A business is paying · 3
An employer is paying
The company signs, the employee lives with the result. What matters most on these jobs is not the logistics — it is what the relocation policy covers, and far more often what it quietly does not.
Read the exclusions before you read the allowance. That is where the surprises are.
How the arrangement works
The three phrases in a relocation policy
Origin services means everything at this end: survey, packing, materials, collection and, on an international move, export clearance and the shipping. Destination services means everything at the far end: charges on arrival, clearance, delivery, unpacking and debris removal.
Exclusions is the third and the one worth reading twice. Storage at either end, insurance above a stated limit, vehicles, pets and anything the policy calls an ancillary service are the usual ones, and each is a real cost that lands on the employee.
Who we listen to, and about what
The employer decides scope and pays. The employee decides everything practical, because they are the one who knows what is in the loft and which piece must not be dismantled.
Where those conflict — an employee wanting something the policy excludes — we quote it to the employee separately and plainly. We do not fold personal extras into a corporate invoice and we do not tell a procurement department that a policy covers something it does not.
Purchase orders, and starting work
Send the reference and the billing details at the booking and the invoice will carry them. What we cannot do is start against a verbal assurance that an order is on its way, which is a discipline that protects the employee as much as us.
The employee nobody has spoken to
It is remarkably common for a corporate booking to arrive with everything except a conversation with the person being moved. We insist on that conversation before the day.
It is how we find out about the loft, the piece that must not be taken apart, the cat, and the fact that the family is not actually travelling on the date the company gave us.
An employer is paying
Questions about an employer is paying
- 01
What do relocation policies usually exclude?
Storage at either end, insurance above a stated limit, vehicles, pets and anything described as an ancillary service. None of it is hidden; it is simply not read until somebody needs it.
- 02
Can we add things the policy does not cover?
Yes, quoted separately to you as your own decision. We will not fold personal extras into a corporate invoice.
- 03
Do you work to purchase orders?
Routinely. Send the reference and billing details at the booking. We cannot start against a verbal assurance that an order is coming.
- 04
Who chooses the date?
You, within whatever window the employer has authorised. Where the two conflict we tell you plainly rather than taking the instruction from whoever is paying.
- 05
Do you handle international relocations?
Yes, and employer-paid moves are most of our long-haul work. Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Malaysia and Brazil have their own pages; we go considerably wider.
- 06
Will you speak to us directly?
We insist on it before the day. It is how we find out about the loft, the item that must not be dismantled, and whether the family is actually travelling on the date the company gave us.
Who is paying for yours?
Both addresses, roughly what is going, and — the useful part — who is paying and who will be instructing us on the day. That last question saves more trouble than any other on the form.