London Bound...Please help...

My employer wants me to relocate my family from Florida to London for a 2-3 year assignment. My wife and I are extremely anxious yet nervous about the move. I have 3 kids all under the age of 7.   I am in the process of negotiating my expat package and would like some advice.

First, what school should my kids attend? We've received several recommendations on the American School in London in St. John's Woods. What are your thoughts? Is it expensive? What is the approx. annual tuition? Are local English schools cheaper? Are they considered superior to American schools?

The second question concerns where we should live. By way of background, my wife and I would like to take advantage of everything that London has to offer i.e., parks, museums, theater, restaurants, etc. By the same token, we need to be close to our children's school. Also, my office will be located either in Uxbridge or some other community near Heathrow. What are your thoughts on living in either Kensington, Chelsea, or St. John's Woods? What can I expect to pay monthly for a 3 or 4 bedroom flat?

My third question concerns nannies and cleaning ladies. In Florida, it is quite common for a nanny, in addition to her duties with the children, to clean the house and prepare lunch and supper. Is this the practice in the U.K. or do you need to hire somebody to do the cleaning apart from the nanny? How much do nannies cost per week?

Lastly, I am prepared to negotiate a cost of living adjustment b/t the U.S. and London as well as appropriate tuition and housing allowances to cover my incremental costs. However, what other benefits or allowances should I request or look into? For example, is it common to require the employer to pay for x-number of trips back to the U.S. to visit family and friends?

You help is appreciated.

Cheers,

For example, is it common to require the employer to pay for x-number of trips back to the U.S. to visit family and friends?

Hello!  Congrats on a possible relocation to London with your family.

I don't have many answers for your questions, I'm sorry for that.  I can offer that part of my DH's contract is two paid 'holidays' for us in the U.S. per calendar year.  There is a fixed amount of money we can spend.  If we don't take the trips, the allocated funds are rolled into the next calendar year.

But, are you the first employee to relocate?  Not just to London but anywhere internationally?  Most companies have some previous experience with expat packages.  You might want to check with HR, if possible.  Your employer shouldn't have to make up everything for a contract from scratch, there should be some precedent.   That protects the company, too, of course.

Good luck!

i can tell you we have a member who is a teacher at the american school!  Onetiger.  i'm sure she could help you with info on the school.

Secondly, i LOVE kensington and Chelsea. the area by st johns wood high street is nice too.

i wish i had more to tell you but i don't.  good luck, and really wrestle a good package out of them, esp. with cost of living being much higher than florida.  I think there are a lot of nannies looking for work in london, so i'm sure you could find a house keeper/nanny.

And rent in those areas will be steep- 550-600 per week.  a simple search on findaproperty.com brougth me something like (and this has some green space which is nice for kids!):

http://www.findaproperty.co.uk/agent.aspx?agentid=2850&opt=prop&pid=191564

in st john's wood, a little more affordable for abigger place:

http://www.findaproperty.co.uk/agent.aspx?agentid=0015&opt=prop&pid=50378

but i do adore those areas.......kensington gardens is lovely and i love kings road in chelsea with the shops and food!!!!

Nannies are paid around £400 p/w, a little less if they live in.  You can negotiate with them about housework. I used to have a flatmate who was a nanny and I know she did the children's meals but not usually cleaning or laundry.

Thanks for all you help. 

Wow...nannies make more money in one week than my existing nanny makes in a month.  I better start getting used to the sticker shock.

Anybody else have any advice or info to share?

3 kids under the age of 7 and your nanny only makes £400 A MONTH?  And she does housework?  Blimey.

Mindy:  She only works 3 days per week (8:30 am - 5:00 pm) and makes $180 U.S. per week.  Plus, all 3 kids are in school for most of the day.  That's close to market where I live.  You have to remember the vast majority of nannies in South Florida are not educated and many are illegal immigrants.

Is it easy to go from Kennsington to S. Johns Woods?  We are interested in a flat near Hyde Park and I need to know how difficult it will be to get 3 kids to the American School in St. Johns Woods.

The price of nannies aside ....

Here's a good site for trying to figure out how to get from a to b in London:

http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/user/XSLT_TRIP_REQUEST2?language=en

Journeyplanner lets you type in stations or postcodes or even places of interest.  It then gives you options for getting to your destination, tells you how long it will take, and even tells you if there are problems along the route with tube delays, etc.  Plus you can download maps as pdf files that will show you *exactly* how to get where you're going.  It's a must if you're new to London, I think.

According to the site, getting from High Street Kensington Station to St Johns Wood is a pretty easy, quick trip.  Total of about 30 minutes, but you have to catch a bus to Baker Street and then tube it over to St Johns Wood Station.  Might be a bit of a walk on either side of that so I'd say you could plan on 45 minutes each way.

Unless you have a car, in which case I can't really say! 

As an alternative to a nanny you may wish to consider an au pair.  They are usually girls aged 18- early 20s from European countries who have come to the UK to improve their English. They may or may not have experience in childcare and get paid less than a nanny. As well as the childcare they are usually happy to take on some cooking and light housework. They can be live in or live out.

