Booking removals

[NIsense]

Hi all.
I am going to sound like a complete idiot here, so please go easy.

I am in the middle of a chain of 3 - so someone buying my house to allow me to buy another (offer accepted). Since I havent bought a house in a long time, the one thing thats bothering me is when to book a removals company. Specifically whats the usual strategy for doing so to ensure I get one for the proposed completion date ?- 2 weeks from exchange in my case. I have a couple of quotes, one of which offers a postponement waiver. Anyway, is the usual tactic to provisionally book shortly before exchange, then call the removals people to firm up the booking once contracts are signed/exchanged? Basically I dont want to exchange contracts, give a completion date and find I cant get removals company! The thought of it makes me ill.

Advice is appreciated.

Yes, I think we booked in the date provisionally, and they said they would let us know if anyone else wanted to book it.
You could give them a quick call the day before/of exchange to check again and get the pen ready to ink it in?
It is stressful, no 2 ways about it, I feel your pain! Good luck!

@TeaInTheGarden

Yes, I think we booked in the date provisionally, and they said they would let us know if anyone else wanted to book it. You could give them a quick call the day before/of exchange to check again and get the pen ready to ink it in? It is stressful, no 2 ways about it, I feel your pain! Good luck!

Thanks for your support :) How far in advance of exchange did you provisionally book a slot?

I can’t really remember to be honest, as you never really even know when exchange is likely to be. Was definitely a good few weeks in advance though. I would call around and ask what they’ll what they suggest- they are very used to this situation and can keep a lot calmer than us. It’s a good measure of their customer service too- the people we used were so professional and reassuring. You will probably want a couple of quotes anyway, so you can chat to them at that point too.

We did what @TeaInTheGarden did, provisionally book and ask the removals company if someone else wanted it.

Is a deposit normal when provisionally booking? I have one company who wants the full payment

I did a provisional booking before we exchanged, like you I wanted to know I wasn't going to get stuck. Then kept in touch with them, was 2-3 weeks before we actually did exchange. I double-checked the dates before we did exchange, and signed the removal contract at that point.
They haven't asked for any money at all, it's all payable about a week before completion (still got 4 weeks to wait!), but I expect other companies are different, this one's a small family firm. Once I'd signed the contract they gave me some boxes so I could start packing, hth

Most big companies will ask for full payment and offer a cancellation/postponement waiver. I wouldn't feel confident making a provisional booking without payment.

I had to book and pay and cross everything that exchange and completion actually happened.

@somuchcoffeeneeded

I had to book and pay and cross everything that exchange and completion actually happened.

'cross everything...'? Sorry dont get your meaning

One thing that we found useful is to get several quotes done, so if you can't get one company because they are booked up, you can maybe get another. We were once in the situation where we had to ring round loads of removal companies because ours had booked the slot we had been hoping for, and the other companies main problem was not being able to get to us to do the quotes, which they had to do before we could book. It's not quite so bad at present as many of the bigger ones are doing video quotes, but we are intending to line up at least 4 but the person doing the quotes needs to have time to do it. Good luck, as it's a nightmare unless you get a date agreed on with no trouble. We had one move where our buyers went off on a holiday for a month that they hadn't mentioned, just as we were ready to exchange, so I always ask that question now to check there are no nasty surprises.

We got quotes and told the company we chose that were expecting it to be in January, they kept us up to date with their availability. I pencilled in a date once we agreed a completion date, and then I confirmed with them once we had officially exchanged.

Over 48 hours a date was mentioned we both checked with removals - date was good, exchanged the next morning and confirmed with removals.
Turned out we had both booked same removal company and between us used all their lorries ( they are small) so it really suited the firm. Our vendors team 'accidentally' left the garden gate open so my team could start unloading the garden stuff before I got the keys.

Cross everything as in keep my fingers and toes crossed! It could all easily not happened and I would have lost the removals fee money

@somuchcoffeeneeded

Cross everything as in keep my fingers and toes crossed! It could all easily not happened and I would have lost the removals fee money

Yes fingers and everything else crossed indeed!

Reading everyone's comments has been a really appreciated. So thank you all. I think my strategy is to pick a removals firm that I can check in on regularly as I get closer to a completion date. Then when everybody's almost agreed, I check in again and hopefully get a slot that the others will finally agree on. Backwards and forwards I guess before exchanging and paying the removals!