Removal comany nightmare

[LoobyLou1976]

Hi all, supposed to be moving on the 15th (next Friday) to a new build. We still have not seen the house, it was bought off plan and we have not been allowed in yet. Hoping to get in this week for our demonstration meeting.
We have a date of the 15th which they keep saying we will get in by, so that is the date I've had to give the removal company. They say there are penalties to pay if this date does not go ahead (a sliding scale for example, you still need to pay 50% of the removal charge if the date is changed 5 days before, 75% if its 3 days before, 100% if its the day of the move and its changed).
As we are paying over £1000 for a move 1 mile up the road and doing our own packing, this is a LOT of money to lose if the date changes.

The removal company have now contacted me to say they need to know when we will be getting our keys! Apparently there is a £66 per hour charge for getting your keys late on the day. The developers are still saying they are 'working towards' the date of the 15th and don't know what time they keys will be released. How am I supposed to proceed with this? Has anyone been in a similar situation?

NOW the removals company have said that all items like TVs etc need to be in their ORIGINAL boxes for the move, and if we don't have one we need to hire a special crate at another charge! As if paying over £1000 is not enough. And my large mantle mirror will need extra protection and wrapping at a cost of £20. I'm just really worried because when I made the removal booking I filled in an inventory as well as I could (stated to the lady we had not yet emptied the attic/shed etc so was unsure exactly what was coming), and I'm worried they will start adding costs on the day of the move for items that were not listed. She said on the phone " as long as you're not bringing a grand piano that you've not told us about" that it would be fine.
Sorry for rant, really stressing. How did everyone else get on with their removal company? Were you charged for items on the day that were not in your inventory, and did the removal men tick off a list of things as they loaded them?

I would ring the local council offices and speak to the buildings people. See if you can speak to the person that does the inspections of new builds and find out exactly when they have been booked in to do the checks... plus say that they are messing you around and what experience do they have of them at this estate?

Then go down to the site office, explain how nervous this is making you, that you don’t care about the build line and you’re happy to sign a disclaimer but that they are going against their own policy and that you should have already seen it 4 times so what are they trying to hide exactly - because if they normally let people in to see things earlier in the build they must be able to take people into properties behind the build line so why not you? Why did they not tell you up front before you bought that you would not have access as they must have known the basics from their project plans...

Maybe repeat the questions on all their social media platforms if you get rubbish responses...

Also ask serious questions about access for removals lorries and how you were promised a moving date so you will expect them to pay for any additional costs incurred.

Has anybody moved onto the site yet? Can you wander down and introduce yourselves to them, find out what their movingbin experience was like?

Also check out google for things like miller homes delays or problems moving in etc.

Finally do you have legal expenses cover on your existing home insurance? Might be worth talking to them for advice. Is your solicitor one that was recommended by the builders? They’re never particularly on your side - you are paying them but they want the steady income stream from the builder so don’t tend to rock the boat...

That sounds extortionate. Dd has just moved from one two bed semi to another two bed semi three miles away. She has a lot of stuff. She paid less than £800 for it to be packed and moved. Removal firm supplied all packaging as part and parcel of the price. They came two days before removal day and packed all the stuff that she didn't need and took it to the house and even put it away. It was a full ten hour day on removal day for them to pack and move the rest.

You will have been given the terms and conditions by the removal company by email to sign? You also could take out the insurance premium that would cover any delay in moving? Where are the terms and conditions that you signed.
We moved with Britannia last year a major national and it was a tricky move due to distance, quantity of stuff and a narrow lane where they had to offload and put into smaller vehicles. All those terms you are saying are standard with "the big boys" but you must take out their insurance that covers you in case you have to cancel or delay. Read the terms and conditions again and contact them.

I would cancel the removal company now - even if that meant a penalty fee - because the risk is too high that the penalty will just grow and grow as the date changes

Moving dates changing at the last minute are typical and a removal firm that doesn't try and accomodate this is useless. All the shit about £66 per hour and a special crate is just taking the piss

Sack them off and find a local firm who will work with you to achieve the move.

Since the chances of you getting the house next Friday are obviously next to nil, you need to start controlling the things you can control. There's great advice about Miller already, but I'd cancel the rip-off removal company as a priority

If there's a penalty, pay it by cheque after cancelling your card so they can't make a "mistake" in how much they take. Clearly they'd have stiffed you for extra charges on the day anyway, so even if you have to pay someone else you should be no worse off in the end

And you do know don't you that good "reviews" can be bought in bulk?

When you cancel make very clear that one of the reasons is because you believe it is unreasonable and unethical of them not to mention needing original boxes before the penalty charges kicked in - big tv(S) were on your list so they knew it could be an issue because by and large people don’t keep big boxes around. Thus effectively bringing a higher cost that you didn’t know about and would have made a difference potentially to the decision making process.

