My experience has been that the three companies I’ve worked for all went after relocation expenses. Most of the time they pro-rated the expenses, but that is because these employees had family issues that required them to leave. But for those that just left for employment reasons they went after every dime.

There are really no legal expenses incurred to recoup. It’s pretty black white and they know exactly how much you received and will let you know at the time you resign what you owe them.

I wouldn’t want to start a new job and then have to go to court with my last employer for leaving so soon. Also, you wouldn’t want to get in to a wage garnishment issue. You new employer will definitely know about that.

Yes, most companies would probably try to collect – relocation is expensive. At a minimum, they’d probably withhold your last paycheck to cover part of it.