Request for Reimbursement of Temporary Quarters Subsistence Expenses

A Federal employee was authorized relocation expenses which included temporary quarters. His family subsequently joined him at his new duty site and occupied the temporary quarters for a 10-day period. However, the family returned to their former home town when a contract on a new residence was canceled. The employee's agency allowed temporary quarters for the employee, but not for his family since they had returned to their former residence. The employee asserted that his family had vacated their former residence which was under contract for sale when they joined him. The return of the family to the former home town was not a part of the family's original moving plans and, in fact, was contrary to those plans. GAO concluded that the family intended to vacate the former residence when they moved into the temporary quarters and held that the employee was entitled to temporary quarters subsistence expenses for his family for the period during which they resided in the temporary quarters.