Logistics on move day.

[BungalowBuyer]

Some advice would be appreciated this is my first time selling a house and moving simultaneously, when I moved into my current house I was coming from my parents house so much easier. We don't have a date to move yet, but I think we're no more than 6/7 weeks out, my buyer is very keen to give his landlord notice and move asap.

We're in a short chain, first time buyers buying my house and we're moving into an empty property, so no issues above us, but two transactions to complete.

I'm trying to get my head around what happens on the day and whether we need to ask anyone to help. We are moving locally, there will be two moving vans, two movers per van so the actual loading shouldn't take too long.

What time do you book the movers when you don't know what time you'll be able to get onto the new property? I'm looking at quotes and we don't want to be paying movers to sit around. Should we be guided by the movers?

I'm planning to clean as I pack but we'll need to do some last minute cleaning before we leave, so do we just wave off the movers and they wait for us at the other end while we throw the vacuum around? Or do we attempt to do it as they're moving stuff out and get in their way? Or Is it better to get the movers in and everything packed early so you can clean with everything on the vans, even if that means paying for more hours?

What happens to the keys, do we drop ours off at our EA and pick the keys for the new place up at their EA? Presumably someone will let us know when it's time to do that?

Amy advice on logistics and etiquette appreciated.

Congrats on your upcoming house move OP, we are also due to move shortly but have a couple of extra people in our chain.
I would say it's best to hoover etc once the movers are done (or if they finish a particular room first etc) I'd imagine it would be frustrating on both sides to be running a hoover round when there's a lot of chaos going on. Yes you drop keys to your EA then wait for a call from other EA to say funds have been received and you can collect the new keys, unfortunately it can't really be predicted how long this could take but with a shorter chain hopefully not long.

You will end up paying movers to sit around. It is annoying but that’s the way it is done. Your solicitor should be able to tell you what time to be out by. Then you take the keys to the estate agent and have lunch in your car/cafe. Don’t forget you will have all the valuables you don’t trust with the movers in your car so you may want one of you to stay in it.

The movers will guide you. They tend to do a room at a time, so you will have empty bedrooms which you can hoover while they empty the downstairs rooms. Pack as much into boxes as you can, this always takes twice as long as you think.

Make a box with kettle, cups, coffee, tea towel, kitchen roll and spray etc and keep it on the kitchen top - you will need this immediately so take it in the car with you.

Take photos of meters just as you leave the house.

Good luck, it sounds exciting!

You tend to book movers by the day, and yes, there will be sitting around.

Hoover behind them - they’ll generally do a room at a time. Are they packing for you as well?

The best money I ever spent was getting the moving company to pack for me. This generally wears about £300 extra, so a small price to pay on top of the move quite. They come in the day before and pack everything and load onto a van, leaving you with essentials for overnight (beds, sofa, TV). The following day (move day) they pack everything else up and you move out. This gives you much more room to clean.

The quote you’ve been given should be a full cost for the whole move rather than an hourly rate and there may be a few hours sitting around whilst you wait to get into new property. The seller has to be out by a pre agreed time. Normally early afternoon. I’ve moved 3 times in the last 3 years and this has always worked well and saved loads of aggro.

ours movers were just paid for the day. Their depot was nearby so they went back there for a long lunch!

yeah as they move you you clean up behind them- they are good at doing one room at a time. we then stayed on to clean for another hour or so after they’d left.

not all house owners are as diligent as some when it comes to a final clean unfortunately

in theory you drop off the keys then go for lunch then pick up the keys. Typical that you have an hour or so with no house, don’t worry about that a solicitor won’t let it happens unless they are confident in the onward transaction.

however in our case we never visited an agent, we gave our keys to our new owners when they turned up (we were in communication and on good terms) and then the agent of the new house came and met us there.

i think we had the movers 8-5ish with a small fee beyond that. I think they were done by 6 but if you’re ftb you won’t have nearly as much stuff.

our moving day was actually fine and relatively stress free - it was the conveyancing issues beforehand which were absolutely awful. We only exchanged 2 days prior.

Thanks for the replies, they're really helpful.

The movers expect there to be a bit of a wait while you clean and get keys. They will have factored it in.

I’m going to go against the grain and say don’t get them to pack. Ours were awful and caused chaos, stress, and hundreds of pounds of damage.

I think we've decided, following advice on this thread, to book a fixed price mover, rather than one that charges by the hour, so we're not clock watching on the day. We've had a quote from a local company that gets good reviews for a move with two vans and four movers, they think they can pack the whole house into the two vans and just do one trip, other quotes were for one van and two movers so multiple trips.

Sounds like a good plan op.
it’s worth every penny paying a bit more for professional movers Tbh. We paid for them to pack everything up the previous day too- worth every penny to us but we have a lot of stuff and two kids (and their stuff too) and full time jobs so would have been impossible.

hope it all goes well.

They should have been insured so you can claim back any damage. I know I had to put a value against the contents of my house that they were packing up so that if anything got damaged it would be replaced.

