Six arrangements
Not by property type, not by load size, not by borough. Each of these pages sets out how the arrangement works, who we take instructions from, what we will and will not do, and where the difficulties usually arise.
Three of the six describe situations that need proper advice from somebody who is not a removals firm. They say so.
One person instructs, one person pays. Everything else is a variation on this.
A household move you are arranging and funding yourself
The simplest arrangement and still the majority of what we do. One person instructs, one person pays, and everything we are told comes from the same place. Every other entry on this list is a variation on what happens when that stops being true.
How this works →A landlord, an agent or an employer. Contracts, orders and policy limits.
End of tenancy, voids, and moving a tenant's goods
Common across London and full of edges. The person paying is usually not the person whose belongings are in the property, which changes who we can take instructions from and what we are willing to do with the contents.
How this works →Relocation packages, purchase orders and policy limits
The company signs and the employee lives with the result. What matters here is what the relocation policy covers and, far more often, what it quietly excludes — storage, insurance above a limit, and anything called an ancillary service.
How this works →Authorisation comes in stages and from somebody who is not present.
Escape of water, fire, and moving out while work is done
A whole category most removals firms never mention. Goods out to storage, a household into temporary accommodation, and back again when the work finishes — with an insurer or a loss adjuster authorising each stage.
How this works →Executors, beneficiaries and a house that has to be emptied
Slow, and rightly so. The executor instructs and the estate pays, while several beneficiaries may have views. We take instructions from one named person, and we will say so at the outset rather than in the middle.
How this works →Procurement, scheduling, and two households moving at once.
Decants, mutual exchanges and adapted properties
Council and housing-association moves, including decants during major works and exchanges between two households on the same day. Procurement, scheduling and adapted-property requirements make these unlike anything else on the list.
How this works →Because the furniture is the same in all six and everything else is different. Who signs the contract. Whose word the crew acts on. Who receives the invoice. And what we are able to do with somebody else's belongings when the two parties want opposite things.
Sorting a move by property type tells you which vehicle to send. Sorting it by who is paying tells you how the day will actually go, which is the part that generates complaints in this trade.
No price, rate card or transit time appears anywhere on this site, because the volume, the access and the arrangement decide the figure and none is known before a survey. Start on the quote form, or read the questions page.
Both addresses, roughly what is going, and — the useful part — who is paying and who will be instructing us on the day. That last question saves more trouble than any other on the form.