’re saying is. you would want to unpack everything and check it in case you wanted to claim for damage during the voyage? 

Fair enough I guess. 

Like I said, if you put it in self storage you can cover it under your own contents insurance.

 

[Mopoke]

Oh no, we wouldn't want to unpack anything but Palmers have told us they won't accept claims unless things were inspected and cleared before going into long or short-term storage. It would be a shame to store for 5 years and then find key furniture was damaged and not be able to do anything about it [but still having paid for 5 years].

In fact for long-term storage direct from shipping the only way we have been able to see to keep insurance without unpacking and inspecting is to continue with the UK removals shipping insurance.

That's a great point on the contents insurance - do people generally take contents insurance and include their stuff in storage? I assume that negates the need to take out insurance from the storage company. We didn't even think of that!

[Marisawright]

35 minutes ago, Mopoke said:

Oh no, we wouldn't want to unpack anything but Palmers have told us they won't accept claims unless things were inspected and cleared before going into long or short-term storage. It would be a shame to store for 5 years and then find key furniture was damaged and not be able to do anything about it [but still having paid for 5 years].

In fact for long-term storage direct from shipping the only way we have been able to see to keep insurance without unpacking and inspecting is to continue with the UK removals shipping insurance.

That's a great point on the contents insurance - do people generally take contents insurance and include their stuff in storage? I assume that negates the need to take out insurance from the storage company. We didn't even think of that!

If it’s in self storage (so you have the key and control access) then you can include it in your contents insurance but it does depend on the insurance company