After a trial period of two months, Harriette was authorized a long term temporary duty (TDY) assignment from October 2003 through April 2005.  She sold her house at her permanent duty station and found a new one at her TDY location where for the first month she rented before buying where she decided to furnish it with furniture shipped from the home she sold rather than renting items from stores in her TDY location.  Her agency asked for the Board’s opinion on two matters: (1) was she entitled to reimbursement of expenses incurred at her TDY location since that was her only residence and (2) could she be reimbursed for the costs of shipping her furniture to the new house.  The Board ruled, on the first matter, she was entitled to reimbursement, noting employees may be reimbursed for costs incurred at a TDY location (e.g. mortgage interest, property taxes, utilities, etc.) as long as the residence “was not purchased before the start of the assignment for other reasons.”  The Board added Harriette would be entitled to the costs of ownership whether or not she had sold the house at her permanent location.  As for the furniture moving expenses, the Board said she could not be reimbursed the cost because the FTR does not authorize an allowance for shipping furniture to a TDY location, even if the cost of renting furniture is greater than the expense of moving it (Harriette Treloar, GSBCA 16699-TRAV).

{TAG_FORM_TITLE}