HI MM, hoping you can shed some light on the following question. My brother in law has shipped his furniture on ahead of his actually emigrating, and for our sins we are storing it for him.

He has paid Whites for shipping it, and they in turn have engaged a firm here in Australia to handle the goods this end. The Aussie company have sent us some forms to be filled in for customs (which I'll pass on to the brother in law to complete). However, I notice in the covering letter that they want paying a further $374 to cover the cost of AQIS fees. Is this normal practice? I had thought the fee paid in UK covered everything except stuff like fumigation. I guess he'll pay it anyway, but I was interested to know if springing extra charges at the last moment is standard in the shipping industry.

cheers adelaidegirl

Hi Adelaidegirl
There's always an AQIS inspection fee to pay (though I can't remember offhand what ours was) then any fumigation etc is on top of this. Fortunately our shippers made this quite clear so it wasn't a nasty surprise...

Elaine

yes , AD girl , we have to pay AQIS $125 an hour while they are in our depot, and every 15 mins equates to an hr, so the less hassel we have with your shipments the quicker, we process them. This being the main reason ,i joined these forums , to try and make our lives easier over here, if people wanting to emigrate, just read the literature, that was availble, as to what you can and can,t do, lt would be so much easier...........mm

OOh Mr Mover, my B-I-L's shippers are charging him $374 and they say this is to cover AQIS's fee for one hour. I hope this means they've got three people swarming over his goods, otherwise it's a bit naughty eh?


Thanks for your reply, much appreciated. adelaidegirl