Leaves the way open to go back to them to complain later - or get trading standards involved...

I know hindsight is a wonderful thing but you really should have chosen the removal firm who visited to actually survey the items to be moved. That way if there was any miscalculation on move day, the onus would be on the representative who visited.i would cancel now and get a rep to visit. You could end up being liable for much more than the cancellation fee on the day and that's difficult to negotiate once all your worldy goods are on a lorry. Sorry to sound alarmist op but I do think that's your best bet in terms of the removals part of your problem

My house was a new build that we bought off plan. We also part exchanged. We popped by quite often to watch how the build was going and once the front door was on they quite happily gave us the keys every so often to see inside.

That’s extortionate for the removal company. I paid £1800 for packing, moving everything into store, two months of storage, and then delivering everything 200 miles away to the new house. That included export wrapping of an antique unit, and them watering 4 garden plants that went into store!!

Cancel the moving company. Cancel your debit card get a new one. They are totally screwing you over!

Are you in Scotland? The law around property sales differs from England and Wales.

Cancelling your card still makes you liable to pay. It's awful advice.

Also, is there even a road up to your house yet? Are any of the surrounding houses occupied?

You need to get your solicitor to be firm with the builders. They give you a guaranteed date, or compensation to cover the removal costs if they cannot meet this.

Jesus they sound like complete rip offs! How much would the cancellation be? Our company moved us 4 hours away. They came and surveyed the house told us how many boxes we would need. Supplied all the boxes as well as wardrobe boxes and tv boxes and specialist covers for the sofas and mattresses. We packed and labelled. They then moved EVERYTHING we didn’t touch a thing. Van was packed within an inch of its space including large blankets to wrap around things like dining room furniture. They had the van packed by 10.30am move day and it was unpacked with every box in the right room and beds assembled in the new house by 4pm. For £660. They were incredible.

They are rip off merchants.

I recently moved 1 mile down the road from a 2 bed to similar. They came round and did an inventory. We did our own packing but with boxes and wrapping provides by them, on a ‘use or return’ basis.

They quoted £600 plus vat. Insured all items over £800 (so, sofa, a couple of handbags, total value of clothes, laptop etc) separately and told us to leave pictures, TV & mirrors for them to pack.

Three blokes arrived, wrapped above items, loaded our 90 boxes into the van, drove the mile, unloaded and took away the non used boxes and wrapping and, having arrived at 8am, we’re done by 4pm (having taken a well deserved lunch break). They came in £100 under the quote.

I tipped them £150...

Find another company OP...

Oh yes, mine also had specialised wrapping for the telly and pictures. Plus the wardrobe boxes. And they had to take the sofa out through the window... they also dismantled and remantled all beds and a wardrobe system.

Please please please get a snagging company in. Please. It seems like a lot of money upfront but it will save you much headache in the long run. We moved in to our new build nearly 2 years ago and currently pursuing the builder via NHOP insurance scheme. We've had to provide evidence of when we reported each snag. We are STILL finding things wrong with the house (window started leaking last month). The builders have been next to useless resolving anything.

As someone else has said previously, the removal company is not your problem here. You can't make one of the biggest financial commitments without even seeing it first!! That is batshit crazy. Tweet them about it.

Have you had the quality checks completed on your house yet? This needs to be completed and passed before they can confirm your move in date. With us, it got passed, we completed the Friday then moved in the following Friday. There had to be 1 week between so unless everything comes together tomorrow, it's very unlikely you'll be in on the 15th.

Sounds utterly ludicrous. Our removal company took any box or bag that we packed. They even helped us as we packed up things at the end! They were great. There was no hard sell or fuss about boxes!

OMG. We are also moving to a new build Miller Home next Friday, have done part exchange, haven't once been allowed into the house yet and are unable to get through to them. I'm sorry it's happening to you too, but fucking hell, what a shower of bastards they are. I'm going out of my mind with stress. We have 5 DC.

To clarify, we haven't been able to get them to confirm the date yet either.

Also, again about the removal as I know the industry, has anyone checked the access to the new house? If there are issues and they can't get the vehicle in and need extra vehicles/staff they could bill you for that aswell. You need to cancel them and focus on the problems with not seeing the house op. At this time if year you will easily find another removal firm at short notice

£1k and you're packing yourselves? I rented a man with a van for £50...

The removal cost does depend on how much is to be moved and ease (Or otherwise) of access at loading and delivery addresses. Plus, simple supply and demand is a major factor. If you're moving on a popular day, dare I say a Friday, that has already been factored in before a rep walks through the door I'm afraid