Van wouldn't hold all my stuff, buyers getting angry... help!

babyblade41

TheJP said:

babyblade41 said:

When getting quotes for removals tell them what you want rather than what they  offer.

I get all non essentials removed  a good 3 or 4 days before completion & just very essential stuff on the day  

I have the non essential stuff put in storage for a week  & essential stuffed moved in the next day.

I always have a grocery order booked for the evening  of the completion so apart from clean underwear , drugs and the essential bottle of wine  then this way it takes all the stress out of everything.

I also arrange a professional cleaning company to come in around 10.00 & give the place a good clean whilst I wait somewhere else , for completion to take  place 

That's great and all but not realistic for many.

Why isn't it ... we have pigs, poultry , 6 dogs & a tortoise... if we can do it then I'm not sure how it is unrealistic for many 

TripleH

When we moved up to the North West from the South our stuff was collected the day before in the van.

We just had ourselves and 3 cats to pack in the car along with some bits and pieces. Fortunately we weren't leaving the place empty for the new owner as it hadn't sold then.

We passed the van on our drive up.

RedFraggle

HobgoblinBT said:

I am a bit late to this thread, but I recommend Anyvan.com, a man with a van aggregator service.  I have no connection to them, other than as a satisfied repeat customer.

You clearly had a better house move experience with them than me! Never again!

saajan_12

Mark_Michalowski said:

I'm a single man, 60 years old, with a chest infection and a tiny car, doing it all on my own. Tiny violin time, yes - LOL. - sure, but you can still pay someone to sort it out sooner. If you were able to help with the physical packing / loading into your car on the Monday, you probably can do *something* sooner than days later. 

I spose I was thinking that if I'd been in their position, I'd have understood that sometimes things don't go to plan. - yes, and they you have to pay for it, not them.
And I'd have been happy to put their stuff in the garage for them to collect when they got the chance over the next couple of weeks. - easy to say, but you're thinking of your difficulties and they're thinking of the inconvenience to them through no fault of their own. Also what if they had their own stuff to put in the garage?
AFAIUI, they're not actually moving into the house until they've had some work done anyway. - absolutely irrelevant, please don't justify on this basis. There's a reason they'd want to do work while the place is empty, now they have to work around your stuff or keep moving it around not get paint on it, etc. 

Yes, sometimes things don't go to plan, on the day. However then it costs US (in time / hassle / money) to do everything possible to minimise the impact, not someone else.  After the issue was found, you could 
* drive back and forth to get the items moved much sooner
* hire a van and run around to get the items moved
* pay any moving company or man and van that can get there soonest
* arrange with a neighbour to keep the items in the interim (you know them better and they're not in the midst of a house move)
* prioritise sorting out this before your own internet etc
* arrange a skip yourself
* get the items physically moved to the garage / out of the way that night by you or someone you pay
* discuss a storage agreement with the buyers to pay them £x per day (and actually start paying)
* discuss a disposal agreement and agree to cover their time and costs to dispose of the items

Remember even if currently they're just chasing you to move the stuff, legally you have breached an agreement and they could sue for any damages (eg paying someone to move it, store offsite, dispose etc). If they disposed or sold it, then you could claim the value, but you'd have to prove that and after costs of selling, there's probably little left. 

Tiglet2

lookstraightahead said:

Tiglet2 said:

OP, you have my sympathy.  This happened to us on one of our moves.  The removal company didn't anticipate how much stuff we had and the lorry wasn't big enough to take everything.  The removal men and us were moving the extra bits into the garage, just to keep it in one place out of the way of the new owners, who were moving all their stuff in.  We also piled our car up with as much as possible.  The removal men were able to arrange a second smaller lorry to go to the house to pick up all the rest of the stuff at around 4 pm - all done on the same day luckily.  

Sometimes things like this do happen, but I guess the key is to try and minimise the inconvenience for the new owner as much as possible.  After all, it is not their fault that this happened.

How does this actually happen? Are you saying the removal people sent the wrong lorry for what you had indicated, or were you not accurate?

We had a similar thing with a wardrobe that the removal people wouldn't take as it hadn't been taken apart (our fault). We chopped it up and put it on the tip - I would never have left it squatting in someone else's property.