I know you are probably heading toward the city areas and St. John's Wood is lovely, but I would like to offer an alternative.  I have 3 kids age 6 and under and we live in Surrey (Cobham, Walton-on-Thames, Esher area) and there is a fairly large American community here as well as two American schools - the American Community School (there is one in Cobham, Egham and Hillingdon) and TASIS in Thorpe.  It is a nice green area about a 30 minute train ride into London Waterloo station and about a 20 minute drive to the Heathrow area.  It was an easy transition for us because we were able to get a house with a garden (back yard) for a swingset and playhouse.  We get into London about once a month or two to go to the museums and stuff, but because we are used to driving out here, we also take lots of day trips to the English countryside which I love doing because it's a part of England that I wouldn't see if I was just visiting. 

I just thought I'd give you something else to consider because when we looked at living in the city (in the Chelsea area) we couldn't find anything that would give us a decent amount of space for our company's housing allowance (which was about 800 pounds a week - which sure seemed like a lot to me).   Also I have found that the tube stations and buses are not the easiest to get around with strollers if that is a consideration.  The housing market has changed in the last few years and has become a little less expensive so you may be in better luck.  Also we couldn't move to St. John's Wood because it would have been too long a commute to work, so it may be a little different in there. 

Good luck with your decision.

Gables, I'm in London flathunting at the moment, and I think 800 pounds/week would get you something REALLY nice in any of those areas. We've stayed in Kensington and love it, and are currently thinking of making an offer on a place in St. Johns Wood. We have two kids--a two year old and a one year old--and we don't have an expat package so are stuck having to find a flat without any corporate assistance. We are looking at about 500 pounds/week for a two-bedroom flat in those areas. And man, are they SMALL! Maybe around 700 sq. feet, if we are lucky.  But we do want to be fairly central, as we arent' going to be in London forever, and want to experience city life to the fullest. We are choosing our neighborhoods by virtue of proximity to green space--since the kids are so small we want to be able to walk to parks. St. Johns Wood is right near Regents Park, which is great. It is kind of a little America, though, since so many Yanks live there to be close to the school. (Which is a fantastic school, btw. I graduated from high school there many many years ago). Other areas that are nice are Hampstead, Maida Vale, Primrose Hill.  I find the properties are really hit-and-miss, though. It takes a lot of leg work and a lot of searching to find something just right, and it won't be anything like what you are used to. It really is a trade-off--you can live close-in and be a little (okay, a lot) squashed, or go further out and venture into the city on weekends. What do you think your children would like?  We have some Australian friends that just paid 750 pounds/week for a three bedroom in Lancaster Gate, and on the day they moved in (this Thursday) the pipes above them broke and the ceiling caved in and showered them with raw sewage.     My advice is to find a good independent letting agent who can show you a variety of flats in different areas, and can show you properties from all the big estate agents. We are using two guys from Abingdons who are fantastic--they've stayed with us through two rejections(the landlords didn't want kids)  one freak-out on our part (too far from the Tube) another offer that turned completely disastrous,  and we are STILL looking, one month into our adventure.

Good luck!

Lucy

Wishstar:  Thanks for the link and information.  I found the site very useful.

Britwife:  Thanks for the au pair suggestion.  My wife sounds interested in exploring this alternative.

Mickey:  How does TASIS and the American Community School compare to ASL?  Also, my youngest is out of the stroller, so hopefully commuting is not a problem  Speaking of commuting, is the drive from Central London to Uxbridge a long one?  Traffic?  Finally, I understand the tradeoff b/ t larger home, yard, etc. vs. staying closer to the City, but I'm with Lucy on this one, I will not be in London long and really want to enjoy everything the City has to offer.

Lucy:  I agree with your approach.  I too want to live close to the center.  Is $$ the only reason why you are choosing St. John's Woods over Kennsington or Chelsea?  Will it be difficult for my wife to get to the ASL from Kennsington?  Is the Tube stop in St. John's Woods within walking distance to the the school?  How far is St John's Woods from central London?

I think St Johns Wood tube station is basically across the street from the school and St Johns Wood to central London is not far at all (Central London covers a lot of area so depends exactly where you want to go).  I am 3 stops north of St Johns Wood and can be in the touristy part of London in about 15-20 min, though I try to stay away from the tourist area.   

bvamin

Gables,

The American Community School has been great for us (my 1st grader is at the one in Cobham) - it is a large campus with classes starting from age 2 1/2 through high school.  They have lots of green space - a track, a rugby pitch, several playgrounds, tennis courts, a new sports center with indoor pool and gym, etc.  I know some of some people with kids at TASIS and they are happy - it is a smaller school which many people prefer.

I don't know about the commute from central London to Uxbridge - it seems like you would want to use trains if possible rather than deal with traffic.

The best thing we did was both my husband and I came over and spent about a week and looked at flats, and then once we found an area we went to the grocery stores, rode the tube around, visited the schools, did the commute to school and work, pictured ourselves doing it with kids in the cold rain, tried to figure out if we needed a car (or if we could just rent one for weekends out), if we did get a car, where would we park it,  and we finally made our decision.   After we did all of that I have to say, that I had more reservations than my husband did about living in the city - he was going to get on a train each morning, go to work and hopefully get home in time for dinner, and be able to enjoy the city life on weekends,  while I was going to be dealing with the city life every day, which for me was just a little too much, but everybody is different.  At the end of all that looking I'm glad someone had mentioned the possibility of living outside of the city because that was starting to sound better to me, and we have been very happy.  I just wanted to explain my experiences and provide a little different perspective because I remember when we were trying to decide to move over here and I wanted to hear as much about it as possible.

I'm sure you will love the city life as many people I know do.  It's been a great experience being over here.  We are moving back to the states next month after 2 1/2 years here and I'm going to miss it.