NOT FUNNY.

State Department tells military family to pay $31k to complete their overseas move

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO (Lawyer Dog) — The State Department has told an Air Force family to pay over $31,000 if they ever want to see their household goods again. The family, which has asked to remain anonymous, moved from South America to the United States last summer. Their property was packed from their government housing in June 2022, but they still have not received the shipment and have now been told they will have to pay the government-hired moving company to finalize their move.

The military servicemember had been serving at a U.S. Embassy, so the State Department, rather than the Air Force, oversaw the relocation of the family’s belongings. The shipment arrived in August and was severely damaged by mold. In October, the State Department, through its contractor, threw away over half of the family’s goods including all furniture, leather bags, shoes, wooden items, and many books and framed pictures. The contractor told the servicemember that it would take one week to clean and deliver what remained of their goods. But one week has turned into nineteen and counting.

After Christmas, the family received a call from the contractor’s insurance company saying it had just received notice of the mold damage. Two other families who left the same post within a month of the servicemember suffered mold damage as well, but those families’ property was cleaned and returned within weeks.

The servicemember’s orders state that the Joint Travel Regulations (JTR) apply to the move, which typically enables a military member to receive “full replacement value” for damaged, lost, or destroyed property. But the State Department has different guidelines, even though its own website tells military members that the JTR applies to them.

Not until February did the insurer contact the servicemember again, this time to say that it considered the mold damage a “total loss,” and as such, the family would not receive what remained of their property unless they agreed to pay almost exactly what the insurer was offering as a settlement—70 percent of the weight of their property multiplied by $8.50.

“This is a government-procured move,” the servicemember’s spouse and military veteran told Lawyer Dog, “so why should we have to pay for a six-month delay and receive nothing in return when other families have had their property since the fall?” The family is crying foul over the settlement offer that is nearly identical to the fees required to receive their goods and the State Department pressuring them to accept its terms.

The State Department through its contractor told the family on February 13 that its goods were being cleaned and later said it would cover storage fees through March 31, 2023. But the family has been left with no good options to finally receive what remains of their nearly 40 years of combined government service.

“This could be our last government move,” said the servicemember’s spouse, “and instead of enjoying the end of a long career, we’ve been losing sleep over the real possibility of never seeing what’s left of our service ever again.”