Advice on moving belongings on completion day.

cogrady

Looking for some advice on moving all belonging from our current home to our new home on completion day.

We are purchasing a house literally a 1 minute walk away from our current home. We accepted an offer for our house to FTBs and the house we are buying is an elderly person on their own that is downsizing. My hope was to carry out the move myself with some family help, and using a hired van for transporting our belongings. We will be moving from a three bed house to another 3 bed house, with no kids or pets to worry about. The good thing about the new house is that it has a garage, so the idea is to load everything on completion day in there and then gradually place everything in the house at our convenience. 

However, this got me thinking. How about if we don't get the keys for our next house in good time, i.e. before 12pm. How are you expected to move everything in a van within only a couple of hours to avoid the buyers of our house becoming annoyed that we are still clearing our stuff and they are waiting for example.

Just want to hear other folks stories on how they managed a move like this. Of course I could hire a removal company, but since the house is literally around the corner and about 4-5 (medium-sized) van loads should do it, I was hoping that I could save some money doing it myself. 

RelievedSheff

We moved on completion day last year.

We had everything boxed up and ready to go well in advance with just the essentials to do on moving day. The van was loaded by 9am on completion day and that went off to the new house while we waited for confirmation that we had completed on the new house. We hired a man and a van outfit which worked really well for what we needed. We were moving from a 2 bed to a 3 bed so didn't need a huge van. The van came with three guys in the end which was a great help.

We found that being organised and having everything boxed up, labelled with the contents and the room they were for was a real help and made the process so much easier.

We also had a massive declutter so that we were not moving stuff that we didn't need or want. It was amazing how much junk we had collected in the 12 years we lived in that small house!

davidmcn

If they're FTBs they may well not even be moving in on the day itself (as they won't have had the issue of having to vacate the property they've sold on the same day). I wouldn't worry about it unduly as long as you're vacating at a reasonable hour during the day, everyone needs to have some flexibility.

SameOldRoundabout

Hire two vans, the biggest you can and have them (and whatever family cars you’re using) loaded first thing ready to go. Then hopefully it’ll just be one trip back again for the second load up. Just try and be as organised as possible, have al the upstairs stuff downstairs and the upstairs hoovered and cleaned the night before etc so you’ve got less space to clear in the morning. 

I’m always shocked how long loading takes. We were moving a 5 bed, but as most of our furniture was built in only needed 2 Luton vans for our stuff. It still took almost 5 hours to load them all up properly. 

random321

We exchanged and completed on the same day in March. We had contact details for both vendors and buyers and were on good terms with both.

This enabled us to make arrangements directly with our sellers to pick up the keys first thing and move our stuff over in a few trips using a Luton van as like you we only moved a couple minutes away. Our buyers were FTB's so were not in any rush to get into the house due to having an existing rental agreement in place, so we just arranged to drop the keys round to them at a time that was convenient to them.

If you are on good terms just try talking to your vendor / buyer and see if you can make arrangements that will suit everyone.

nnewtoarea

Just confirm with the buyers via estate agent if they could wait till 4 pm. You will hopefully get your keys by 1 or 2 pm. Get your stuff in the van by 12 and wait.

eddddy

You'd have to rely on the goodwill of your buyers and/or sellers to agree to what you describe - or just keep quiet and potentially annoy your buyers on the day.


The "ideal" way of moving house would be:

• Load all your belongs from the old house into a big removal van before 12 noon.

• At 12 noon completion occurs -

• • So at 12 noon you no longer own the old house (so you shouldn't really have anything left in it, and you don't have the right to go back in it after 12 noon)
• • And at 12 noon you become owner of the new house (so you don't really have the right to go into the new house or put anything in the garage or house before 12 noon)

• After 12 noon Unload the contents of the van into the house you now own.

But it often doesn't go that smoothly. And as others say, as you're selling to FTBs, hopefully they won't be sitting outside your old house with a removal truck full of belongings at 12:01pm.

alex_163163

I usually am all for saving money, but I would and have paid for professional removers. My boyfriend wasn’t sold on the idea but I went ahead with it anyway, and in hindsight he very much agrees and would always use movers again.

we did all the packing and boxing up in advance, so the movers arrived about 8.30am, they loaded up the van and removed the furniture whilst we tidied up and cleaned areas we couldn’t whilst furniture was in place. We moved a 2 bed flat to a 3 bed bungalow, and they brought a vehicle large enough for 1 load.
they drove the lorry to the new house, whilst me and my partner dropped off old keys and collected new keys. I think we got the call at about 12 that we had completed and could get the keys (our new house was already empty).

I would ALWAYS pay for removal men in the future - it takes so much stress of your shoulders. Worth every penny! We also moved on one of the hottest days of the year so I can’t imagine having to DIY it! I would have passed out! 

AnotherJoe

I think  it will be a nightmare and will take ages, likely well into the evening, and theres no way you can pack the contents of a house in a garage !

Whilst you and a couple of mates are struggling downstairs with a bed, or negotiating a sofa round corners, professionals will have done the whole house. 

You better hope the elderly person isnt doing something similar so you end up even unable to get stuff in until the evening and find their garage is still stuffed with junk.

 

hazyjo

If you need more than 2 trips in a van, IMO you should absolutely not be DIY moving.

My last sale completed by 9.30am. Thankfully I didn't have buyers snapping but my heels but a friend once did. Insisted they move out immediately.

I've also had completion on a purchase late afternoon before.

Is it really too late to get removals in?

If I had to save money on one thing when moving, removals would be literally bottom of my list. Packing and removal bods are worth EVERY SINGLE PENNY.

iampetesmith

I'd still get a removal company to do it, even if it is only a minute walk. The moving of the items is the majority of the work, not how far it's going. They can clear the house into the van (usually) in one go, then pull up outside the new house within a minute or 2 and unload it in one go, then you don't have the hassle of trying to move it to different rooms either.

The only reason we moved ourselves is because we were FTB so still had the rental for a few weeks. I spent those few weeks moving stuff in my Skoda and you don't realise how much there is until you start doing it. We completed at half 12 and had to wait a couple of hours for our seller to drop the keys off as his took 2 trips. We had lunch at the mother in law's (she lives round the corner) then when the estate agent said the keys were ready, I walked up and got them then walked round to the house to check it.

We measured up properly for new furniture while it was empty, then I locked it up and we went back to our rented house. We won't have that advantage if we move again, so next time I'll get a removal company to do it however far away it is.