Corporate Relocation Vancouver
Need corporate relocation in Vancouver? Always Best Moving Vancouver moves your hire and your hire’s household on the start date your company set, and holds the shipment in our storage when the housing is not ready yet. We are based downtown at 422 Richards Street, we answer the phone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and every file opens with a clear, no obligation quote agreed up front and put in writing before we start.
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What an Employer Authorised Relocation Involves
A relocation is a program, not an errand. The federal government describes its own version as relocating an employee efficiently at the most reasonable cost, covering reimbursement of reasonable expenses for an authorized relocation. The most detailed one published in Canada is the National Joint Council Relocation Directive, effective January 1, 2021. It is a federal public service program, not a description of what private employers do, but it is the clearest public statement of what an employer expects a mover to deliver.
Under that directive the employer, not the employee, arranges and pays for packing, insuring, shipping, in transit storage and unpacking of one shipment of a reasonable quantity of personal and household effects from the employee’s principal residence. Three things there matter. The entitlement is a single shipment from one place to one other place and not to or from multiple locations. Storage sits inside the scope, not outside it. And the employer is the one arranging it.
The Gap Between the Start Date and the Keys
Here is where corporate relocations actually break in this city. The company sets a start date. Housing does not care about it.
Vancouver’s rental market is looser than it has been in decades. CMHC’s 2025 Rental Market Report, released December 11, 2025, put the purpose built apartment vacancy rate here at 3.7 percent, the highest level since 1988. A looser market still does not shorten a notice period, and your inbound hire is choosing a home from a plane seat or a two day trip.
The tenancy calendar is the real constraint. A tenant on a month to month tenancy must give written notice received at least one month before the effective end date and before the day rent is due, and the Residential Tenancy Branch is explicit that this is not simply thirty days of notice but truly a complete rental month. A fixed term tenancy cannot end earlier than the fixed date unless both parties agree on the official form, an arbitrator orders it, or the tenant breaks the lease. So the unit your hire wants may not free up on your schedule.
None of that is an edge case. CRA’s list of employer paid moving costs names reasonable temporary living expenses while waiting to occupy the new permanent accommodation, and a funded house hunting trip and interim accommodation are their own budgeted parts of a relocation program. The gap is expected. What matters is where the household sits while it lasts.
Storage Is Part of the Move, Not a Bolt-On
We run moving and storage under one roof. Secure, monitored warehouse storage. Climate-controlled space with a steady temperature. Pickup and delivery, short or long term. Short term storage in transit for the weeks between a start date and a signed lease, long term warehouse storage when the assignment outruns the housing, and commercial inventory storage on flexible terms. Facility detail sits on our storage page.
Storage is written into serious relocation programs rather than treated as an overrun. In the federal directive the basic fund covers actual and reasonable storage expenses up to the last day for which interim accommodation, meals and the miscellaneous allowance are authorized, so the window is defined by how long the employee is between homes. Storage past that period can still be covered from the customised fund where the extra time was not the result of personal choices. An overrun caused by the market gets treated differently from one the employee chose.
CRA lands in the same place. Its list of employer paid moving costs that are not a taxable benefit includes the cost to the employee of transporting or storing household effects while moving from the old residence to the new residence. Storage in the gap is on that list by name. We are movers and not tax advisors. We make sure the storage line exists, is dated, and is documented.
Inbound Into Vancouver, and Outbound From It
An inbound international hire does not control their own start date. Under the Global Talent Stream the stated service standard is a labour market impact assessment in 10 business days 80 percent of the time, and accelerated work permit processing to the same standard. When a date can slide on a decision you do not control, a mover who answers at 2am and can hold a shipment beats one who cannot.
Household goods run on their own clock. CBSA tariff item 9807.00.00 covers goods imported by a settler for the settler’s household or personal use if actually owned, possessed and used abroad prior to arrival. All three have to be true. A settler is defined as someone entering Canada intending to establish a residence for the first time for a period of not less than twelve months, and people coming for employment lasting thirty six months or less are excluded from that definition. That is a real trap on a fixed term assignment, so have your broker confirm the file before anyone promises the employee anything. Goods can legitimately arrive after the person: a Personal Effects Accounting Document is completed at the first point of entry listing goods arriving at a later date, and there is no time limit for importing goods to follow that were listed on it.
Going the other way, we run long distance work across BC and out of province, so a transfer out of Vancouver stays on one file with one crew and one inventory. The route side lives on our long distance moving page. If you are moving the workplace itself and not the people in it, that is a different job with different building rules, and it lives on our commercial and office moving page.
The Documents Your File Needs
The Canadian Association of Movers is Canada’s only trade association representing moving and storage companies, founded in 1969. Its rule on paperwork is one line long: never allow a mover to begin work without paperwork. The bill of lading or work order is the contract document, and it is handed over when the crew arrives, not after the truck is loaded.
