Stupid questions about the practicalities of moving house

[frogs]

All you serial house movers, can I pick your brains?

We've been in our current house so long I can't remember how you sort out practicalities like utilities and keys etc.

How do we organise getting hold of the keys for the new house? And handing over the keys to our current house?

I guess we need to contact our current utility suppliers to let them know we're moving out, but how do we arrange to take over the supplies in our new house, or even find out which suppliers they have? And telephone/internet too.

Help, please!

OK, you hand over your keys to your estate agent once you are all packed in the lorry and ready to go to your new house on moving day. The estate agents aren't allowed to release the keys to the new owners until completion has happened. Likewise you will be given your new keys by the vendor's estate agent once they are out of their house.

Yes, phone the gas and elec people, they've usually got a dedicated line to take info about house moves. When you leave your house for the last time you need to take final readings, and take readings when you get in to the new place, and phone them through.

With the phone and internet, just ask your vendors or get solicitors to check. You can then phone the supplier to ensure you can carry on the line with your new details or organise your own line to be connected asap.

Good luck with it all!

Ah, thank you. Sadly we are not on speaking terms with the vendors of the house we are buying as they've been the vendors from hell -- we only exchanged yesterday, and the estate agent said it was the most traumatic deal she's ever done.

So we will need to attend the office of the vendors' estate agents to pick up the keys once we're all packed up?

Aaaargh, so much to do, and only a week to do it in!

Good luck!

blimey they must have been awful - poor you. Yes, you get the keys to your new house from the vendor's estate agent.

how exciting. I have two friends looking to move at the moment and I love it, get all the excitement of looking at house details and none of the stress

What's your new house like, go on, indulge me.....

oh, and if it was me I would get your estate agent to find out who the phone/internet supplier is. That's the sort of thing they're paid to do...make them earn their money (though they sound like they may have done that already with the vendors from hell!)

I suspect their suppliers are British Gas -- their (totally incompetent) solicitor's documentation said something like 'The region's main supplier'. Is it possible for me to organise in advance for a different supplier to take over, or should I just settle for their existing supplier for the moment and then change to a better deal once established?

Ssup, new house is big and in lovely road but somewhat dilapidated, with an excess of heavy wallpaper, dark coloured paint and swirly carpets. Also has no central heating and needs complete replumb, rewire and new bathroom. But will be lovely one day.

Frogs, good luck! When do you move?

A week today! And we only exchanged yesterday. It was a cliffhanger right up to the last minute, and even now I'm sure there are still a few nasty surprises in store for us.

Oooo sounds lovely...sounds like you will be busy about the house for quite a time....

I don't know if it would be possible to arrange a change of supplier in advance TBH - you aren't the legal owners till completion so that may be an issue.

If it was me I'd move in and change suppliers later.

Oh, Frogs, us too (if we exchange today!).

Daunting thinking of packing everything up - don't want to have to do this again in a hurry!

So do I need to proactively phone the existing suppliers to ensure that we have a supply on moving? Will they cut the supply off if we don't contact them in advance? [confused emoticon]

This is a site I am finding useful atm

Our exchange is halfway through...!

And this one - can do all your address-changing on here

Frogs, your friendly estate agent should be able to explain everything to you - give them a call, that's what they're there for.

good luck frogs well done with exchanging with vendors from hell, there is a website or number which will tell you who your suppliers are, or I think you can just go to a supplier you like and they will find out. Sorry not to be more helpful but a bit of googling might come up trumps!

good luck frogs well done with exchanging with vendors from hell, there is a website or number which will tell you who your suppliers are, or I think you can just go to a supplier you like and they will find out. Sorry not to be more helpful but a bit of googling might come up trumps!

Sorry

Hunker, you are a genius!

Chocolateface, the vendors' estate agents have distinguished themselves by their complete crapness, so I'm not keen to have any more to do with them than absolutely necessary. And they'll have to contact their clients to get the information, which means we'll have moved in by the time they get back to us...

A genius, you say?

Hunker, are you moving on 27th too? Sound like you're cutting it even finer than we did. The really hairy thing with ours has been that our buyer's mortgage offer runs out at the end of April, so they've been trying to push everything forward, but all the other people in the chain have just been sitting on their backsides. Aaargh. Really don't understand why people would instruct a crap solicitor for the sake of saving £500, when they're spending 1000 times that on buying a house.

Yes, moving on 27th too. Have been packing and putting stuff in storage for a while now though. I tend to live by flying by the seat of my pants - I don't do "organised in advance" - I thrive on the am I going to make the deadline or aren't I adrenaline.

Except when I miss it and then I berate myself for being a twat

I just decide who I want to go with eg when we moved here vndor had sky i wanted cable phoned cable told them I was moving and where to they arrived the day after we moved in and put in cable I took the dish down as thay had left it

I dont think its up to you to cancel there old suppliers the contract ends with them when they move out

as for services gas electric make sure you right down the reading whe you move out of your old house and write down the readings on the dials of your new house when you move in thn you wont have to pay for any supplies used by a third party

if you want to move to another energy supplier give them a ring and tell them when you are moving in

P.s when you get to you your new house put your beds up and make them first job after all the stress of moving its great to know you can put the kids to better when they get tired with no hassle

If someone hasn't already answered this. If you have incompetent vendors (we did - not unfriendly like yours, just incompetent) you can pick your energy supplier(s) of choice (uswitch ) and contact them. The current supplier(s) will contact you - they won't just cut off the supply - so you will have to pay a one-off bill to them for the ~6 weeks it takes to change.

For 'phone - call BT. If the vendors haven't given notice (ours hadn't) then BT have to contact them, but you can arrange things in the meantime - and given the vendor-from-hell situation I would recommend not inheriting the number - makes it easier on the permissions front as well cos otherwise they have to check with the vendors if they want to take the number with them. BT will give you a new 'phone number and you can then use that to arrange boradband setup.

Good Luck!

oh - I knew there was something else. Take meter readings the minute you walk in the door. Mine differed significantly from the vendors final reading and I had a blazing row with their electricity supplier whose initial reaction was to automatically take theirs rather than mine as being accurate

I have moved house so many times now its frightening and maybe if DH gets this new job will be doing it all over again

We take a digital photo of the meters just as we leave.