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Original poster

How does this work with movers then?

31 replies

BasinHaircut · 30/03/2015 08:07

Moving this week, buying and selling. Got movers comig to pack on weds, and then move on Thursday.

On the day of the move is like to have an hour maybe in the new house before the removal men turn up and start bringing stuff in. We need to remove a small built in unit before the bedroom stuff comes in and I'd like to vacuum the carpets thoroughly and wipe down the woodwork, plus we probably need to work out where some of the bigger pieces of furniture are going to go.

Is this normal? Or will the removal men want to crack straight on asap?

Will the removal men likely be all packed up and gone for lunch or whatever before we get the call to say it's all done? Or do they hang around and then go straight there?

OP posts:

penny13610 · 30/03/2015 08:27

Removal men tend to want to crack on straight away. They have estimated how long your job will take and may be booked to do another job in the afternoon.
Your best bet to get the new house cleaned is to abandon OH at the old house, get the keys to the new house ASAP and clean frantically. Do you have a good friend who could help?

Littleturkish · 30/03/2015 08:29

Or, could you pay a cleaner to be at your new house so it's clean when you arrive?

Original poster

BasinHaircut · 30/03/2015 08:33

Thanks for the responses, but how would I/a cleaner get in? We won't have the keys until we pick them up, which won't be until the chain is complete.

OP posts:

AnnoyedByAlfieBear · 30/03/2015 08:38

I had plans to hoover the new house and wipe skirting boards, etc but the removal men were straight in.

Original poster

BasinHaircut · 30/03/2015 08:44

This is what I fear. If they want in as soon as the keys are available then there will be no time for anything.

Is it too much to hope that I might be able to stall them (I.e. Send them for lunch and not tell them we have the keys straight away) or is that just wishful thinking that it might turn out that way?

What time in he day does it all usually happen?

OP posts:

didireallysaythat · 30/03/2015 11:00

We got the phone call about the keys at 12, picked them up at 3 but the people didn't finish moving out until 4:30. Not a lot of cleaning happened. You'll have a time on your completion document from your solicitor and I wouldn't bank on getting the keys an earlier....

LittleBearPad · 30/03/2015 11:03

You may need to admit defeat. They'll want to get everything in asap. Money doesn't usually move until late morning.

How long is your chain as all the house sales below have to complete first before yours can so you have the funds to buy your purchase.

MerryMarigold · 30/03/2015 12:40

If I were you, I would leave the furniture away from the walls so you can do things like wash skirting and hoover under the bed before moving it back into its place. It won't be that hard to shift it.

Lottie4 · 30/03/2015 13:09

When we moved, the removal men for our purchaser were already outside before we moved out (even though we hadn't completed), and our own removers drove ahead of us and were waiting outside our new property, so it could well be that your removers will be there from late morning onwards and will be well aware when you have access to the property.

Most people just have to move their things into the property, whether clean or not, and have to move the furniture around themselves if its not in the right room. If you explain to the removers, you need to remove a unit, I'm sure they would be willing to load the furniture for that room fairly early on, so it's in the last half of things that come off the lorry - if a dry day, you can ask it's left outside and is the last thing bought in. Most are very obliging in our experience and go beyond the call of duty.

Original poster

BasinHaircut · 30/03/2015 22:39

If I turn up at the new place and the old owners are still there I'll be fuming! I thought you were supposed to be all out before completion, or ready to leave at least?

Yeah I guess I'll have to play it by ear but assume that our removals guys will be there as soon as we get there so there won't be much time for cleaning.

Good idea about trying to make sure the stuff from the room we need to remove stuff from is at the bottom/back of the lorry. I think it will work or that way anyway as its our bedroom and they have already said they will clear that first at this end so we can bring the loft stuff down into it once they have cleared it.

OP posts:

didireallysaythat · 30/03/2015 22:42

basin yes I was a little pissed off but I went and bought an ice cream to calm down. We made the offer in January and we moved in during the last week of august, a day before our (non extendable) mortgage offer expired so I figured an hour here or there didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

Original poster

BasinHaircut · 30/03/2015 22:51

I suppose so. As long as we have the keys by 5 I'll be ok, that's when my online shopping is turning up!

OP posts:

DonnaLyman · 30/03/2015 23:09

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

CalmingMiranda · 30/03/2015 23:29

The removal men will go like the clappers loading up, and then drive straight to the new house and have their lunch waiting for completion. As soon as you turn up with the keys they will unload even faster! I suppose you could negotiate a delay but you would need to do so in advance with the company, and expect to pay extra.

RaphaellaTheSpanishWaterDog · 30/03/2015 23:47

We've had all sorts of scenarios with our moves - 1) arrived to find POs still clearing house, 2) arrived to find our removers there having let themselves in through an open conservatory door before completion had happened, 3) house full of almost fifty items of furniture that PO had left behind (house previously subdivided to four flats and tenanted), 4) our buyers on our doorstep at 9am ready and raring to go whilst we/our removers were still attempting to empty the house......

