B-251045, January 28, 1993
Highlights
Who was not eligible to have the expenses of selling his family residence in East Lansing. May not have those selling expenses reimbursed incident to his transfer from the Academy to Bremerton. Although the employee was required to live on the Academy premises as a condition of employment and family housing never became available at the Academy as promised during recruitment. The Claims Group's determination is correct that the remote worksite exception to the commuting requirement does not apply because the Academy is not a remote worksite. That settlement is affirmed. We were informally advised that when you were selected for the civilian position at the Merchant Marine Academy. You were on active duty in the military service.
B-251045, January 28, 1993
CIVILIAN PERSONNEL Relocation Residence transaction expenses Reimbursement Eligibility An employee hired by the Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York, who was not eligible to have the expenses of selling his family residence in East Lansing, Michigan, reimbursed at the time of hiring, may not have those selling expenses reimbursed incident to his transfer from the Academy to Bremerton, Washington, because he did not regularly commute to and from the residence to his worksite at the Academy. Although the employee was required to live on the Academy premises as a condition of employment and family housing never became available at the Academy as promised during recruitment, the Claims Group's determination is correct that the remote worksite exception to the commuting requirement does not apply because the Academy is not a remote worksite.
Mr. Richard W. Redfearn 6539 Gleneagle Avenue SW Port Orchard, Washington 98366
Dear Mr. Redfearn:
This responds to your August 29, 1992, appeal of our Claims Group's settlement in Z-2867728, which denied your claim for real estate expenses associated with the sale of your family residence in East Lansing, Michigan, incident to your transfer from the Merchant Marine Academy in New York to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington. Upon review of the record, we find no error of law or fact in the Claims Group's settlement. Accordingly, that settlement is affirmed.
It also may be helpful for your understanding of the denial of your claim to provide a context for the sale of the East Lansing residence after your transfer from New York to Bremerton. We were informally advised that when you were selected for the civilian position at the Merchant Marine Academy, you were on active duty in the military service. Thus, your appointment to the position at the Merchant Marine Academy was a new appointment, not a transfer, to that position. In that situation there was no authority for the Merchant Marine Academy to pay for real estate expenses associated with the sale of your residence in East Lansing (or anywhere else) incident to your employment with and move to the Academy. 62 Comp.Gen. 462 (1983), copy enclosed. That is, even if family housing had become available at the Academy as expected when you were recruited and you had moved your family from East Lansing to join you at the Academy, you would have not been eligible for reimbursement of real estate sale expenses had you then chosen to sell your home in East Lansing. Although we understand why you may have preferred to keep your family in the East Lansing residence rather than move them closer to the Academy in a separate residence than the one you were required to occupy as a condition of employment with the Academy, that does not affect the rules that the Claims Group correctly applied and explained in determining a residence's eligibility for consideration for real estate expense reimbursement in connection with the transfer from the Academy to Bremerton. Thus, as stated above, the settlement is affirmed.