How did you ensure there was parking space for your removal lorry?

giffen

We're moving house in a few weeks time and the driveway of our new house is a bit tight so I'm not sure if the removal van will fit into it. There never seems to be any free parking spaces on the road, so I just wondered what everyone did to make sure that there was space for your removal lorry? All the moving websites say to make sure you have parking reserved but they don't tell you how you go about this!
Thanks!

elsien

Round our way people plonk a couple of wheelie bins in the relevant bit of road so no-one can park there, with a note on explaining why.
As it's only for a few hours and we're a friendly bunch we can usually live with that.

Kira000

giffen wrote: »

We're moving house in a few weeks time and the driveway of our new house is a bit tight so I'm not sure if the removal van will fit into it. There never seems to be any free parking spaces on the road, so I just wondered what everyone did to make sure that there was space for your removal lorry? All the moving websites say to make sure you have parking reserved but they don't tell you how you go about this!
Thanks!

It depends on parking restrictions on the road as well. For a house move some time ago, there were limited parking bays, and the rest was yellow lines. We had to contact the council highway dept and inform them of the date/time, and get permission to have the removals lorry t be parked up on the yellows, with an authorisation letter in the window. Because it was yellows, there was no risk of anyone else already being parked there though.

In other roads near me now, where there are no restrictions, you usually see people parking their cars in the space they want for the lorry, and adding a few bins or cones at either end to take the space up, and then moving the car when the lorry arrives.

giffen

Hey, thanks for the quick replies

Yeah it would be good to put something there in advance - such as a wheelie bin or car - but I've never seen a space free in order to do this! Ideally I'd pop down the night before and leave my car there but I could be waiting a long time for a space (near the house) to come up.

The street has a single yellow line but this is ignored and apparently not enforced.

elsien

Have the sellers already left the house? If not, they'll need to ensure there's a space for their own van which with a bit of careful timing you could then take over when they depart.

Ulfar

I have lifted up a moped with friends and moved it round the corner when one of my ex-neighbours thought they were being funny by parking in the space the other neighbours had created for me.

They didn't realise until they saw the van parked outside a bit later, they came rushing out and asked where their moped was, we all adopted a blank expression and denied any knowledge of it.

As the moped also wasn't taxed there was no chance of them calling the police.

withabix

It's not your problem.

If your removal firm doesn't want to carry your furniture too far, that's up to them to sort out surely?

You are paying them (a lot!) to move your furniture.

I'm sure there will be nothing in your contract with them that means you have to ensure they can park outside your new house.

In some places that is impossible anyway.

giffen

The sellers have already moved so jumping into their space isn't an option unfortunately :-(

We're not using a removal firm, we're doing it ourselves...

mjdh1957

I believe that you can request that the local police put some cones outside the house on removal day. Phone your local police station (not 999) and ask them.

I did this back in 1995 or so. Things may be different now.

aliasojo

Why don't you knock on the neighbour's doors, introduce yourself, apologise for the inconvenience and ask if they could help you on moving day by moving their cars out the way for a few hours? A big friendly smile goes a long way to future relations.

Someone did that to us and a few others in our old cul de sac, we were all happy to oblige.

princeofpounds

Councils typically organise this. Normally you look at their parking websites for ino on how to apply.