Booking removals.....

[RaphaellaTheSpanishWaterDog]

Hi MumsNetters,

I was just wondering how anyone else has got on regarding booking a removals company when you are not yet certain if the actual completion/moving date?

We are close to exchange (hopefully!) with a short chain of four parties (our vendor who has already bought and moved into their new house, us, our buyer and their buyer who is buying to let) and our solicitor has assured us we should be exchanging either this Friday or else next Friday at the very latest. Everyone is working towards a completion date if 12th Dec, but obviously at this stage nothing is guaranteed......

Our buyer has provisionally booked their removal co for 12th (with no deposit required) and their buyer is obviously not planning on moving in as it is a BTL.

We had four removal companies round to quote (three were BAR registered and at least one wanted payment in full - £4000 - upfront) and have contacted a couple who are already fully booked it being that close to Christmas/busy time etc.

So, we selected another one of the four, who has said they don't do provisional bookings......

We have almost 4000 cu ft of belongings so can't just hire a man & van.....

What do other people do in this situation?

TIA x

[specialsubject]

removers should be used to this and companies that want work DO take provisional bookings. Fully booked this close to Christmas is unfortunately quite likely.

also payment up front in full...hmm...

keep looking. The world is full of removers. Do check insurance etc but BAR is not the only association.

[TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams]

We moved just prior to Christmas a few years back and told the whole chain [mercifully short] that we had to exchange by a certain date, otherwise the completion date was off due to removers and other logistics. Next available completion date that we had was mid Jan. Funnily enough we got sorted in time with enough notice for the movers.

[sweetheart]

I have just been through this last week and we had to find an entirely new company the day before exchange because the one we had hoped to use didn't have any space. I'd say try facebook. Ask for recommendations from people you know on there or if you have a local page go on there too. We are moving this week and are booked in with a company that don't advertise in any of the normal places we tried.

[BaffledSomeMore]

We were pencilled in with 2 companies. One phoned 2 days before exchange to say they could no longer do it.
The second company (Pickfords) did cancellation insurance so we took that out and booked with them.

[Pipbin]

Can you find out who is doing the removals for your buyer.
Quite coincidentally our whole chain booked the same removals firm for our last move. They were only a local firm and it worked quite well.