Time off work to move house

[catmumof1]

Pretty sure IANBU but looking for some outsider opinions.

Me and DP have just bought a house, DPs first and my second so it's a really special life moment for him.

We finally have a completion date after 4 months and as soon as we had it DP asked for the time off of work.

It's been rejected! (the same as every other bit of leave he's asked for, but we've made do and worked around it so far)
The reasoning is that they've already got 2 people off that day from the office of 150 and team of 20!
The holiday policy of 2 off is to make sure they have enough staff to cover for emergencies and sick leave, I appreciate that moving house isn't an emergency but it is short notice leave that's not possible to change so imo similar to a funeral in terms of importance.

He's basically been left with the options to call in sick or just not turn up, both will likely result in a disciplinary.

The best part is they've just offered him the 8th of October instead I'm not sure if they're clueless or just total arseholes.

Basically WWBU to call in sick when they know it's our moving day!
Are there any employment laws applying to this kind of stuff?

He was also told in the snow that because we don't have DC he would have to go into work even though it was dangerous on the roads!
They're horrible employers but we can't really afford to loose the income

How far are you moving? You could leave one of the cars parked on the roadside and pick it up when you can.

Change completion date (check with employer first for availability), half day / early finish / late start, man with van, friends helping, pack up night before & unpack after work (park second car somewhere near new place night before when partner can drive you back after) - you could be unpacking boxes during the day?
It sucks but there are options.

Can he see if the two who already have leave are willing to swap?

I agree that this is worth a try.

I hadn't thought of man with a van or local fb selling pages, that's probably the route we'll have to take.
Professional movers near me wanted over £1000 which is small in the grand scheme of moving house but more than half of my months wages, DP earns less.

New house is empty so might be able to wrangle getting the keys early as well

Original plan was to pack the Luton the night before and sleep on the air bed and we were torn on putting the cat in a cat hotel for the night but thought that might be mega stressful for her when we had other options

Thanks for all your advice, going to get on to estate agents and van men now!

if moving out and in same day (due to selling and buying) movers are very normal. Moving from rented to bought is less time critical so movers are less normal and less necessary.

I think you'll struggle to move out and clean in time if it's just you. We had professional movers, we'd packed in advance and it still took us and them 3 hours to load the van (3 bed house). I don't think we'd have managed just me and DH, particularly is stairs are involved.

But YANBU. Ask for unpaid leave, emergency leave or pull a sicky.

Changing the completion day would be fine but they can only offer him the 8th of October!

Hire a Luton and pack it the night before. Just leave the essentials for the morning that will fit into the car.

Leave the van on a road near new property and unpack what you can yourself and leave the heavy stuff for when your partner is home from work.

It's light late into the evenings so whilst not ideal, you will manage.

Sorry but yabu, we had to move with a toddler. Dh had to work all day on moving day. Fair enough my dad came to help, but we managed. Dh had to work, so I did most of the sorting, and my dad very kindly was here to help move heavy boxes for me. Even after we'd moved in, dh still had to work

If they can’t offer him a day off until 8th October and have declined his other leave requests how is he actually managing to take his annual leave allowance? Just wondering if he has all his leave left if you could make an appeal based on that?

You could hire a storage unit for a week - move everything except a van load in one weekend, then he helps you load the fridge and last bits into the van before he goes to work on moving day.
You can then clean/set up airbed/ carry in what you can during the day and then he helps get heavy stuff in, and do a van run or two to the self store unit. Move the big stuff while you have the van, and then move boxes in the car until the weekend when you finish it all off

Brilliant idea CMOT.

Be prepared for them not to let you have the keys early OP. If there is a garage there they may let you store some stuff in there though.

You could hire a storage unit for a week

We used one of those companies where they bring round a wooden pod, which you fill, and they store for however long you need and then bring it to the next place. You can also pay for them to help load/unload. It wasn't expensive - under 400 quid for us for 2 pods and 2 weeks if I remember rightly

We've done it twice this way now, it's so much less stressful to have all the stuff moved out ahead of time, live out of suitcases for a couple of days, then get it all delivered when you're ready.

