Demurrage Charges due to Customs Error

[Vintage1971]

Hello all,

First post and I really need some advice.

I am a small sole trader and imported 11 cbm (about half a 20ft container) of second hand clothing, arrived 16th December at felixtowe.

Paid all charges and customs then just as I was expecting to get a delivery date I was advised by agent the goods had been selected by customs for physical inspection.

After chasing again and again direct to customs and through agent I was always told it was still awaiting inspection. Finally (after my local MP actually got involved and emailed customs - 100% true story) it was inspected and immediately cleared, this was 30th Jan.

Just got my demurrage charges and they are asking for £18,953.51, broken down as £42.50 per cubic metre per day =* 11.435 = 485.98 /day

Obviously this is an insane amount of money for small load of second hand clothing and I couldn't even sell them for near that price. I don't want to abandon the goods as I've already got so much money invested.

Please can anybody offer any advice or help as this is basically going to destroy my business and me financially, all through no fault of my own making.

Look forward to any help

Cheers

 

[Import Expert]

Wow, that is a lot of money. Unfortunately Border Force would take no responsibility for any delay, although that does seem a very long time for an examination to take place. What reason did they give for the delay?

The problem you have is if you don't pay, the freight company you are dealing with may take what's called a Lien on the goods. This means they essentially take ownership and will try to sell them to pay off some of the money due. the other problem you have is I'm assuming they may not have have frozen this figure, so it could be going up every day.

I'd be interested to know exactly where the goods have been stored. You mention Felixstowe, but is this actually one of the Ports own warehouses, or a 3rd party freight warehouse. Perhaps the company you are dealing with have their own?

The reason I ask is if it is a 3rd party warehouse then this money is essentially all profit to them, so you could appeal to their good nature and agree to pay a % of the total figure in order to get the goods out of their warehouse and the matter resolved. If it is the docks own warehouse then this is not likely to work.

 

[HFE Signs]

That is crazy, we had a 20ft container pulled for x-ray once and delayed by a few days, off the top of my head the cost was around 500 quid.

Please keep us updated on how this goes, seem totally unfair to me.

 

[IanSuth]

Have you pushed it back at MP and seen if they can do anything about the charges as they know the history and you can show how stupid it is.

Depending on their colour rosette you may or may not get into the middle of a bunch of publicity however

 

[GraemeL]

I am also interested in the outcome here, it is a huge demurrage cost.

Also, its not clear what the demurrage is for. @Vintage1971 says

I am a small sole trader and imported 11 cbm (about half a 20ft container) of second hand clothing,

so was this an LCL shipment? What was in the rest of the container?

 

[WaveJumper]

Agree would be very interesting to hear the outcome

 

[M.Reid]

If an LCL shipment this may/will not be full profit as indicated as the LCL Co-Loader will likely use a third-party warehouse for the unloading of the container and demurrage charges vary considerably. Based on what you are importing and your relationship with your forwarder you may be able to negotiate but a one-off shipment of used clothing is unlikely to be attractive to the forwarder for future shipments. A lot of AEO forwarders would refuse to handle this commodity.

Essentially I would advise the forwarder calmly and politely that you cannot pay this amount and ask them to negotiate this down. I would also ask them for the details of the third-party warehouse so you can try and negotiate directly with them.

When negotiating point out the value and what the goods are. No Co-Loader will want this commodity hanging about in their warehouse for any length of time. I would also look for another forwarder once this is resolved as it sounds like they haven't really assisted you.

You do get shipments that get stuck for a long time and used goods of any type can require a lengthy exam. Used clothing in particular as Country of Origin rules and differing duty rates may have played a part in the exam delay.

Good luck

 

[CHUKTC]

The fees do sound extortionate - ful containers rarelt attract those rates of demurrage. I would challege your forwarder and ask to see a copy of the invoice the warehouse is charging them. I have a suspicion they are ading a sizeable profit for temselves on top. Like others be very interested to hear the outcome and best wishes..

 

[Wavecrest Ltd]

If an LCL shipment this may/will not be full profit as indicated as the LCL Co-Loader will likely use a third-party warehouse for the unloading of the container and demurrage charges vary considerably. Based on what you are importing and your relationship with your forwarder you may be able to negotiate but a one-off shipment of used clothing is unlikely to be attractive to the forwarder for future shipments. A lot of AEO forwarders would refuse to handle this commodity.

Essentially I would advise the forwarder calmly and politely that you cannot pay this amount and ask them to negotiate this down. I would also ask them for the details of the third-party warehouse so you can try and negotiate directly with them.

When negotiating point out the value and what the goods are. No Co-Loader will want this commodity hanging about in their warehouse for any length of time. I would also look for another forwarder once this is resolved as it sounds like they haven't really assisted you.

You do get shipments that get stuck for a long time and used goods of any type can require a lengthy exam. Used clothing in particular as Country of Origin rules and differing duty rates may have played a part in the exam delay.

Good luck

Unfortunately there are a number of freight companies that charge punitive demurrage charges. They see this as a way to make huge profit out of the misfortune of others. These charges have no relation to the costs they are paying whether or not they are using a third party warehouse.