How to choose a removal company

Choose a removal company on three things: a fixed written quote from someone who has seen what you own, a crew employed by the firm whose name is on that quote, and a straight answer to what happens when your completion date slips. Price is the fourth question, not the first.

Choosing is hard because most people have never bought removals before. Three numbers arrive by email, you cannot see what sits behind them, so you pick the middle one and hope. Here is what sits behind them.

We are a Durham firm, eighteen years at it, and we publish our prices. Some of what follows will talk you out of hiring us. That part is deliberate.

What a removal company does on the day

A local move with a two or three-person crew follows a shape.

1. Walk round, around 8am. Every room with you, loft hatch and shed included. Anything nobody was told about is time nobody costed.
2. Protection down. Runners on carpets, blankets over banisters, padding on door frames at both ends. A crew that skips it is a crew in a hurry.
3. Dismantling. Beds, table legs, flat-pack wardrobes. Fittings go in a labelled bag taped to the frame they came off, not somebody's pocket.
4. Wrapping and loading. Blankets on soft furniture, corners on wood, glass boxed. Heavy and square in first against the bulkhead, boxes build a wall on top, fragile last so it comes off first.
5. The wait. On a chain move the van is loaded long before the keys appear. Nobody warns you about this bit.
6. Unload in reverse. Beds built first, then room by room off your box labels, then reassembly and a last look through the van.

Timings to hold promises against: a two-bed loads in two and a half to three hours, a three-bed in three and a half to four and a half.

Two things belong on every quote and almost nobody asks about either: what is standard, and what gets billed on top. Blankets, straps and floor protection are standard anywhere decent, ours included. Dismantling, stairs where there is no lift, waiting time and a second address are extras, and each should appear as its own line with its own number. Ours are in what removals really cost in the North East.

Packing is a separate paid service almost everywhere. If you are doing it yourself, pack your boxes the way a crew does — full, square, labelled boxes load faster, and loading time is what you are buying.

When not to hire a removal company at all

Some jobs are the wrong product for a full crew on a fixed price, and we would rather say so than take the booking.

• One item, or one room. A sofa going three streets is an hourly job. One man, one Luton, done before lunch. A fixed-price move means paying for a day you are not using.
• A student room at the end of term. Two hours on the clock and it is finished. Fixed-price packages are built for houses; a Durham student room move is different maths.
• A studio that fits one van load, if you have two willing mates. Van hire, fuel and a takeaway beats any crew's price. Check it fits. What goes in each size of van settles that before you book, because two trips turns a bargain into a bad day.
• Shuffling between flats in one building, or in and out of storage. Pay by the hour. A fixed price assumes a journey you are not making.
• A grand piano, a gun safe, a hot tub. Specialists. We move upright pianos and refer grands out.
• Anything where you have not exchanged and the date is guesswork. Hold a provisional date, but hand nobody a non-refundable deposit.

A proper crew earns its money on a whole house with stairs, a deadline you do not control and a chain that can move under you.

The quote is the product, not the price

There are three ways a firm can price your move and they are not equally good. Over the phone is fine for a one-bed with nothing odd in it; beyond that it is a guess dressed as a quote, because the person guessing has not seen your garage. A video survey (twenty minutes on a call, walking every room) is nearly as accurate as standing in the house. A home survey earns its hour on four beds and up, and on any house where the answer to "is there much in the loft" is a pause.

The word on the document then matters more than the number on it. A quote and an estimate are legally different, and "guide price" is neither. How UK removal pricing works covers what makes a written price binding. Your test is simpler: does the document carry all ten of these?

1. Both addresses with postcodes, and any interim stop
2. The date and an arrival window, not just "morning"
3. Crew size, van size, and an inventory naming loft, garage and shed
4. The words "fixed price" or "estimate". Not "guide price"
5. Whether the figure they have given you is the final one, with nothing to add at the end
6. What is standard, and every extra priced separately
7. Deposit, balance due date, accepted payment methods
8. Cancellation and postponement terms by notice period
9. Liability for loss or damage, and any excess
10. Company name, company number, address, phone

Anything missing, ask for it before you pay a penny. A firm that will not put an extra in writing now will be no more generous once your sofa is on its van.

The damage conversation, before anyone lifts anything

Have this conversation while you still have quotes on the table, not after something is in three pieces.

