What did you do about completion time/keys/removals if you were relocating across the country?

[cardiffdreamer]

We are moving next month approx 3 hours away. All the removal firms we have contacted have been a bit flummoxed by how this will work (although surely they have done similar before??)

We want them to pack our stuff too.

One firm wanted to pack and load the night before, park the van at their depot overnight and then leave at 7.30am to beat the traffic. But this means they will be there 10.30am and we might not complete until the afternoon.

Another firm said they would pack day before, load and do the drive day of completion and then maybe stay over before unloading the next day.

We got a quote from a firm based in the place we are moving to, which was more expensive as they had to stay the night between pack and move.

Does anyone have any advice about how to do this without paying the moving guys to just wait around?

Can you ask for an early completion time?

I'm afraid you'll have to pay for them to wait. We moved less than a mile, packed up by 12, didn't get keys until 3.30pm.
We still paid for the time they were waiting.

Packing up the night before is very sensible, who knows what could go wrong on the day?!

Could you get a local firm to come pack the day before and dismantle everything and go, then on the day of completion, have a firm local to where you are moving drive up, arriving say 10am. They can load and drive the stuff down to the new house for 1pm, by which point you will likely have got the keys.

They can then bring everything in to the new house and be done by teatime and close to home?

We live less than half a mile away from where we moved to and some companies still quoted to pack the night before!

I think for your situation packing the night before and then them driving up and waiting is most sensible, where abouts are you in the chain?

You pay for them to wait. Bear in mind that you might not get the keys immediately, even with a short chain - our vendor was massively behind with packing so we completed at about 11am but didn't get key until nearly 4pm. Luckily we were in rental so not moving in that day. How many others in chain either side as that could affect the timing?

It's still a lot cheaper than moving into rental between selling and buying which is what we did

We moved 3 hours away 3 years ago. They started packing 2 days before the move and finished the day of completion around 12 noon Then drove for 3+ hours and waited for us to arrive as we had left after them and had to go to EA to pick up keys. They unpacked, put up bed and left about 8pm to go home! Cost about £6,000.

Agree

I didn't have much stuff in my last move and it was just me. The removers had the van loaded by 10am and I had to pay waiting time till I got the keys. That was a local move but the point is, I can't see how to eliminate waiting time.

Thanks everyone.

We are second from top in a chain of 4.

Give how quickly I can transfer money from my phone these days it seems a shame all the solicitors can't agree to do it in one hour long slot or something. Or maybe it is more complicated somehow?

I guess there will be some waiting. It was so much easier last time when we were FTB!

I hadn't thought of getting two different forms to do it, will explore that idea more

It isn't done through the same mechanism, it'll be a CHAPS payment and CHAPS only runs at certain times of day. As you're second you should be earlier but basically the top of the chain should go through, then onto your transaction, then on down the chain. But obviously this involves multiple solicitors, mortgages and people so one thing out of place such as a delayed mortgage can delay the whole lot!
I found this was quite a good explanation:
www.samconveyancing.co.uk/news/conveyancing/what-happens-on-completion-day-243

I would budget for delays and keep my fingers crossed it goes smoothly! Good luck! The removal company will have a lot of experience of this - check their policies about what happens if the keys aren't released until x time.

Is your seller likely to be on the ball about packing and moving out? We bought from an elderly widower who was completely overwhelmed, didn't pack and had a skip on the drive after completion time! He ended up walking out leaving huge amounts of stuff behind which we then had to get house clearance to remove!