Shocked at quote from removal firm

[Daffodils9]

We’re moving house nearly 400 miles, so it’s definitely a big move. Thanking our lucky stars that DH’s work will pay most of the relocation costs including for the removal firm to pack for us. We needed to get 3 quotes so work can sign off on one of them.

We have a four bed house and it’s a bit cluttered. Probably more than the average number of books, for example.

We’ve had our 3 quotes and I was expecting them to be high because of the distance. It will be 1 day to pack, 0.5 days to load, 1 day to travel, 0.5 days to unload and then 1 day to travel back, so 4 days total for each firm.

One firm has quoted £11,000!!!

The other two quotes are £6,000 and £7,000 which I thought were pretty high themselves. We’re not keen on the £6,000 one as their service has been pretty bad so far just trying to get the quote booked in.

We’re getting a fourth quote as the £11,000 seems ridiculous. Do they just not really want the job? They are a national firm so it doesn’t really make sense to me.

All the movers know that a company is paying rather than us so I don’t know whether they put the prices up a bit in that case. Do they expect us to haggle or is what is quoted the final price?

Looking at calculators online I was thinking more £1500 for the packing, £1000ish for the travel and then some more for the labour and accommodation for the movers. So maybe £4000 total. Perhaps it’s the fuel costs that are pushing it up? Or am I completely unrealistic about how much such things cost?

Thanks!

I move next week only a few miles up the road. My Dad has just died, I am going through a divorce and moving - I feel like my head is about to explode into a million tiny pieces. I told the removals men that I did not want to lift a finger or have a nanosecond of stress in having to move my belongings, they are doing a full pack, dismantling and reassembling beds / wardrobes etc, emptying a full loft. Local well rated firm charging £1900 for a 3 bed house. I think your lower ones are about right.

We relocated with 3DC in 2010 from south/mid England to south Scotland and even then it cost over £4k. Work pairs for the relocation costs.

I’ve got quotes to move from a two bed /2 bath flat
not including packing
but including setting up beds / wardrobes at the other end
only moving 2 miles and it a roughly 1200 plus vat and 1800from another firm
Try these you put in what you have in each room and you get a quote
you can add stuff and the measurements
https://www.anyvan.com/

We are moving 100 miles next week, husbands new company also paying relocation. We had to get 3 like for like quotes and had to go with the cheapest. We are having a full packing service and are in a 4 bed house with lots of stuff!
Decided to get quotes from Pickfords, Britannia & a local company with a very good reputation, knowing that the local company would probably be the cheapest.
All quoted for 3 day moves, Pickfords and Brittania were very similarly priced at just over £4000 and the local company were £1000 less.

£7k to pack and move a 1 bed flat London ti NZ. 12,000 miles. 4 years ago.

It's the company paying - that's why it doesn't matter!

Urm, my underwear? the big draw full of sex toys and paraphernalia?

We paid £10k with Pickfords to move in the same village last year. They were our most expensive quote (significantly so) but companies weren’t reserving bookings until exchange, and by the time we exchanged no other firm had availability. We were moving on a Friday in summer, so peak moving season.

That said, they were great. 2 full days of packing (we had artwork and a piano that needed crating, a full garage and a log store. Pantechnion went back to depot after first night and two other lorries used Thursday/Friday. There was a large team of blokes and they were all superb - the difference in van loading between Pickfords and the van our buyers had used was immense. We lost one wine glass to breakage in the move and that was it.

I would expect cheaper quotes now given there’s less business to go around and we did pay a postcode premium, but a long move will be several hundreds in diesel alone.

It's definitely worth paying for the packing service - it isn't much extra in the scheme of things and makes the days leading up to the move plus moving day itself a lot less stressful. Any private items just pack yourself and put them in your own car boot.

11k is ridiculous but it does sound like a hellish job - maybe they just didn't want it so priced accordingly. What about the 7k quote? It sounds like 6-7k is a realistic quote for the job.

Pack that in a suitcase or several suitcases if the drawer is that big.

I moved froM a 3 bed house with garage to a 3 bed house with garage in 2021, only 8 miles away.

got two quotes, one was £1300 and the other was £650. Didn’t include packing.

in the south east.