On a long distance move CAM says that document should carry the estimated weight of the shipment, the anticipated delivery date spread, contact information for every moving company servicing the move, the estimated charges from the quote, and the chosen protection level. That is the document set an HR file needs. Beside it sits the inventory and condition report, which the driver builds item by item and the customer signs before the crew leaves. On a relocation, the employee signing that inventory is signing the company’s record, not just their own.
Two more things before you sign with anyone. Released value protection is the basic coverage contained in all household goods moving contracts, and it is limited by the weight of the article rather than by what the article is worth, so increased carrier liability is a separate declared value agreed in advance. And CAM’s stated industry norm is that most credible movers will not charge up front for a planned move, with payment on delivery and a deposit to hold a date being accepted practice. Running a vendor comparison before you authorise the file? Our guide on how to choose a mover walks the same checks.
One practical ask on the invoice. CRA sorts relocation costs item by item, and its non taxable list separately names house hunting trips, travel and lodging during the move, utility connection charges and lease cancellation fees. Your payroll team is better served by an invoice that splits transport, packing and storage than by one lump line. Ask for it that way and you get it that way, with our packing services on their own line.
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Frequently asked questions
What is corporate relocation?
A move an employer authorises and pays for so an employee can take a role in a new location. The employer, not the employee, arranges the packing, shipping, storage in transit and unpacking. The federal public service relocation directive writes that down as an employer obligation. The practical effect: the mover reports to whoever authorised the file.
Can you hold the household in storage until the employee finds housing?
Yes. We run secure, monitored warehouse storage in Vancouver, short or long term, with pickup and delivery. We hold a household short term between the start date and the keys, or long term where the assignment runs that way, and deliver on the date you release it. CRA names storage of household effects between the old and the new residence on its list of employer paid moving costs.
Who do we deal with, and does the employee have to chase your dispatch?
You get one named contact for the file and the employee gets the same person. That mirrors how funded relocation programs run, where employees are told to contact a single departmental coordinator rather than the carrier. Nobody in HR should be forwarding voicemail between a hire and a truck.
What paperwork will we get for the file?
A written quote agreed before we start, the work order handed over when the crew arrives, and an inventory of every item on a long haul. The Canadian Association of Movers is blunt about it: never allow a mover to begin work without paperwork. Keep the set afterwards, for any post move issue and for tax purposes.
Can the invoice separate transport, packing and storage?
Yes, and ask for it that way. CRA sorts employer paid relocation costs item by item, so payroll needs those as separate lines rather than one lump. We are movers, not tax advisors. Your finance team makes the call on treatment. We make the invoice readable enough for them to make it.
Is an employer paid move a taxable benefit for the employee?
That is a payroll question and the answer belongs to your finance team, not your mover. The general CRA rule is that a benefit, allowance or reimbursement for moving or relocation expenses is generally taxable. An administrative policy makes an employer’s payment of certain listed moving expenses generally not a taxable benefit where the employer transfers the employee from one of its places of business to another.
Why does housing take so long to line up in Vancouver?
Because the tenancy calendar runs on its own clock. A tenant on a month to month tenancy must give written notice received at least one month before the effective end date and before the day rent is due, and the Residential Tenancy Branch is explicit that this is not simply thirty days of notice but a complete rental month. So the unit your hire wants may not free up on the day you need it.
We are relocating someone from outside Canada. What happens to their household goods?
The rule is CBSA’s. Tariff item 9807.00.00 covers goods imported by a settler for household or personal use if actually owned, possessed and used abroad before arrival. A settler is someone entering Canada intending to establish a residence for the first time for not less than twelve months, and people coming for employment of thirty six months or less are excluded from that definition. Goods can arrive later: a Personal Effects Accounting Document is completed at the first point of entry listing goods to follow, with no time limit for importing them.
Can you move on a weekend or overnight if that is the start date?
Yes. We are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so a Sunday arrival, an overnight delivery out of storage, or an authorisation from an HR team three time zones away all land with a person rather than a voicemail box. Call 236-885-7710.
How much does a corporate relocation cost?
It depends on the size of the household, the distance, whether packing is included, and whether the goods sit in storage before delivery. Send us the origin, the destination, the start date and roughly what is moving, and you get a clear, no obligation quote agreed up front and in writing before we start.
Send us the origin, the destination, the start date, and whether housing is confirmed yet. You get a written plan and a no obligation quote agreed up front before you authorise anything. If housing is not confirmed we build the storage window into the quote from the start. If your hire lands in a condo or a rental, our residential moving and storage crew takes that end. Same crew, same inventory, every area we serve.
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