It gives you a chance to do decent cleaning, and means that when the people moving out are inevitably detained you can just go and get lunch and not worry about having vans and all your worldly goods sat on the road outside the house.

You can get removal men cheap with a van!
I don't believe someone who can afford to buy a house, Can't afford to hire some moving men for a hour or two.

They're only like 60 quid an hour, that includes van and lifting.

YABU. Your DH doesn't NEED to be there.

Removal companies are very expensive. For our last couple of moves we've hired a 'man with a van' as others have suggested. If you go on the Anyvan website, you enter your information and what you are looking for and businesses quote for your job (you can read reviews from previous customers). You have to list all large items of furniture and state the number of packing cases (approx.). We moved in December from a 4 bed place, so lots of furniture, and accepted a quote of £420 for a van with 2 men, from a business a long way from us. I was really nervous, rang them to confirm twice, half expecting to be let down on the day, but they were amazing - it was actually a van with 3 men! I gave them £600 in the end as they were so helpful and efficient.

As an aside I was refused the day off to move many many years ago, and it was so strange leaving one home in the morning and returning to another one in the evening!

Can your husband get any of the days off very near the completion date and then maybe the chain will agree to adjust the moving day or such like.

I love how people on Mumsnet are all like, shock, don't you have movers?

Just hire a Man with a Van! Just pay for someone to do it for you!

I've never in my life known anyone to use a removal service in the "real world". We moved on the weekend, I couldn't do anything as I'm in a wheelchair, DH is suffering with his spine and we don't have two pennies to run together, so hiring anyone was out of the question! We just had to get on with it but he has taken a week off work to unpack and sort things at the old house.

If we'd been in your situation OP, he'd have called in sick as there wouldn't have been another option. We don't have family or local friends to help, so it would have had to have been done.

DisturblinglyOrangeScrambleEgg
I have never heard of those pods, they are just what I have needed in the past.
Will you post the name of the company or tell me what to google.
Thanks.

Professor, not everyone has the option of moving at the weekend if they are in a chain.

I think calling in sick when you're not sick is always unreasonable.

However your DP's work is also BU with their ridiculous leave policy.

At my old company you got 2 free days off for moving house!

Please reconsider and do not move yourselves. Too many vendors do that, it holds up the moving day if they are not well prepared and causes immense friction. Surely if you can afford to purchase a house you can find the money somewhere. I am based in the North West and I paid £350 to move from a 4 bed house.

Also, hire movers.

We hired them to pack as well. Best £800 I have ever spent. Worth every penny!!

We paid a man with a van (actalually two men). We packed everything. They then did all the lifting and loaded the van etc.

They were hundereds rather than thousands. They just didn’t have a snazzy van with a logo on it! We have them an extra tip because we realised we had far more stuff than it first looked initially.

Please reconsider and do not move yourselves. Too many vendors do that, it holds up the moving day if they are not well prepared and causes immense friction. Surely if you can afford to purchase a house you can find the money somewhere. I am based in the North West and I paid £350 to move from a 4 bed house.

That's really quite patronising. I am also NW and having rang round 4 or 5 movers last time we moved, the lowest quote just for moving was £700 (and that's without packing) for a 3 bed house. There are very often delays during moving for all sorts of reasons - she's trying to sort it out now, well in advance, so I am sure she will be well prepared.

The OP has said she doesn't have the money. End of. And no, just because she's moving house doesn't mean she has hundreds of pounds spare to pay movers.

It is a pain for you, but your DP’s work will have a reason for only allowing two absences. It sounds like it’s their standard policy, and if they said yes to your DP, for this, other people might claim it’s unfair, or plead their own individual cases in future, which completely undermines the point of the policy. It’s not incumbent upon them to say yes to make the move easier for you. Moving house is not an emergency. Family illness, etc is. Also a funeral would be a fair exceptional circumstance.
Agree with others that if you can’t afford professional movers, book a local man with a van (or even without the van, if you have the van already booked). Movers are the way we’ve always done it though. Worth every penny for less stress.

The week before we moved, I started moving the small unnecessary stuff to my friends house. Then come moving day it was just the large items in one load. Good luck