Advice on Moving House

When you get there, instead of geting wrecked for a house warming, get your mates to come and paint decorate in exchange for food and drink.

Finishing moving for the second time in a year tonight... Lucky we don't have too much stuff.

Good luck :)
 
Agreed about the local solicitor. Don't use a solicitor which is part of the same group as an estate agent. I have seen both Shoosmiths and Countrywide Property Lawyers (CPL) muck up plenty of times, and one of my long standing clients will withdraw from a sale if his buyer instructs either of them. It seems that they employ lots of clerical staff but few legally trained people, which means that so long as everything is completely straight forward they are OK but if there is anything even slightly unusual it either gets missed or everything stops.
 
Use a local solicitor and be ready for the unexpected and budget another £2000 for this. Use a checklist like the one I have attached. This is the one we used last year when we moved. Only look at houses in the day (we went at night and it looked great) if we would have gone in the day we might not have bought it with the amount of work that needed doing. Hence the 2k needed for emergencies. Don't fall in love with the first house that you see and defiantly visit it twice before making an offer( a lot lower than what is been asked you never know they may accept it). Go back later in day to see if the local yobs hang around near your new house, then visit the local pub to see if the locals all hate it and want to move ( they were going to build an incinerator about half mile from where we were looking) changed our minds on where to live after that pub visit. If you have kids have a look at the schools on ofsted and see if they are any good if not what distance will your kids have to travel for a good school? And finally make sure you get a list of everything that will be left and what condition it will be in (the cooker that was left at our new house fell to bits 2 days after we moved in)
 

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OK we have moved 12 times since we have been together (10 years) and well we dont actually find it very stressful now as we know what to expect.

IF short distance and you can have an overlap in moving in and moving out then do it yourself, buy a cheap van and well go for it. IF its a 1 day turn around then I personally would say get the professionals in and if you have a little extra cash pay them to pack it all up for you,. it makes things so easy you carry on with life and let them do EVERYTHING.

DONT expect everything to go 100% perfect, solicitors and well everything fdoes go wrong, the amount of time removal trucks are sitting outside a property for hours waiting for the completion to go through is stupid. DONT arange completion on a FRIDAY, this seems to be the busiest day and things drag on, try and complete mid week, you mill find it easier to find a removal company and be able to negotiate a cheaper deal.

Play removal companies off against each other they are all competeing for your job, dont just look at companies where you live, look at where you are moving too, it may be cheaper.

If you have kids (as you do) ship them off to someone else for the day.

if you are not getting a removal company to do it, ASK FRIENDS, bring beer and food, dont give beer out until you are moving IN.

With both friends and removal companies the very first thing you MUST do and I mean MUST DO is offer them a tea or coffee as soon as they arrive and keep them lubricated during the entire move. you MUST also offer bacon butties for breakfast and a sandwich for lunch, you will be surprised home much of a difference this will make, if you make the effort and treat the 'staff' right they will go the extra mile for you.

DON'T just rely on removal companies, check a few of the shipping companies out as some do both but due to cut backs have now gone shipping only but still have the facilities to do removals.

errrrmmmm what else can I suggest?

Where you moving too and from? (I did have your addy but cant remember) as I may be able to help as I used to do removals - well when I was a fit young lad so may be able to give some advice

if you ignore the above or even if not good luck with the move and hope all goes well - just remember keep the people doing the work supplied with tea, coffee and bikkies above all else
 
A lot of good advice there, hope it goes well.

I can't remember reading if anyone suggested it but I found the mail redirection quite good for catching the odd "please sign here" letters from old credit cards or services trying to hook you back in. I don't know for sure if I got everything but I thought it was worth a couple of months (£18 for three months http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/product1?catId=400040&mediaId=600008 )
 
Lots of good advice above; the only thing I can think of adding is obviously label each box with the room that it is to go in, and more info if possible, and have one box clearly labelled something like '1st box - kitchen' with kettle, tea/coffee, and/or whatever else you will definitely need within hours of arriving in the house. And if you end up throwing stuff into a box at the last minute, as will almost certainly will happen, label that accordingly as well.
Oh, and I think with washing machines there is a concrete block that has to be screwed down in them to prevent damage?? Or are they not made like that any more? And I'm sure with fridges and freezers, you have to wait several hours/ a day(?) before plugging them in again. But I could be wrong about those two; it's 18 years since I last moved, so a bit of a distant memory.
We had to take the removal men to lunch in a local pub whilst waiting for completion to occur; I think that was the most stressful part, wondering what would happen if somehow our old house ended up sold, but the purchase didn't go through. Would we have to live in the removal van until we could sort something out?:icon_smile:
 
I've just worked out that I moved into a different home, some temporary, 15 times. I have been in this house for 17 years and hope my next move is in a box.

There's nothing like an up to date list. Write down those things that pop into your head straight away then add it to the list as soon as you can.
 
Fido said:
I've just worked out that I moved into a different home, some temporary, 15 times. I have been in this house for 17 years and hope my next move is in a box.
Click to expand...

:D

Wow what great advice from everybody. Thank you! We looked at a couple of places last night and one stood out. It would need some work but that's not such a bad thing as we can make our mark on it. There isn't a great deal for sale where we want to move to so choice is limited, but there's a good chance that this is the one. We're only moving a few miles but we'll need removal men so I'll make sure there is tea and bacon on tap.
 
Here is another cracker... Don't let your significant other pack things you are going to need for about a week... Otherwise you are going to end up with no belts or ties because there is no recollection if which box/bag they went in...

Al (currently hoiking up suit trousers and having to go buy a tie once I get to work!)

Here is another cracker... Don't let your significant other pack things you are going to need for about a week... Otherwise you are going to end up with no belts or ties because there is no recollection if which box/bag they went in...

Al (currently hoiking up suit trousers and having to go buy a tie once I get to work!)
 
I would suggest viewing any prospective purchase several times, and at different times of the day (including weekends). Is it near a school? If so, traffic will be a nightmare twice a day. It might seem nice and quiet during the day, but what's it like during the evening or weekend?

If it's detached, then neighbour issues will be minimised, but if it's attached to another dwelling you need to check the sound insulation.

Good luck. It's an incredibly stressful thing to do, and the so-called "professionals" involved only vary by degrees of ineptitude.
 
Well the house we like is detached with no chain so that's something. Also we know the area pretty well so there should be no surprises there. My main concern is them accepting our offer, or at least negotiating reasonably, and at the same time selling our house at the right time for a decent price. We're not greedy and would rather miss out on a few thou to minimise the stress involved. Life's too short. If it means we have to delay some of the improvements then so be it.

We're off on holiday soon so I reckon I'll just leave my cases packed ready for the move.
 
Well the house went on the market Monday and it sold yesterday! We're waiting for a decision about whether our offer has been accepted on the house we want to buy. Us Pig Cats don't hang around you know! :icon_razz: Hopefully all will continue to go smoothly, especially thanks to the advice received here.
 
Great stuff! Spooky though, yesterday was a great day for selling houses. I had probably the best day of the year for agreeing sales, the nation must be optimistic now that TNOTW is ceasing!
 
Wow, that's amazingly fast. I thought that in the current climate it was a case of put it on the market and then forget about it for a year or two. Hope your offer is accepted PC.
 
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