Reimbursement for Expenses in Connection With Real Estate Purchase

A decision was requested regarding an employee's claim for reimbursement of various expenses incident to his purchase of a residence at his new duty station. A buried wire charge by the telephone company in a neighborhood containing underground utilities was a properly reimbursable real estate expense. The claim for reimbursement for a legal fee incident to the purchase which covered both allowable items and services of an advisory nature, which were not for reimbursement, was not allowable in the absence of a summary of the services performed which gave the cost of each service. The attorney's travel fee for handling the real estate transaction outside the county in which he maintained his office was not a properly reimbursable item.