Best time for removal van to arrive?

shabby_chic

We are hoping to complete in 3 weeks and in a small chain, just our buyers (cash), us and our vendors who are not buying anywhere atm. In our last move we had quite a long chain and didn't get key release until around 3pm but this time hoping it will be much earlier.
Don't want to have a removal van waiting too long so thought about 11am might be a good time but wondered if anyone could possibly advise.

tanith

We had no chain but the people we bought off still weren't ready to go at 2pm , we eventually got the key at 4ish and they had still left stuff in the garage and came back the next day... its all going to depend on how quickly your your venors move themselves.. ours did say they'd be ready by 12 but obviously underestimated but as we were moving ourselves it didn't really matter... 11am sounds about right by the time you load up etc...

westv

The removal people do this sort of thing day in and day out so I would suggest that maybe they will know the best time for them to arrive.

ztan

It depends on lots of factors. I live on one of the busiest streets in the town centre of my town, and there is hardly any parking outside- recently however a loading bay has been put in, directly outside, so we'll have to ask the removal company to arrive as early as possible in order to secure that space- otherwise the day will be a complete disaster. Luckily we're moving into a new build, so as soon as we've completed, the keys are ours and we don't have to wait for anyone else to move out.

pimento

ztan wrote: »

It depends on lots of factors. I live on one of the busiest streets in the town centre of my town, and there is hardly any parking outside- recently however a loading bay has been put in, directly outside, so we'll have to ask the removal company to arrive as early as possible in order to secure that space- otherwise the day will be a complete disaster. Luckily we're moving into a new build, so as soon as we've completed, the keys are ours and we don't have to wait for anyone else to move out.

You should speak to the council. Often for domestic moves, they will reserve the bay for you by putting 'no parking' notices up a couple of days before.


When we last moved, I lived in a residents only zone so the removals van needed a special permit to even pull up outside our house.

DVardysShadow

shabby_chic wrote: »

We are hoping to complete in 3 weeks and in a small chain, just our buyers (cash), us and our vendors who are not buying anywhere atm. In our last move we had quite a long chain and didn't get key release until around 3pm but this time hoping it will be much earlier.
Don't want to have a removal van waiting too long so thought about 11am might be a good time but wondered if anyone could possibly advise.

Your house is the most obvious point of conflict.It looks like your vendors could move out the day before and your buyers could possibly move in the day after. In your position, I would want to get started early and I would be in contact with my vendors to see how soon in the day they would anticipate moving out or if they would be out the day before. Of course, keep your buyer informed and get the solicitors on side.

pinkteapot

We were the bottom of our chain, the people we were buying from had completed on their purchase before our completion day so had already started moving out before completion.

Even so, they were self-moving and completely underestimated it. We got the call at 11am to say we had completed and could go get the keys. Fortunately, we were moving out of rental and not actually moving in on completion day. We got to the EA at 4pm to find they didn't have the keys. The previous owners finally took their last van load and arrived with the keys at 4:45pm! If I had been moving in that day I would have been fuming. It had legally been our house for five hours before we got the keys.

As above, I'd speak to the removers as they'll be able to advise. Ours arrived at 8:30am but they were doing a full pack for us.

Ours had a clause saying if they had to work past 6pm there would be an extra fee. If we'd been moving on completion day we would have incurred this.

delmar39

Removal firms are used to waiting around - that's the nature of their business. No ideal I'm afraid. Our removal firm arrived at 10am in the morning and were loaded up by 12ish, but as we hadn't completed on our purchase we had to wait until around 1pm before the whole thing could get moving. Only thing you can do is get your end sorted and hope the keys are released in time. Usually you have to be out by a certain time anyway.

Evilm

My removal Van was there from 11am the day before until about 4pm and then from 9.30 on the day to do the last few pieces and we had cleared the house by 11am. We got our new keys around 2pm.

Ask your removals, they will be able to estimate the time they need and tell you when they should be allowed access to start clearing stuff out. On average a short chain tends to be done and all completed by 1pm or so and longer chain could be 3pm but won't be much later than that. Your removals people should be giving you all their attention that day so shouldn't mind having to wait at any time anyway.