Removals firms generally know there may be a wait to get keys the other side.
we did all the packing and I’d already cleaned inside cupboards etc as we packed.

on the day of the move the removals came at 9am and started loading the boxes vans - they used 1 Luton style van and 1 LWB transit. I cleaned/Hoovered rooms as they were emptied. They were all packed up by probably 11.00.
solicitor emailed at 11.30 to say funds had been received for the sale so we arranged to hand keys to our buyers around 12 giving me time just to check we hadn’t left anything and that everywhere was clean and tidy. I took photos of the empty rooms and meter readings before we left.

we then had a wait until our purchase completed so we camped out at my parents’ until we had the call from the estate agent to say keys had been released for our purchase - this wasn’t until around 4pm.

the removals guys then met us at our new house and we were able to unload. 3 in our chain first time buyers buying our house and the people we bought our new place from were moving in with relatives so it was actually empty as they’d moved a couple of days beforehand

good luck with your move

Are you using an actual home Removals co, or a ‘man and van’ type set up?

Removals companies are experienced, and know the drill.

Basically they MUST get everything out of the house in one go, using as many vans as necessary, because you never own both houses simultaneously. So can’t shuttle back and forth with belongings.

Check the deal: Removal companies will usually dismantle beds and put them together again at the other end. They can also provide a temporary cardboard wardrobe and they put everything in hangers on it.

Solicitors generally aim for Noon completion. You drop off your keys by the time disused with the solicitors. Then drive to the new location, hang round / go for lunch, wait for the solicitors or EA to call and tell you the money is through and you can collect keys to new place.

Have kettle / mugs / tea and coffee stuff in a separate box, easily accessible. Movers move on tea and biscuits. Also have toilet roll, soap and hand towel handy.

We have always given movers a cash tip.

Alert your utility providers. If no smart meter do a reading before you leave your old house and one when you arrive in your new.

My recent experience of contacting companies that promote themselves as removal companies seems to be that some of them are actually a man with a van, one asked me if we'd need two men??

We're going with a proper removal company, two vans so it's all done in one go.

Book the removers as soon as you exchange and have completion date. Our removers wouldn’t confirm a date until we had exchange, they were the first call I made after we exchanged. You can’t really plan, so book them for the day. We were the last in our chain to move and didn’t get the keys until gone 4pm, make up your beds straight away, take a suitcase with what you need for a couple of days, kettle, toaster, tea coffee bread milk and butter in the car with you. We packed everything in advance and cleaned as we went, we were downsizing and relocating, so we had a very big house to clean and lots of stuff to get rid of. Hoovered through as the removal men cleared each room. Your solicitor will call you when you can collect the keys. To save some stress on the day, we dropped a key into the EA the day before, and left the rest of the keys in the property, and just posted the key through the letter box when we left and made sure we didn’t set the burglar alarm, but left full instructions for the new owners. Good luck with your move OP.

For the meter readings take photos.
some companies, actually most in my experience, F it up (southern electric you were particularly shit)

Do not simply trust them to take smart meter readings or rely on written numbers, take photos of all the meters in your old and new place, then email them to yourself so they are visibly date stamped too.

Don’t forget some utility meters have 2 rate numbers, and a total even if you are only on a single not economy 7 day/night rate (why Eon why??? It was a bloody new build!)

In the box you are packing to take with you include kettle, tea & coffee, sugar, milk, biscuits, toilet paper, hand wash, hand towel, clean set of sheets for your bed (so you don’t have to hunt through boxes when you are exhausted and want to sleep), bottle of champagne & glasses & a local to new place takeaway menu, cutlery & plates to eat with that night if it’s not pizza, a large flat head screwdriver for water meter cover & a gas meter box key.

In the last week before moving with kids I’ve always used a laundry service, so I don’t have washing hanging around, & it’s dried folded and handed back to me same day.

My advice would be to have someone who can help you clean as the movers go - I seemed to spend my entire morning on one move packing up the rest of the kitchen whilst making endless cups of tea! If I hadn't had my now ex MIL there with her friend we would never have got out on time and left the house clean.

Recent moves have gone into storage with completion the following day so I spent the afternoon and evening cleaning once the wagons had left. Barring bankruptcy I'm never moving ever again now!!

I did a deep clean and decluttered quite a bit before the house went on the market but my plan is to do the same again as I pack. I'm hoping to hear this week that we're ready to exchange so I'll start packing this weekend. There will be three of us here on moving day who can do any last minute cleaning and vacuum as the movers clear a room.

I'll have access to the new property at some point, hopefully before we exchange but definitely before we complete, for at least half a day, so I'm going to go armed with cleaning stuff and a vacuum and at least clean the kitchen cupboards and bathrooms and vacuum through. I'll be having a gas engineer in during that time and a chimney sweep and if time permits I'll get the oven and hob professionally cleaned, so that'll give us a heads start.

You've had good advice already regarding movers and packing a box with kettle and mugs etc to go in the car with you. The only other advice I would give is that as soon as everything is unpacked at your new house, make up all the beds first, trust me on this. The last thing you will want to be doing later when you are fit to drop and just need to sleep is to start sorting and making up the beds. Good luck with your move.

Removals men who do packing are the best! They are all over it and achieve so much in very little time. Buy them lunch or something from the nearest bakery as a thank you.

Speak to your removal company about how long it will take, they do it all the time so know how long it takes to pack up a house.

When we did this we moved ourselves and hired a lorry. We had started packing weeks ahead and moved our stuff on to the lorry several days in advance. I was still amazed at how long it took. We didn't clear out of our old property until 11am. We were meant to complete and get the keys at 1pm. As it was our money didn't get to the seller until nearly 5pm and we were hanging around outside our new property until then in the cold and rain. The estate agents already had a key so we just posted the remaining ones through our letter box.

I would just say if you are packing allow a lot of time and ideally get the removal company to do it for you save for the valuables. Prepare to be hanging around. If you have young kids and they can go elsewhere until early evening, so much the better.