The Modern Rules Of Moving House
December 4, 2015
Organizing London Removals
I recently read an article by WikiHow that detailed how to move house, and tips for choosing a removals company. Being based in London, we have many customers get in touch looking to organize their house and flat removals. With some many people in London, there is a big pool of tradesman competing to assist you with your move, everyone from a man and van operation, to a large scale international removals firm.
It is important for you to decide which of these options will be right for you.
1. Choosing the removals company option
The first thing that the articles talks about is the cost of hiring a removals company. It does increase the potential cost of moving house, though in the long run the benefits of choosing to use a removals company will be beneficial.
Moving house can be a stressful process as it is, with out trying to handle it by yourself. Firstly is the time needed to actually do everything, you will be responsible for loading and emptying the house yourself, and depending on your household goods, could me many, many trips back and forth, creating a long and stressful day. And the longer you work, the stronger the chances of accidents happening and damage your hard bought goods.
By choosing the right removals company, the first impact to consider should be the handling in your belongings, you have spent time and money investing in your household goods, and the least your removals company should do is offer a fully insured move as standard. With the removals company handling your goods, they have a duty of care to ensure they are handled carefully and professionally and should anything happen, their insurance will rectify the situation.
By the time that you have calculated the potential cost of repair or full replacement of some of your goods, the cost of hiring the removals company will seem fractional in comparison.
2. Deciding on who to move with
Next we need to deal with the wide variety of firms offering removals services, these can range from a part-time firm, that owns a van and offer occasional light removals around town to help support the cost of their vehicles, to fully licensed international removals companies.
The key is to find those that are recognized and accredited in their field, We recommend you choose only removals companies registered with the BAR (British Assosciation of Removers), they have been overseeing and governing removals firms for over 100 years. They ensure a minimum standard of care is delivered and provide a lifeline should you feel that your removals was mishandled.
you can visit the BAR’s website directly and they have a search facility to enable you to find local Removals and Storage Companies in your area.
3. Getting the right deal and rate from your Removals Company
Once you have narrowed down, the removals companies you would prefer to handle your move, make sure you get to agree to an assessment at your property. It is all to easy to rattle off a quick list to somebody over the phone, overlooking a few goods here and there and all of a sudden be tied into a fixed price for a quote that doesn’t accurately reflect your move.
Whilst they are on-site they will survey the property with you and discuss with you which deals and options are right for you. This is your opportunity to negotiate the terms of your move and decide what is the best options for you, the removals surveyor will also be able to advise you the best course of action to arrange a hassle free move. These can be additional crew men to complete the work more efficiently, more services such as packing and dismantling to reduce the workload on yourself etc.
It is important to get enough quotes to compare the best rates, once all the quotes have come in, get in contact with your removals companies and talk to them about the quote, and if there is any room for movement on the price. However, try to be reasonable with the price, what you don’t want is to sacrifice the cost for the quality of workmanship.
4. Check your Removals companies reviews
With the internet blazing a trail for accessibility, it is becoming easier and easier to weed out any potential scam artists looking to take advantage of you.
There are several platforms now for easy to access, vetted, professional quality reviews for all sorts of trades.
The first port of call is the corner stone of trade reviews in the UK, Checkatrade have spent countless years developing a reputation for being a reliable resource for vetting your tradesman. There seasoned staff ensure that stringent checks are carried out on each applicant, which is the first deterrent to a potential scammer, they will shy away from anyone looking to pry on their activities and will prefer not to register with big spot light organisations.
The next resource for finding trade specific reviews in the removals industry isReferenceline , they have links with the BAR as well as many other trade organisations, and they work hard with their partners to ensure that their goal to reduce the scam and rouge trader branches out there is something they strive for, and their references are transparent and easy to understand, as well as providing proof of the submitted reviews.
5. On The Day of the Removals
On the day, the crew will arrive bright and earlier, ready to start your day. The reason we do this is to avoid and handle any delays that could occur on the day, and avoid us still trying to handle your removals into the late hours of the night.
Our removals team will turn up at between 8.00-9.00am and take a quick tour of your property, this is your opportunity to highlight to them what is needing to be moved and any items that need to remain at the property, item such as white goods are occasionally agreed in the terms of sale and are required to stay with the original property.
This is also a good opportunity for your removals team to highlight to you any potentials problems in loading in moving goods around your property. It’s a this stage we will make the relevant decisions to ensure we can conduct your removals carefully and professionally as we agreed to.
Once the removals truck is loaded, our crew will have you take a quick tour of your old property, we do this to ensure we have removed absolutely everything that has been agreed to be moved and avoid any items getting left behind. This can be particularly relevant when transporting mid-long distance removals around the country.
When we arrive at the new property, we will take a quick walk around your new house, we will ask you to highlight to use how you wish the property to be laid out e.g. What is to be the Lounge, Master Bedroom, Spare Bedroom 1,2 etc. This will allow us to conduct a smooth unloading and reduce any time that we may need to waste identifying where every item is going. It is of course a good idea for you to let us know if there are any items from the originally property placed in different locations to where they were removed from. It is our removals plan from collecting your original property items that we plan on laying out your new property, if there are any planned changes let us know and we will correct these for you.
Once the removals truck has been completely unloaded we will invite you to take a quick look into the rear of the truck giving you the opportunity to have peace of mind that all of your belongings has been unloaded and delivered into your new property.
6. After the Removals day is done
Moving house can be exhausting and stressful even if you do hire a professional removals company. So, on your first night, plug your television in, put your feet up and relax for the night.
Once you have had some time to get accustom to your new home you can get to grips with unpacking your goods and organizing your new home. Whilst you are unpacking, if you do notice any issues, such as damages or scratches, or anything out of the ordinary that you didn’t notice before the move, get in touch with us, you have 7 days to notify us of any issues for us to follow up, to allow us sufficient time to notify our insurers.
Once you have unpacked all your boxes, bagged up all the excess bubble wrap and void fill you have around the property, give us a call if you stayed locally within the area and we will look to find a convenient time to visit and collect your boxes. We are passionate about being as green and environmentally friendly as possible, we re-purpose as many removals boxes as we can, and due to their extended use we can offer them at a competitive rate to provide them.