In our case, the removal company was really at fault.  We had also paid for the packing service, so we had two men packing everything a few days before the move so they should have anticipated we would need a large van!  Everything was ready to go first thing in the morning, but the van simply couldn't carry it all and it was as tightly packed as it could be.  Apparently the person who organised the move was known for under-estimating the size of van needed, so they did all they could to get another van and man (which had done a smaller move and had finished that job), to come and collect the remainder.  I did think that our buyers were a little miffed, because they were packed up and ready to move in at about 10 am and were waiting outside tutting and sighing, but we didn't vacate until about 1.30 pm.  I think the buyers could have gone for brunch somewhere but no, they watched progress from their car.  The removal men returned at 4 pm to collect the rest.  So glad that's a distant memory!!

TheJP

babyblade41 said:

TheJP said:

babyblade41 said:

When getting quotes for removals tell them what you want rather than what they  offer.

I get all non essentials removed  a good 3 or 4 days before completion & just very essential stuff on the day  

I have the non essential stuff put in storage for a week  & essential stuffed moved in the next day.

I always have a grocery order booked for the evening  of the completion so apart from clean underwear , drugs and the essential bottle of wine  then this way it takes all the stress out of everything.

I also arrange a professional cleaning company to come in around 10.00 & give the place a good clean whilst I wait somewhere else , for completion to take  place 

That's great and all but not realistic for many.

Why isn't it ... we have pigs, poultry , 6 dogs & a tortoise... if we can do it then I'm not sure how it is unrealistic for many 

Because not everyone can afford a week of storage on top of the other costs. Throw in looking after 2 young children and this approach isn't viable.

Bonniepurple

OP, it sounds like you had our removal firm.  They brought 2 vans - but one was full of stuff from another job and it was there for the driver.  The men were abysmal- take one box out of the house, have a vape, load the van, have a vape, next box…., and I got the impression that there were office politics at play as the guy who came out to survey was not part of the team and apparently tended to underestimate the load - which meant the movers could claim overtime from the boss.

It was just after the end of the Stamp Duty break and we were lucky to get that date.  I’m disabled so I physically couldn’t go and hire a van (it would have to be automatic for a start and then there was the issue of actually getting into the van!).

You booked  professionals and they’ve let you down.  What you should have done is said to the new owners/estate agents is “I’m so sorry, we’ve underestimated how much stuff we’ve got, we’re going to unload and we will be back to pick up the rest either tonight or first thing in the morning”.  Not give a text “oh yeah, I’ve left some stuff behind.  I’ll pop round and pick it up next week”.

london21

Mark_Michalowski said:

Helloo everyone

I need a quick bit of advice..

Finally completed on my move on Monday: the most stressful day I can ever remember. It turned out the whopping great removal van wasn't big enough, due to a combination, I think, of my not putting everything in stackable boxes, and possible overestimate by removals firm of what would fit in the van. It didn't help that of the four guys that came, only two of them actually seemed to do any moving (they were ace!): the other two seemed to spend a lot of time standing in the van looking at their mobiles.

Anyway, it took forever to load (started at 9am, were only just done by 3pm) and there were lots of garden tools, mower, plant pots, ladder, some greenhouse junk, bike etc - plus a bookcase, the hoover and a couple of boxes of stuff - that simply wouldn't go in the van. I packed the car so full I couldn't see out of the passenger side! I did a rubbish job of trying to clean the house as the van set off for my new house, half an hour away, and then (as a single guy moving on my own) I had to go pick the keys up and meet the van at the new house, so I had to abandon all the rest of the things I couldn't take.

 I left a terribly apologetic letter for the new owners, wth my phone number, telling them I'd come back to collect the rest of my stuff when it was convenient for them (I'd need to hire another van, obviously). I felt awful but I didn't know what else to do.

On Tuesday they sent a text saying they were unhappy about it all (understandably) and complaining about "broken locks" (which were fine when I locked up!) and "unopenable windows" (they're those old-style tilting sash ones and I suspect they simply didn't know how they opened).

I texted back, again apologising profusely and explaining what had happpened with the van and telling them about the locks and the windows.

