[Pip]

We're hopefully going to go unconditional on our house tomorrow, and hopefully take possession on Monday May 7th. Our container ship arrives in Christchurch on tuesday, and apparently they normally take a week to be released. The nice people we are buying from have said that if we like, we can have it delivered it to their/our house before we take possesssion to save us having to pay $500 storage costs (in return we are letting them leave their horses in the paddock - all very friendly!).

Do you think it might be possible to do this ? i.e to arrange to have it delivered (with seal intact) to our new place and then arrange for MAF to come a couple of weeks later and open the container and do their inspection then ? (thereby helping with my MAF charges issues and preventing the moving company holding my stuff to ransom)


Has anyone done anything similar to this or am I living in "dream land" on this one!

[marcia]

I believe (but don't quote me!) they don't normally allow the containers to sit unopened for weeks - they want them emptying and turning back around pretty quickly. Is there any way they people you are buying from couls empty their garage and let you store the stuff in there if its big enough? That way they could still deliver it, empty it and do the MAF inspection on the requested items there and then.

Perhaps contact the removals company, and ask them, but I'm pretty sure they won't allow the container to sit on someones drive for a couple of weeks but better to check with them direct!

[willsken]

Have to say I would agree with Marcia. It may work if they have somewhere to store your stuff but I can't see them letting you keep the actual container.

[Trigirl]

if you want to keep the container you have to pay a charge called "demurrage" to the shipping company. its a daily charge and its not cheap.

[Pip]

Hmm.. thanks everyone. Think on this one, I'm going to have to grin and bare it and just pay the storage costs to the Moving Company!

Unfortunately I think by the time I find someone in town to store our stuff and hire a lorry to move it all when we take possession of the house, it might be easier and cheaper (and less strenous) just to pay the $400 for Moving Co storage. On the bright side, I am now paying MAF directly, so will be interesting to see a) how much MAF charge and additionally, B) how much moving co charge for their staff's time, now those two items have been split out! Will also check with MAF whether anyone was actually present..although will make sure our stuff has been delivered before the fun and games commence....:D

[barryp]

There should be no problem at all keeping the container at the house for an extended period of time. Work it out with your movers. Shipping containers vanish from 'the system' regularly, and it's a part of the business.

[The Hodges]

Hi Pip

We hope that everything else is going well. We've encountered a similar problem and we had a significant amount of argy bargy with the NZ shipping partner.

First of all, contact your local MAF branch contact http://www.maf.govt.nz/quarantine/contact/index.htm and ask them what they want to inspect and the number of items.

Have a look at http://www.maf.govt.nz/quarantine/personal-effects/index.htm (http://www.maf.govt.nz/quarantine/personal-effects/index.htm)for the MAF cost of inspections. They also charge a call out fee (well that's what they told us anyway), which for us in Auckland is $45, so you'll need to check this with your local branch.

As I understand it, if you have your own container, then MAF can do the inspection at your house, but otherwise it needs to be done at the shipper's offices/depot.

In the end we got our cost reduced from $270 to $112.50, as the MAF want to inspect some boxes that are not described on the packing inventory, so we felt that the UK shipping company should have paid for those.

Good luck though and let us know who you get on.

Tony

[Pip]

Thanks.. unfortunately going unconditional on the house has been delayed..:uhoh , and the container ship arrived at 6am this morning, and the container was unloaded by 8am and on its way to the storage depot by 8am! - talk about speedy.. MAF will now inspect whatever they choose to at the storage depot, but they are going to invoice me directly, along with the moving co for their 'staff's time'. so we wait...

on the flip side, I'm so excited about seeing all our stuff.. I miss my books, CD's, Dvd's and clothes! Hopefully three weeks today, we'll be in our new house with all our stuff and it will all be worth it!:raebanana

The Hodges: Hows life going in Auckland ?, are you feeling settled in yet ?! - let us know if you get down our way at all...

[The Hodges]

The Hodges: Hows life going in Auckland ?, are you feeling settled in yet ?! - let us know if you get down our way at all...

Hi Pip

I've sent you a pm. Hopefully speak to you soon. :nice1

Tony

[Nathan]

OK, this is going to seem bizarre to most... but here goes.

Can anyone recommend a service which can transport my container from the dock to a storage facility in/near Wellington?

Next...
Can anyone recommend a storage location for said container in/near Wellington?

Next...
Can I reasonably expect to hire a couple energetic young souls to unload said container into a storage facility in/near Welly... so MAF can do their thang (sic - it's a Southern, USA thang, OK?))?:D

Explanation...
I'm still working on the plan to buy a container, arrange shipping, load it, do the import thang myself, and avoid the dreaded dealing with the NZ removal companies, and then resell the container. And I think I'll save a few $K at the same time.

And, yes, Christine knows I've lost my mind but she loves me anyway!! :raebanana