It is being sold · A
When the house is sold
The standard move, and the one with the least standard day. Everything about it is ordinary except the single fact that the hour you get into the new house is decided by solicitors, lenders and four other households you have never met.
Plan for keys arriving late and the day is fine. Plan for keys arriving on time and it usually is not.
What the day involves
The hour nobody controls
Completion is a money movement, and money moves up a chain in order. The household at the top is paid first and the one at the bottom last, which means the later you sit in a chain the later your keys tend to arrive.
None of that is a reason to panic and all of it is a reason to plan. We load early, secure the vehicle, and wait. Waiting is a quiet cost; sending a crew home and bringing them back is a loud one.
Two houses, two access problems
A sale move is the only kind where both ends are equally unknown. In the village that means a narrow frontage and a hill; on the Pinner Green semis it means a drive you share with next door; in a Rayners Lane block it means a lift and a bay.
We survey the leaving end properly and we ask you hard questions about the arriving end. Photographs of the new front door, the hall and the stairs are worth more than a description, and they cost you a minute.
Packing before, not during
On a completion day nothing should still be going into boxes when the crew arrives. It sounds obvious; it is the most common way a day loses its margin, and the margin is what absorbs a late key release.
If you are packing yourself, be finished the night before, with the exception of the kettle and the beds. If we are packing, it happens as a separate visit ahead of the move.
What we will tell you plainly
That the loft will hold more than you think. That anything in the sale contract stays in the house. That fuel, gas and open paint are not going on the vehicle. And that if the chain looks fragile, a load-and-hold overnight is cheaper than a failed completion with a van full of furniture outside.
The house is sold
Questions about the house is sold
01 When should we book?
Talk to us at offer stage and firm the date up at exchange. Anything committed before exchange is a hope rather than a booking, and we would rather hold a provisional slot than take money against a date that may not hold.
02 What time will you arrive?
Early, and the quotation says so. Getting loaded and ready before the completion machinery starts moving is what makes a late key release survivable.
03 Can you do both ends on the same day?
Usually, and it is the normal arrangement. Where the chain is long or the distance is significant we will suggest loading one day and delivering the next instead.
04 Will you dismantle and rebuild beds?
Yes, as standard. Wardrobes, bed frames and anything else that has to come apart to get out is taken down here and put back together there.
05 What if the buyer delays?
The load stays secured. If the day fails entirely, goods go into store rather than back into the house you have just emptied, and we return when the chain moves.
06 Do you cover Hatch End and Eastcote too?
Yes, along with Northwood Hills, North Harrow and the Ruislip edge. Pinner is the centre of the patch, not the limit of it.
What is happening to the house you are in?
Sold, handed back, let out, cleared, or nothing settled yet. That answer plus the two addresses is enough for us to ask you something useful back.