On Wednesday they replied giving me a two-hour window on Friday morning during which to remove all my stuff. Whilst I was trying to contact the removal firm to see if they had another van available, the buyers texted again, wanting to know when I was coming and threatened me with getting a skip for my stuff and contacting their solicitors. I've texted them to tell them I'm waiting to hear from the removal firm, but this is really stressing me out

I totally understand how they feel, and I'm fine with them dumping all my stuff in the garage until II collect it, which I have every intention of doing so. I just can't organise it all withn the space of five days, especially when I have all the stuff at THIS end to contend with at the same time (and no internet, problems with the electrics and heating etc).

I genuinely want to know if I'm being the bumhole here, and what reasonable steps I should be taking. I'm not messing them about, I'm just struggling to do it to their deadline. Part of me wants to just tell them to bin it all and charge me for the skip - except there's a good ladder, lawnmower, plants, garden tools etc. And I genuinely don't want to mess them about.

Any advice before I go totally mad? LOL

Thanks in advance.

Mxx

You are in the wrong here.

Just try to get everything out ASAP and move on.

Ideally you have had time from beginning to exchange to clear out your stuff. 

Sounds like you have a lot of stuff, could have gotten rid of the things you do not need anymore to make it less stressful and less clutter.

Belleofthebooks

Well our sellers left a ton of stuff in our garage, if they had said they would come and collect in a week or so I would have been totally fine with that persoanlly. Unfortunately they just left it there with no intention of coming back for it. We had to pay for it to be removed in the end. Maybe they think you're trying to leave them with your rubbish you can't be bothered to move? 

Mark_Michalowski

Again, thanks for all your comments.

The removal firm has finally given me a quote for a small, two-person van for Tuesday, but tell me it needs to start at 9am and will take 5-6 HOURS. Which is utterly insane for the small amount of stuff remaining (unless they use the two blokes who were on their mobiles during the original run.) The entire house, with a lot of stuff, took that long, and this is about half a garage's worth.

My buyers - perfectly understandably - don't want to take a whole day off work but are happy to be there from 3pm or so, so I'm waiting on phone replies from a couple of different "mans with vans" who can meet me there in the afternoon.

And before you think me more of a total monster than you already do...

1 - the two good removal guys thought that the assessor had underestimated, too

2 - almost everything that could be packed up was packed up before they arrived - the stuff left behind was, essentially, unpackable: an IKEA bookcase, a roll of old lino, some pieces of kitchen worktop under the stairs and the garden equipment and stuff

3 - I had no contact details for my buyers so I called the EA as soon as I realised there would be a problem and asked him to contact the buyers and let them know what was happpening. Twice, actually, to keep them informed as the day went on. Once my buyers texted me (on Tuesday) I've texted AND called to keep them informed as to what I'm doing, which is obviously not enough (and no, I'm not being sarky there!).

4 - I'd pre-printed a "Welcome to your new home!" leaflet with details of bin days and neighbours' names (with some tins of cat food in case they had a cat - if not, then for the hedgehogs) - and as the chaos progressed, I added three apologetic PSs explaining firstly that loading the van was taking forever, and then, later, that they'd run out of room. Yes, I know, inadequate, but I didn't know what else to do. I added my mobile number and told them to get in touch asap to let me know when I should return for the rest of the stuff (I knew they weren't actually moving in yet, so just coming back to the house in the evening woud have been pointless until I knew they would be there.) Once I'd pushed the key I was using back through the door, all I could do was wait to hear from them, which I did the next day - which is when they suggested Friday morning, which the removal company informed me on Wednesday they couldn't do

5 - If I could have had access to the garden (and/or the house) I'd have happily tripped backwards and forwards with my car all night, taking away what would fit in it

6 - The "leave things with a neighbour" is a brilliant idea which just never occurred to me, but the neighbours were at work and I had no contact details for them anyway. I could probably have left everything in their drive (which they don't use) but that would have been too cheeky, I think

7 - I really screwed everything up big time, I know: I've only moved house once before, 20 years ago, and I've never used a removals firm. I had no idea there was an option for loading the van up the day before: no one mentioned that to me as an option. I just assumed that the assessor and the company would make it go like clockwork but I messed up and I hold my hands up to that.

In response to my own question in my initial post: "Yes, I have been a bumhole!". And I'm trying to put things as right as I can.

I know this will come across as a load of excuses, but it's genuinely more of an explanation. When it's all behind us, I'm going to do a "What have I learned?" thread about all of this, and your comments and ideas will form a big part of it. Thanks, genuinely.

Mxx