Hi,

I live in Munich .I have recently chaned my job to a company in Munich itself . In my contract it is mentioned that i would get relocation cost and estate agent fee reimbursed . so , i am planning to relocate closer to new office . now when i talked to company HR about the reimbursement process , they refused to pay any relocatiuon cost or estate agent fee. As per them relocation cost means anycost rtelated to residence/wor permit . This is not acceptable to me as I have alreday wor permit and they new this beforehand .Also , this was never discussed in th HR interview . now I dont now how to approach this issue .Should I forget it or Should I pursue the case as my contract explicitly mentions relocation costs .

Relocation is normally from another city and the companies pay for that. They may not want to pay for you moving inside the same city. What is your financial loss? Better to not fight over such a trivial thing with the company if you want to have a good working relations. Most of the times you can offset the relocation costs in tax declaration because of jobs. But there maybe a restriction on when they consider it depending on the time saved in travelling from home to work place. Ask your tax consultant for further information in this regard.

Thanks Raj for the reply . I would say I have to pay around 2000 euros out of my pocket .I wanted to have clarity on the validity of the clause stated in the contract . If you go by literal meaning , It means i am entitled to relocation cost / estate agent fee . It nowhere mentions if I am living in the same city or not .They should have told me at the time of interview or when offering the job as they knew I am in Munich only .Now if the company wants to interpret the contract in a way that suits them . Is this not a violation of the contract ?. How can I trust anything in the contract if they backtrack on the clause in the contract.Tomorrow they might say same thing about any other clause , e.g ; yearly bonus .
Based on the contents of the contract , I hope I am right .

Abybaby,

Not everything is written in a contract. Especially if companies start writing their whole policies in your contract, then your contract will be like a book.

I had a similar case where my office is slightly out of Munich and I thought that I should shift nearby. The company policy was that if distance between new and old house is atleast 45 KN AND new house is near to office. This was also not written in the contract but I asked them explicitly and they gave me this info.

Did you do this ?

I am surprised that you are even thinking of 'purusing' the case. Great start in a new company ! Desi style to use each opportunity to get money out instead of clarifying in advance

Dear Supersid,

thanks for sharing your experience . It is similar to mine with one exception . Well I did ask the info beforehand .The problem started because I was given offer from one company , the part of which which was boughtout when i joined . The HR I had talekd to is still with the original company . I had specifically asked about the relocation for which she had told me that whatever is promised in the contract will be fulfilled . She had forwarded my documents to new company HR personnel who i am dealing with now . Now, The current HR says they cannot do that . Also , the new document I had signed in addition to the original contract did not mention any of this. So I was promised SOmething in the original contract which somehow is not valid with the new company . I believe I should be treated as per the original contract or things should have been cleared to me in the additional document or a mail would have done .Then it would have been my decision to accept the Offer or not .

All this in good desi faith :-)

Thanks.

Everything in written thats the rule and I guess you dont have it in written.

Additionally, I think Infineon HR is not the best ;) Is it the right guess