Moving day

[Sleepyhungryfattyanddoc]

Just wondering if anyone has any tips for moving day

Last time we ‘completed’ on a house we were FTB and had no furniture, we literally just moved a few suitcases of clothes in. We didn’t even go on the same day because we were both at work

This time we are selling a house, moving some of our stuff into a new one and then moving into rented whilst we renovate the new place.
We also have a very young puppy I’m not sure what to do with on the day / how to get them settled.

Does anyone have any tips? Is it best to move early or midweek or end of the week, does it matter?
What time will we have to be out of our current house? How do you get it all done in a day?

We cant hire movers for various reasons so will be doing it all ourselves

You will probably need movers if you are buying and selling on the same day. You can’t do multiple van trips - have to completely empty one house before you get the keys to the next.

If you are doing a local move put your pet in kennels/leave with a relative from the day prior to moving day to the day after you have moved in.

Put your dog with a friend or kennels. Get professional movers and packers to pack all but essentials the day before - they can store things for you until you move permanently, so have some bags to take to your rental set aside.
You can complete any time, but normally around lunch time. This should leave enough time to pack the van and clean the house and meet your movers at the new house/and have them take stuff to storage.
I don't think it matters what day of the week, but I was supposed to complete on a Friday and there was a hitch with funds being released down the chain, so we didn't actually complete til Monday, causing issues up and down the chain. I had booked a hotel, with my house, still mine, sitting empty with a pool on the hottest weekend of the year. So maybe earlier in the week, so if there is a hitch you don't have to wait a whole weekend for it to be sorted.

Movers are going to cost £1800 just to move everything and take apart one or two pieces of furniture.

Everything else we have to pack ourselves ready for them to just load and unload at either side. They won’t be putting anything away or building anything at the other end.
And it doesn’t include storage.

We only have a small house and when we really need the money that seems an insane amount to spend
It doesn’t even include the cost of storage.
We’ve got a few similar quotes abs we just can’t justify the price

That’s one of the reasons we had planned to do it ourselves.

We could potentially move one van load of stuff to a family members garage the day before, to help there be less on actual moving day.

Has anyone ever asked about moving things to say the garage of the new property (vacant) after exchange but ahead of completion?

Can you overlap the rental by a few days? Then move all your stuff for the rental beforehand?

After recently moving, I'd find the money from somewhere. My movers were a godsend and we had packed 95% ourselves!

To put your mind at ease we didn't use movers either. It was £1500 and they said there could be late fees etc. Instead we rented a Luton van ourself for three days which was £250. Our plan was to move stuff to Mt parents the day before but actually we ended up fitting everything except garden furniture into the van the night before! My dad took the garden stuff in his small van. We had a 3 bed house and everything fitted comfortably. My top tips

1. start packing early! We started a month before and put everything in one room.
2. label everything with where it's going and what's inside. Including beds etc.
3. put any screws or attachments in sandwich bags and label what they're for then sellotape them to the item.
4. as you pack move everything into a couple of rooms which leaves room ready to clean.

Our move was so stressful as we thought it was all falling apart the night before and ended up exchanging and completing the next day. The packing and move was actually the easiest part 😂

You have to give vacant possession usually by about lunch time. Everything has to be out.

And very very few people would agree to store stuff in the new property, and their solicitors would almost certainly say no.

Your options are:
Hire a big enough van, or two vans, that everything can fit in one load. Make sure you have enough labour on hand, mates etc.
Take on your rental a few days early and start moving stuff there
Get a storage space. Big Yellow in our area are doing ridiculously cheap deals, start moving stuff there in advance.

We had something like 150 boxes from a 3 bed semi. The removal co delivered the boxes in advance (in with the price) and collected the empties afterwards. Though I guess if you are storing stuff you will need the boxes for a long time.

You will need to have everything out of your house before completion- remember when you get the keys to your new place, someone else will get the keys to yours and expect it to be vacant so you cannot do multiple trips back and forward.

I've never known anyone manage to move without removers when they are in the middle of the chain. You can end up paying compensation to your buyers if you delay them getting into the property and that costs them money (e.g. they have to pay their removers extra, pay for a hotel for the night etc.)

A few hundred quid is worth the stress of not having to move yourself in my opinion, plus you can't do multiple trips so you have to hire a van big enough to fit everything you own in it so that costs almost as much as a removal team.