• Get the liability position in writing. The limit, any excess, and whether it covers boxes you packed yourself. Self-packed boxes are treated differently by nearly everyone in the trade, and that is the clause people meet afterwards.
• Ask how a claim is made. Who you tell, how quickly, in what form. A firm with a written process has had claims and dealt with them.
• Photograph what you would miss. Ten minutes with a phone the night before. The TV screen, the table top, the corners of anything old. Dated photographs end most arguments.

We will not quote cover levels at you in a guide, and be wary of anyone who does in a sales call. Ask each firm for theirs in writing.

Ask who is turning up

Almost nobody asks this, and it changes the whole day. Are the people arriving employed by the firm you are paying, or subcontracted in?

Subcontracting is not automatically bad, and some large firms use it well. It introduces a gap, though. The person who priced the job is not the one doing it, so the crew has no stake in your fixed price. Extra time becomes something they want paid for, in your hallway, on the day.

Legally it is not your problem. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 a service contract includes a term that the trader must perform it with reasonable care and skill, and the trader is whoever you contracted with. Blaming a subcontractor is an internal matter, not a defence.

We use our own crew, always. The people who quoted your job are the ones stood in your kitchen.

Deposits, cancellation and the terms worth arguing about

Before paying a deposit, ask how much comes off the final bill, when the balance is due, and what happens if your moving date changes. Get the cancellation and date-change terms in writing.

Read the written terms before paying. Ask the firm to explain anything unclear about cancellation or moving your date.

The thing that goes wrong: the completion date

Ask any crew what ruins moving days and none will say broken plates. It is keys. In England and Wales nothing binds until contracts are exchanged (in Scotland it is the conclusion of missives) and even then the money has to land through the chain on the day.

YouGov research for the HomeOwners Alliance and Shieldpay found 19% of people who had bought in the previous two years hit moving-day delays: around 115,000 moves a year. For those out of pocket the average was just over £500, and the commonest cost was not storage or a hotel. It was the removal firm's hourly waiting charge, cited by 39%. Which makes four questions worth asking:

• How much waiting time is included, and what is the rate after? Get both in writing.
• What time does the crew call it a day, and where do my things sleep if keys never arrive?
• What does an overnight in the van or into storage cost, and who pays for it?
• If completion moves beforehand, what does changing the date cost?

None of that is hypothetical. It is the likeliest thing to go wrong, and the hour-by-hour shape of a moving day shows where the slack sits and when it runs out.

One thing you can control is the day. Reallymoving data from more than 700,000 removal quotes between 2011 and 2024 shows 29% of moves happen on a Friday. The day the banking chain is busiest. Tuesday to Thursday, mid-month, has slack in it when something slips.

Questions to ask, and the answers that should worry you

Ring three firms with this. Eight minutes a call.

Ten minutes of checks anyone can do

Removals is a barely regulated trade. No qualification is needed to start one, and a goods vehicle operator's licence only bites above 3.5 tonnes. A standard Luton, the van most house moves happen in, ours included, sits right on that line, so most firms need none. What a firm does have to hold is set out in how a removal business is put together. The checking falls to you.

• Companies House. Search the name or number on the public register. Does the incorporation date support the years claimed on the website, and are accounts filed on time? Companies House does not verify what is filed, so treat it as a starting point.
• The waste carrier register. If they are taking your old sofa away, check them on the Environment Agency's public register. A householder can be issued a fixed penalty of up to £600 if their waste is fly-tipped and they took no reasonable steps to check who they gave it to.
• Reviews, read properly. Skip the five-star ones and read the three-star ones. You are looking for a pattern, and for anyone saying the price changed on the day.

What we would do in your position

Get two proper quotes, not five. Five quotes from firms that have not seen your house is five guesses, and you will still choose on price. Two firms that have walked the rooms give a real comparison. A comparison form passes your details to several firms at once, so what comes back is a week of phone calls, not a shortlist.

Start earlier than feels necessary. The 8-week moving checklist puts quoting six to eight weeks out for a reason: the good crews go first, and for the dates most people want.

Then use a rule that has never let us down: the firm asking the most questions before quoting is usually the one whose price holds. Somebody who wants to know about the loft, the parking and the sofa that came in through the window is pricing a real job. A number given in ninety seconds is pricing a fantasy, and one of you pays the difference.

Be wary of the cheapest of three. In this trade the low number usually belongs to the firm that has not understood the job. If you want ours, you can see the fixed price and book it online — and if what you describe is the wrong job for us, we will say so.

Questions people ask