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!

This doesn’t surprise me sadly. We paid £1,100 around 18 months ago to move the contents of a 2 bed flat less than a mile. No packing. But did include dismantling and then re-building 2 small wardrobes and 1 king size bed

I paid £2000 in January to move 250 miles, a 2 bed house and did my own packing. We are now moving a mile away and it will be £500.
So say double the size and distance plus £1000 for packing. I would have estimated £5000.

One day to pack? Your full house? How many people would be packing. It sounds more like a weeks worth of packing.

We've had stuff in storage with Bishop's Move for the past three years - I can't remember how much they charged to pack everything up (2 bedroom flat) but think it was under £2000. They just delivered it to us here in Ireland (from East Sussex) and charged £2001.76. It seems we got a bit of a bargain!

OP £1000 for travel?!

It's an 800 mile round trip for the removal company and you think just over a pound a mile is reasonable?

HGV costs a heck of a lot more than that ( is it all in one vehicle?) plus at least 2 staff to pay hourly plus overnight stays?

11k is trying it on but it's a business, not your pal.

6 k seems dirt-cheap.

That's still £4000 @Inextremis and they probably got a back load from Ireland, so £2000 for the return trip, so all in all they got £6k for the job, which most of us think is the least that a heavy haulage company could quote (which is after all £5k plus VAT, the VAT element goes straight to HMRC)

We paid £4K to move about 30 miles, full packing of a 4 bed house in summer 2022. Pack one day, move the next.

The cost racks up when you have a multi day move. I would expect it to come in about £6-8k.

We did a move from Denmark to the UK with Matthew James for £7000 , they also did a uk to uk move for us 6 months later for just under £4000 including packing with 'a lot' of stuff- 4 bed house- that was 130 miles. they were incredibly efficient and amazing packers as they mainly do international. I recommend them to everyone.

My xH used to be a removal and export import man, remember 3 men for 3 days with an overnight, they get extra money for a "night out" insurance and fuel it all adds up

They do it like locusts. It's quite the ting to watch! We had 4 guys pack our entire house in a day. That's why it's so worth the money.

Bloody hell that's steep!

We are moving back to the UK from the South of France. 4 bed house, packing ourselves.

As well as the fuel costs there is the ferry to consider. Plus they will take at least a week to deliver so there must be some accommodation and meal costs factored in.

Costing us 5K.

We paid £1.5k to move 3 miles 5 years ago - 3 bed to 3 bed (that was the lowest quote) so I would say around £9k based on that, but with higher fuel prices etc £11k does sound about right.

So that's what 2 boxes you chose to pack yourself? Also unless you are into some serious kink they will have seen underwear plenty of times.

Crikey! I moved to France and my pack and move cost £4000-ish

We paid 3k in 2021 to move SE to NI which included a packing service. 3bed semi. Was an NI company which is generally cheaper. They were fab called Dixon line

I don't think many people realise just how good they are. Unless you've seen them in action. I'm sure there'll be videos on YouTube or whatever.

They have a superhuman ability to size things up, wrap and fit them into boxes like jigsaws in a matter of minutes. Definite talent. I couldn't do it even if I tried

I know OP said they have lots of books, but packing books is very easy - packers have extra strong book boxes for exactly this.

Packing costs are SO worth it. It would take me weeks and so much time and effort to be able to do what packers can do in 1 day. Also you have to live around boxes for weeks and not being able to use your belongings during that period. Packers also insure every item so if there are damages in transit, they pay for it. Well worth it IMO. They also take down all furniture and rebuild it on the other side in the correct rooms. Our beds were made and wardrobes up before they left which made things so much easier on our first night in the new house.

We moved 30 miles 3 bed house and paid £1.7K last Spring. This was cheaper as we moved mid week. Used IQ Removals which were our cheapest quote and no issues at all. They were fantastic.

I think we paid about £2500 last year including packing and we had a LOT of stuff - filled two trucks and had five men over two days. But only moved round the corner and the firm was based down the road so no additional expenses whatsoever.

I would expect to pay £6-8k for a significant move as you describe (£11k def ridiculous). And don't even think abut doing it yourself. Even if you could borrow a man (or three) and a van (or three) the advantage of our movers were they were able to be very flexible with our moving date as the whole conveyancing was a nightmare. Date was only confirmed two days before. Worth every penny. The conveyancing was a nightmare but the actual move was fine.

It's certain an eye watering figure, but what would the diesel alone cost, £1000 +? It cost about £500 to fill a HGV. You'll have 2 or 3 men at a guess on a week's wages at a £500 day rate as they will have to be paid an over night rate. The company will be VAT registered so £2200 will be tax. Broken down £11k is starting to make sense.

This is really interesting! Thank you for all the responses.

We are in a very fortunate position to have most of the costs covered through work relocation expenses and it does sound like there’s justification for the £6-7k quotes when you take everything into account. I still think £11k is a bit out there - why so much higher than the other two?

I think we will look at some firms local to where we are moving just to see what they say. Even though it’s not us paying the bulk of it (we have a small contribution to make) I don’t want DH’s work to think we’re trying it on!

We paid to pack last time we moved and that was before kids. Now we have two small children and both work full time so I am beyond relieved that this is included. As previous posters said they are so incredibly efficient. We will be packing the car and roof box with anything personal (plus the kettle!) so it doesn’t feel particularly invasive. And anything they pack is insured whereas anything we pack isn’t.

I was using this website to work out rough costs but perhaps our situation is just too out of the ordinary for their estimates to apply. https://www.comparemymove.com/advice/removals/planning/removal-company-cost#

I could probably replace every moveable item in my house for £11k 🤔

We paid £2,400 last year for packing and moving 1 mile down the road. We had a lot of stuff as well. Packing took 2 movers a day, then 4 + driver for the day of the move. I don’t think £6-8K would be unreasonable for your move.

A cluttered 4 bed house, 800 miles plus packing. That’s got to be two lorries, 6 staff plus 4 days, accommodation, insurance and fuel. £6k seems cheap. Although £11k seems steep.