@Sleepyhungryfattyanddoc

Movers are going to cost £1800 just to move everything and take apart one or two pieces of furniture. Everything else we have to pack ourselves ready for them to just load and unload at either side. They won’t be putting anything away or building anything at the other end. And it doesn’t include storage.

We only have a small house and when we really need the money that seems an insane amount to spend
It doesn’t even include the cost of storage.
We’ve got a few similar quotes abs we just can’t justify the price

That’s one of the reasons we had planned to do it ourselves.

We could potentially move one van load of stuff to a family members garage the day before, to help there be less on actual moving day.

Has anyone ever asked about moving things to say the garage of the new property (vacant) after exchange but ahead of completion?

That's a lot, our removals from a 2 bed to a 3 bed cost £550. Is it central London or are you moving a long way?

No solicitor will advise you or your seller to move stuff into their garage. Is their garage empty, if not where would they put their stuff? What happens if they take your possessions with them? What happens if it doesn't go through as expected and they end up storing your stuff for weeks or months?

You need movers as you'll need to be out by midday at the latest. It should always be budgeted into the cost of moving. It's costing us £2000 to move the contents of our 2 bed flat from London to Bath but no way in hell would I even be considering doing that ourselves.

We exchanged on Friday, and have a date for late Sept for completion. In a way, I'm glad we have 6 weeks to organise things.

I've booked a local removal company and this is the quote I've been given:

Removals: £834
Packing: £714
Dismantling cabin bed: £45
Dismantling double bed: £20
Disconnecting and reconnecting washing machine / dishwasher: £20 each

For me, the total cost of £1600 approx is well worth every penny if it minimises my stress on the day.

I've bought a few packing boxes etc on amazon and to be honest, I've already spent about £60 on packaging materials so it all adds up!

@Fleurty £1800 is more than a few hundred to me - especially when as pp was saying you can get a van for a tiny fraction of that!
We’re not London but we are moving about 2 hours away from where we are now.
I was shocked by the price as I definitely had previously agreed a few hundred would be worth it.
But by the time we pay storage too we’re looking at thousands! - and by the end there still won’t actually be anything unpacked in our actual house!

Their garage is empty, the whole house is vacant, they’ve already moved out and moved abroad, which is why we thought it could be an option.
After exchange aren’t we committed to the completion date anyway? So if we moved our things after exchange but before completion?

@Thesandmanishere I think I’d be less reluctant if we were actually moving in. I agree, rebuilding furniture or even packing up / unpacking would take so much stress away from us
But to still have to pack everything myself
And then have them literally just move boxes I’ve packed and furniture I’ve mostly taken apart myself into storage for nearly £2000

And eventually I’ll still need to unpack all of that / rebuild furniture etc myself anyway when it finally does move

seems crazily expensive and not value for money!

@Azilliondegrees

You will probably need movers if you are buying and selling on the same day. You can’t do multiple van trips - have to completely empty one house before you get the keys to the next.

This isn’t strictly true. We hired 2 vans and took 3 trips to move completely. Our buyers we’re moving their stuff into ours whilst we were moving our last bits out. Compromise is vital!

It's crazy to do it yourself if you're moving 2 hours away unless you're absolutely sure everything can go in one van, or you hire two.

Removals will charge more for travelling 2 hours rather than just to a different part of town. Most people do factor the costs of removals into their move and they are worth it. Even more so if you pay for them to pack for you!

The puppy is definitely going to be difficult if you do the move yourself. It would be better for the dog to go elsewhere (with one set of parents?) and then be brought to the new house.

@mafsfan we had originally factored in around £1200 (after asking around to see other people’s moving costs) for them to pack for us and move everything.

But when it became £1800 for them to not pack or unpack anything it seemed crazy.

If we hire a van and get the rental to overlap, we could do one or two trips the day before and drop things at the rental. Leaving one van on the last day - which we could pack the night before so there’s no surprises on the day.

But all the people saying it’s impossible are making me nervous!!

@CharlieBrown65 thank you! Great tips and I needed the reassurance!

BTW we have cats and DH is driving them to a cattery in the area we are moving to the day before the move, and we won't be picking them up again until we've had 3-4 days to unpack.

