Employee Relocation Removals — F Smith & Son
Employee relocation moves have their own requirements and F Smith & Son has handled them throughout our over 90 years in business. From NHS staff moving between hospitals to family homes being relocated across Europe, we understand the practical and administrative differences that come with employer-funded moves.
What Employee Relocation Involves
When a company asks an employee to relocate, the move itself follows the same steps as any house removal — survey, packing, loading, transport, and delivery. What changes is the contractual and financial layer sitting around it.
Employment contracts often include a mobility clause, requiring employees to relocate if the business moves to a different town, county, or country. Even when no such clause exists, most employers are willing to negotiate a contribution or full reimbursement of removal costs. The key question that needs to be settled before any booking is made: who pays the removals company directly?
Who Should Pay the Removals Company?
Based on our experience, we recommend that the employee pays F Smith & Son directly and recovers the cost from their employer. There are practical reasons for this.
On moving day, decisions sometimes need to be made quickly — a delayed key handover, a change to the unloading schedule, items that need to go into temporary storage. When the employee is the client, communication is direct and straightforward. When the employer holds the contract, every minor decision requires a three-way conversation that adds time and stress at exactly the moment you don’t want it.
Of course, if the employer’s relocation policy requires them to pay the supplier directly, we can accommodate that. We’d simply ask that the payment and invoicing arrangements are confirmed clearly before work begins, so there are no ambiguities on the day.
Storage During Relocation
Employee relocations don’t always run to a neat timeline. A new role may start before the new property is ready to move into, or a sale may take longer than expected on the old end. Our containerised storage service is well suited to bridging these gaps — your belongings are loaded into sealed wooden containers at your current home, stored securely at our Croydon depot, and delivered to the new property when you’re ready.
Tax and Expenses: What You Need to Know
HMRC allows employers to contribute up to £8,000 tax-free towards an employee’s relocation costs. This is known as the Qualifying Relocation Expenses relief, and it covers a defined set of costs including removal and storage charges, travel to view the new area, temporary accommodation, and some legal costs on the property purchase or rental.
Anything above the £8,000 threshold is treated as a taxable benefit in kind, so it’s worth understanding the breakdown of costs before you book. Ask your HR or finance team which costs they are classifying as qualifying expenses. If you’re arranging the move yourself and reclaiming from your employer, keep all receipts and invoices from the removals company — we can provide a detailed VAT invoice for your employer’s records.
Questions to Ask Your Employer Before Booking
- Is there a cap on the contribution, and does it fall within the £8,000 HMRC threshold?
- Will the employer pay the removals company directly, or do I pay and reclaim?
- What costs are covered — does it include packing, storage, and insurance, or just the move itself?
- Is there a preferred supplier list, or am I free to choose my own removals company?
- What is the deadline for submitting expenses?
Settling these points before you book avoids disagreements later, particularly around storage costs that run beyond the initial estimate.
Starting Early
Whether or not your employer is covering the costs, the most important thing you can do in a relocation move is start the planning process early. Survey dates, packing materials, storage timelines, and key dates all need to be coordinated. Our guide to preparing for a house move is a good starting point.
Commercial Relocation
F Smith & Son also handles commercial office and business relocations. We can assign an experienced project manager to work with your business, plan the move around your operational requirements, and minimise downtime. Many of our employee relocation clients have come to us for office moves later on.
We’re members of the British Association of Removers (BAR) and Which? Trusted Traders. For moving advice and resources, visit the F Smith & Son Advice Hub.