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Claim for Reimbursement of Relocation Expenses

B-195556 Feb 19, 1980
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Highlights

An Air Force employee appealed a GAO settlement certificate which disallowed his claim for reimbursement of relocation expenses. He had been transferred from Georgia to Missouri and then to Ohio. He was entitled to relocation expenses incident to his transfer to Missouri. However, he contended that he did not sell his residence or move his family because he had signed an agreement to return to Georgia whenever his services were needed or after 3 years. He was later reassigned to Ohio and authorized reimbursement for a permanent change of station from Missouri to Ohio. He sold his home in Georgia and submitted a claim for the relocation of his family including real estate settlement expenses. The Air Force denied his claim for real estate expenses and reimbursed him in the amount it would have cost for transportation of his wife and shipment of his household goods from Missouri to Ohio. GAO disallowed his subsequent claim for relocation expenses because the sale occurred more than 2 years after his first transfer. Under Joint Travel Regulations, the settlement date for the sale of a residence must occur no later than 1 year after an employee reports to a new permanent duty station. The claimant contended that the 1-year time period did not apply to his move to Missouri, but should begin at the time of his move to Ohio. However, the Regulations state that an employee is entitled to real estate expenses for the residence from which he regularly commuted to his duty station. GAO held that although the employee had signed the reassignment agreement, his permanent duty station at the time of the sale of his residence was in Missouri. Since his residence was not there and was sold more than 2 years after his transfer to Missouri, GAO held that he was not entitled to real estate expenses incident to the sale. Also, he was only entitled to the constructive cost of transporting his dependents and household goods from Missouri to Ohio because the transfer to Missouri was permanent and the travel from Georgia took place more than 2 years after that transfer. Accordingly, the disallowance of the employee's claim was sustained.

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