The company is paying, not the OP personally.
Professional Packers are very fast and efficient. If you've them once you'll never go back...

Will it only require one van? When I moved my three bed terrace we had a massive van and another smaller one. If they can't get all your stuff in their biggest van the price will shoot up given the distance they've to travel.

I paid £3k for moving 50 miles which was 4 people packing one day and moving the next and they were back at their base that evening so no overnight stays, and this was 6 years ago. Based on that, the £6k and £7k sound fair for 4 days inc overnights.

Because it's a hundred times faster. And then packed professionally so much less chance of anything breaking. They do it in a day versus the weeks it would take me.

Packing service is absolutely worth it.

The distance here is big! Those are full day drives which will come under lorry driver rules re. rest breaks etc.

I think you're looking at several days work for probably 3/4people, as after a 400 mile drive they won't be in a fit state to do anything else that day:

Two days to pack and load
A day to drive
A day to unload
A day to drive back

Therefore two overnight stays - do they share rooms I wonder?

Plus fuel, packing materials and a profit margin.

I'm not surprised the quote is high (although doubt you'll find a bargain with a big national company).

We're in the process of getting quotes. But we are using the time to declutter and slim down our belongings massively. 3 bed terrace in south London - moving about 70 miles to the south coast. We're anticipating the cost to come in around £2K

For example, we are weighing up the advantages of giving quite a bit of furniture to the British Heart Foundation and buying new stuff when we move, given that quite a lot of our current stuff we've had for years/ was given to us/ not our preferred style.

I'm storing things like winter coats/ clothes / soft furnishings in my parents loft which can be recovered in our own time later on. Anything we can do to reduce the amount of "stuff" we own. It's very liberating- we're got loads of paperwork , so taking advantage of this time to go paperless on bills, scan and file less important stuff etc before shredding has been great.

Massive clear out on books and records, Christmas decorations, dvds etc to charity shops.

We don't have children so we naturally have a bit less to start with, but I'd definitely advise using the time now to declutter, rather than packing up a load of stuff you don't want and taking it with you.

That sounds very high, we relocated in 2021, downsizing to a 3 bed bungalow, over 3hrs from where we used to live, paid £1800. The movers were also staying overnight in a local hotel. We did have for packing service.

Apologies, that should read we did not have packing service, as we were sorting items as we packed, determined not to take items to our new home that we didn’t need, like, or use. We had lived in our home for 18years, we found a travel cot, stair gates in an unused cupboard, our DS were 19 & 17 when we moved 😂

That's an insane amount of money. They obviously don't want the job. My son is a class 1 lorry driver and he moved 155 miles about 18 months ago. His old boss let him borrow the lorry. He packed up his stuff himself and DH and his brother helped him load lorry up and he drove it to his new location. DH went with him helped him unload then he drove lorry back to return it and stayed overnight at our house before driving to his new house in his car the following day. It was a long hard working weekend but obviously saved himself more money than he realised. I'd grab that £6k quote if I were you. You won't find cheaper.

Therefore two overnight stays - do they share rooms I wonder?

When we moved it was just the driver that came down with lorry and he slept in that for the 2 nights (cab has sleeping accommodation). He left at lunchtime to drive as far as he could that first day, then most of the rest of the distance on the second day, arriving by 9am on the third day. Local depot sent 2 guys over to help unload.

If you can find a firm that has depots either end then that might help too.

We moved half a mile away 2 years ago. Move took 3 days, including packing and it was £3500. I'd expect it to be more for a 400 mile distance but £11000 is a lot! I'd get some more quotes...

Moved 400 miles (4 bed house) in 2021, over a similar number of days. From memory it was just over £5k. Britannia.

A team of 3 or 4 movers to go 400 miles and back? Plus 3 or 4 to pack? The packing materials will cost a few hundred and laden removal lorries are expensive in fuel. Plus high insurance costs (vehicle, your stuff, public liability, prof indemnity) , £4k is completely unrealistic!

£7k sounds reasonable.

Oh and we had a fragile pack only (did the rest ourselves)