Removals want all day on completion day

ikeby

I won't hijack similar thread but am quite panicked and would appreciate some advice.

My removal firm is saying it will take all day to pack and remove goods to storage
i am panicked because i thought completion happens at 12 noon. My buyer would have their own removals to unload. Help please! How can I manage this? The have to do packing as I am on my own and suffer bad back.

Thanks and here is a bit more background info:

Finally it looks like exchange is going to happen this week for completion next Monday. I have held off booking removals because the exchange has been off and on over the past month due to problems with buyers buyer. but we have still not exchanged! May 31st was mooted but when i couldn't get a removal firm for this week being half term and end of month, my buyer threatened to walk away, they finally agreed next Monday.

bclark

You may well have to pack yourself in advance in order to save time? Most buyeds will not be happy with you taking all day, it's likely you will no longer own the house from about midday.

japmis

Get a different removals firm that can provide the service you want?

jackomdj

Could they part pack in advance, just leaving the final bits on Monday. I would not be happy if you were still faffing when I should be moving in.

(Had this happen once and we ended up unloading our stuff to one room and using our van to move them as they had hired a silly little van that would have taken about a week to get them moved!

Better_Days

As has been suggested either pack yourself or ring round some other firms asap. When I got quotes for packing and removing all the firms packed one day and moved the next.

moneyistooshorttomention

As your buyer is the one that has been awkward all along by the sound of it - with their buyer proving problematic and now them demanding an unreasonably short time between exchange and completion - then I personally wouldn't bother myself if they were sat outside in their van waiting to unload at 12 noon and couldn't because my removal firm hadn't had time to finish my packing for me.

Worth checking out whether you would suffer any sort of penalty of any description if it was the case that leaving them sitting outside for some hours was inevitable - or whether the worst they could do is "leap up and down and scream a bit".

Your buyer should have realised that you needed a certain amount of time between exchange and completion to be sure your removal firm were available and had enough time to do their job. I doubt very much whether any removal firms are prepared to come and do packing on a Sunday and your buyer should have thought of that before demanding completion on a Monday. It's far from unusual for a vendor to have their removal firm do the packing - rather than doing it themselves and your buyer should have known this. If your buyer starts moaning about you not doing your own packing point out you have a bad back and that is why you are having the removal firm do it for you and politely offer to provide medical evidence of said bad back and an estimate of how much you would be charging them for visits to an osteopath to put your back right if they "did it in for you" by making you do your own packing.

ognum

Why not use the day before completion day, that could be all day and it will give you completion day to do a final clean and hand over.

ognum

I m sure removal firms will work on Sundays,it will just cost more!

moneyistooshorttomention

ognum wrote: »

I m sure removal firms will work on Sundays,it will just cost more!

In that case - OP should tell this "impatient" (I could think of worse terms for them...) buyer of theirs that they would be pleased to have the removal firm in on Sunday doing the packing for them, but would have to charge the extra bill for this to them.

silvercar

Our removal firm sent the packers 3 days before. I thnk you need to tell your buyers that you need to exchange today so you can have the packers on friday.

DaftyDuck

As usual, I think Money is spouting a lot of tripe, and is fixated with her "normal" exchange of four weeks (and this from someone who has never sold a house in her life!). Money, it's not up to the buyer to "realise" anything; they are not a mind-reader, and they don't have to agree to anything. The buying & selling is a negotiation, and either party can say "no" at the appropriate time - which is before contracts are sold. It would certainly not be up to them to meet medical costs for any injury, so stop spouting such nonsense. (I could just as well sue you for the high blood pressure your ridiculous spoutings are causing me! )

Ikeby:
If you have contracted to a set timescale, it is now up to you to try to fit into it. Removal firms can pack some time before the actual leaving date; they pack all the non-essentials, breakables, etc, and then come back on completion day to finish up. Unfortunately, if you are not out at the agreed completion time, you can be faced with the surcharges from the other moving firm, and these can be punishingly high. I have heard of £200 an hour and, if they run out of time that day, there may be storage charges as well. Unusual, but be warned.

You either start the removal earlier, or find a firm who can work with a larger team, or get most of the packing done yourself (and a bad back may preclude doing it yourself). Can friends or family help?

I have been packed over the weekend, and didn't have to pay extra, but that was because it fitted in with that removal firm, who had lorries spare on the Monday. I am regularly packed a day or even days before the moving day itself. (I move a lot, have used the same firm on occasion, and am lucky enough to work for a company that pays the relocation bill, which helps enormously!)

Ask for quotes from several different companies; you may find one who is much more obliging and willing to be flexible. Some have many more packers than others, some may have more spare capacity at the moment.

The bottom line, how ever horrible it may sound, is that you agreed to sell your house, vacant possession, at a set time, and it is up to you to meet this contract, or face the costly consequences. Might not be what you want to hear, sorry for that.