Last move but one we actually got the keys a week before completion (just after exchange) as the vendors didn't live there and we're happy for us to move stuff in....not normal, I know, but we made certain we had the house insured just in case. No point cleaning though as the pace was about to be gutted!

Our last removers (week before Christmas 2014) were fab - it was a five day move (long distance and literally shed loads of stuff) and the actual unloading was spread over two days. When they left the first evening our stuff was in all the wrong rooms as the boss had managed to mislay the floorplan we gave him so they'd know where to put stuff and as they arrived three hours before us they'd just guessed what went where. I was rather pissed off at this, but when they came back next day they happily swapped most stuff over - including swapping large, heavy sideboards and sofas from upstairs to down and vice versa. One sofa even had to be hauled up over the balcony to our upstairs snug - they were incredibly helpful considering we must have seemed like the customers from hell!

RaphaellaTheSpanishWaterDog · 30/03/2015 23:48

were not we're!

BackforGood · 31/03/2015 00:21

If I turn up at the new place and the old owners are still there I'll be fuming! I thought you were supposed to be all out before completion, or ready to leave at least?

Get ready to fume then.
Everyone is trying to load a lifetime of possessions into a lorry. Generally speaking the removal men will start at 8.30 or 9 or whenever agreed. It's perfectly feasible that your packing is quicker than the packing of the house you are buying - that's just the way it is sometimes. People can't move out the day before, as they've got nowhere to go until you've handed over the money for their sale, so they can hand the money over for the place they are buying, and so on.
Sometimes they aren't out when you arrive. Such is life.

Is there a reason that you think it won't be left clean by the vendors?

hifi · 31/03/2015 00:56

I had my cleaner on hand to clean the house we were leaving. It didn't happen, too rushed. All the stair carpets were dirty as it was raining and there was 5 removal guys going up 3 flights of stairs. Our money didn't transfer until 3pm, removals from both sides were just sitting in their vans. Also if you have an American style fridge with water/ice maker make sure you take the doors off asap , took the removals about 40 mins to figure it out. They work like the clappers when you get to the new property so make sure you know where everything is going.

Original poster

BasinHaircut · 31/03/2015 08:16

back, surely no one is actually packing on moving day? Just loading it on a truck?

I'm hoping it will be clean but preparing for the worst. It's always looked nice and wan when we've been round there so far so hopefully it will be ok. I'd still like to give it a wipes self though because I'm a bit OTT about these things sometimes.

OP posts:

didireallysaythat · 31/03/2015 09:10

We were packing one moving day - once the bedrooms were cleared we brought the stuff down from the attic and had to pack that. But it was an unusual move in that we were moving 3 miles with a small can. Not our finest hour but it was a small house and we had no space to pack the attic beforehand.

BackforGood · 31/03/2015 16:42

I'm using the term 'packing' to mean emptying the house into the lorry. Packing the lorry, if you like, not starting to put books and dinner services in boxes. You said you'd be fuming if they were still there - well it's feasible it takes longer to put all their stuff in their lorry, than it takes you to put your stuff in your lorry and drive a short distance to new house.
However, as HiFi says, it's not usually the removals men causing issues, it's the ridiculous system we have in this country of having to wait until the money physically transfers from one bank to another.

CalmingMiranda · 31/03/2015 17:29

Removal companies are very experienced in assessing the size of the job and know that legally the house had to be emptied by completion. Problems arise if people plan a DIY job and don't have a big enough van for everything. You can't do two trips because at no point do you have the right to have your stuff in both houses. You are often sitting outside the new house waiting for the money to go through, but you shouldn't be waiting for the house to be emptied.

We did once when our idiotic vendor forgot which day was completion day and had only employed a crappy msn and van.

Good luck OP: get ready to go with the flow, a bit.

Original poster

BasinHaircut · 31/03/2015 20:36

Oh right back, but I wouldn't expect a call telling me I could go to the EA to get keys if the vendors were still there.

Maybe I am being a bit dense about how things are goin to go here, but does that mean I'm going to get a call telling me I own the house, but it could be unavailable to me for a few hours more? I'm not worried if we complete at 12pm for example, but I can't get in till 3pm, I just don't want to turn up to move in and them still be flinging stuff into a transit. I just thought you got loaded onto a van, waited for a call to say it's all done, and then you went to the new house via the EA for the keys. Am I going to be I for a shock?

OP posts:

CalmingMiranda · 31/03/2015 21:26

Your understanding is correct, OP.

Generally everyone agrees to have their house empty by 12 and drop the keys off with the EA.. And travel to the next house.Then you call your solicitor to see if completion is complete...there may be a WAIT at this point....sometimes the money takes a while, the solicitors are hanling loads of completions on the same day et...but eventually you get the call to say you have completed and you can collect the keys, or maybe the EA will bring them down.

If you arrive and your vendors are still loading the van, there is a glitch. But you can't really do much except wait - unless there is some serious thing like they haven't got a van or are suggesting you all stay in the same house overnight...in which case you call the EA and your solicitor.

CalmingMiranda · 31/03/2015 21:27

We have generally got the completion call at about 2-ish I think.

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