I would shop around for more quotes but £1800 doesn't seem outrageous to me. We got 4 quotes (all with packing included) - one was £3500, one £3000, one £1900 and one £2000. We went with the 2k one as they had such good reviews.

If you’re moving straight to the rental then doable as you can do several trips, I read it as you were going directly to your new purchase then a rental later. Get a couple of weeks overlap with the rental and you can do it yourself.

We did this at the beginning of the year. Never again!!

We had 2 storage units so were filling them right up until moving. We massively underestimated how long it would take us to take apart furniture, ram stuff into bags and boxes and clean the house. As we moved on a Friday, the contract was changed from 2pm to 1pm as the latest time we had to be out of our old house. We overran by a couple of hours but so did those who were buying ours so it gave us time to clean the house before we left.

Tips:
1- Make sure you note down everything that you want to take with you that you might forget. So go round the house and garden thinking of everything and make a list. We left a lot of (expensive) things that we didn't have time to take and they've been ditched by the new owner.
2- You can't start packing early enough. We left it late because we had a feeling the sale would fall through and we didn't want rooms full of boxes for new viewings. It didn't fall through and went through quickly at the end and we didn't have time to pack quickly in the end due to work commitments.
3- start throwing out/charity shop/freecycle anything you don't need or want. We moved when everything was closed due to Covid so had to take all the crap with us and now it's still in boxes all over our new house months later.
4- we managed to get my mum and dad to help. It wasn't enough pairs of hands. Get more if you can!!
5- if you have pets put them in the Cattery/kennels a couple of days before so you don't have to worry about extra cleaning or watching doors/gates for escapes.
6- make sure you keep a box of essentials. We planned to but didn't have time. We still haven't found some essentials months later.
7- work out a timing plan and triple it. Seriously, it's ridiculous how long it takes.
8- take a van load of garden stuff over the night before if you can agree it. Makes it easier on the day.
9- we had 2 large vans (plus the storage units) and it wasn't enough. We also filled 3 cars.
10- make sure you leave enough time to drop and collect house keys if you're running late. Some estate agents are still fannying around only letting one person in at a time so you could be queuing for a while. Also don't leave it too late especially on a Friday as if there's issues you won't have time to sort them. When we got to our new house the alarm wouldn't turn off.

I'm sure there's loads more. It was the most stressful day of my life.

@Soontobe60 This isn’t strictly true. We hired 2 vans and took 3 trips to move completely. Our buyers we’re moving their stuff into ours whilst we were moving our last bits out. Compromise is vital

It is strictly true! You broke the terms of the contract and put your buyers in a position of being obliged to compromise. Their removal team could have refused to be in the house with you during COVID, and you could have been made to pay the money for them having to wait, for example. It is really bad behaviour on moving day to rely on ‘compromise’.

[quote ShingleBeach]**@Soontobe60* This isn’t strictly true. We hired 2 vans and took 3 trips to move completely. Our buyers we’re moving their stuff into ours whilst we were moving our last bits out. Compromise is vital*

It is strictly true! You broke the terms of the contract and put your buyers in a position of being obliged to compromise. Their removal team could have refused to be in the house with you during COVID, and you could have been made to pay the money for them having to wait, for example. It is really bad behaviour on moving day to rely on ‘compromise’.[/quote]
Seeing as they didn’t actually complete until 10am on moving dayndue to a last minute hitch on behalf of the buyers, plus there was very heavy rain all day and to top it off the funds didn’t clear until 4pm, then I think behaving like reasonable adults and compromising was absolutely the correct thing to do.

@Thesandmanishere

You need movers as you'll need to be out by midday at the latest. It should always be budgeted into the cost of moving. It's costing us £2000 to move the contents of our 2 bed flat from London to Bath but no way in hell would I even be considering doing that ourselves.

Again, not true. We only got the keys to our new property at 4pm, as did our buyer for our pull house. The time varies as it’s linked to when the funds clear.

@Soontobe60 whilst you may have found a pragmatic solution to your individual move, you are giving terrible advice. If you had been my vendor I would have been really annoyed at you for pulling that stunt, and had I incurred charges I would have passed them on.

When we last moved we sold at about 11am and were in our new house by 1230 (allowing for funds to clear and to pick up keys). We had professional movers who had unloaded, built beds etc and gone by 1530.