Moving house in London: the 8-week plan

Why London moves need a plan, not a date

Outside London a move is a van and a date. Inside it, three things run on their own lead times: the crew for the day you want, a legal place for the vehicle to stand, and permission from a building to use its lift and doors. None of them can be bought on a Thursday for a Saturday.

The plan below works backwards from the day. If you have less than eight weeks, keep the order and compress the middle — the two things you cannot compress are parking applications and block sign-off.

Weeks 8-6: survey, quote, provisional booking

Book a video survey at the outgoing property. It takes twenty minutes and it is what turns an estimate into a fixed price: floor level, lift or stairs, the loft, the shed, the piano nobody mentioned on the phone.

Take a provisional booking against your target date. It holds crew and vehicle without committing you, and a good remover will move it once, free, when the chain or the tenancy settles.

• ●Video survey at the outgoing address, and photos of the new one
• ●Written fixed quote, including waiting time and overnight terms
• ●Provisional date held; note the free move-once policy in writing
• ●Decide packing: full pack, fragiles-only, or your own boxes

Weeks 5-4: confirm the date and start the paperwork

Confirm the moment contracts exchange, or the moment your tenancy notice is acknowledged. Fridays, Saturdays and the last working days of a month are the first slots to go across London.

This is also when the admin that has nothing to do with furniture should start: broadband transfer, council tax closing reads, redirect, schools, vets, insurance.

• ●Confirm the removal date and any storage leg
• ●Order broadband at the new address — the longest lead time in the move
• ●Set up Royal Mail redirection and update the DVLA, bank and GP
• ●Book a cleaner for the outgoing property if a tenancy requires it

Week 3: parking, permits and the building

A bay suspension typically needs around ten working days with the council, and every London borough runs its own form, its own fee and its own notice period. This is the week it goes in — at both ends if both are controlled.

If either address is a managed block, tell the managing agent now. Most want notice, some want a goods-lift slot booked, and many want a copy of the remover's public liability certificate before a crew is allowed through the doors.

• ●Apply for bay suspensions at both addresses
• ●Book the goods lift and confirm permitted loading hours in writing
• ●Send the block your remover's insurance certificate if asked
• ●Start on the loft, the garage and the shed — the rooms nobody counts

Week 2: pack everything you are not using

Books, out-of-season clothes, spare bedding, decorations, the second set of everything. Label by destination room, not by contents — the crew unloads to labels, and a box marked 'kitchen' lands in the kitchen even if it is full of books.

Run down the freezer and the cleaning cupboard this week. Aerosols, paints, fuels and gas bottles cannot travel on a removal vehicle and disposing of them takes a trip you would rather not make on the Friday.

Week 1: the countdown

Everything but beds, the kettle and one change of clothes should be boxed by the Wednesday. Dismantling, if you are doing it yourself, happens the evening before — not the morning of.

Pack the essentials box last and carry it yourself: kettle, mugs, tea, toilet roll, chargers, medication, tools, the kids' and pets' things, and the paperwork for both properties.

• ●Confirm arrival time and crew leader's mobile number
• ●Photograph meter readings and any existing damage at both ends
• ●Charge phones, print the completion-day card, cash for parking machines
• ●Essentials box and valuables travel in your car, never in the load

Moving day, hour by hour

A well-run London move looks the same whichever borough it is in: protection down first, boxes and heavy items loaded first, fragiles last on and first off, and a final walk-through before the doors close.

• ●07:30 crew arrives, walk-through, floor and doorframe protection
• ●08:00 final dismantling; 09:30 loading starts
• ●11:30 property empty, meter reads photographed, sweep
• ●13:30 keys or tenancy handover, drive, second bay in place
• ●14:00 unload by room label, furniture rebuilt where you nominate
• ●17:30 beds made if booked, sign-off, waste and packing debris removed

If you only have four weeks

Keep the order, drop the slack. Survey and book in the first week, apply for parking the same week rather than at week three, tell the block immediately, and buy a full packing service rather than trying to pack evenings around work. The failure mode of a compressed move is never the van — it is a suspension that did not arrive and a lift that was never booked.