The cost of moving house is never one number, and the removals bill is rarely the biggest part of it. People ring me having budgeted carefully for the house and not at all for the day they actually get into it. So before the part I get paid for, here is the whole list, and then an honest account of what sits inside my end of it.
What the cost of moving house is made of
Conveyancing, searches, a survey, mortgage arrangement fees, stamp duty if it applies to you, the removals, and then the first month in a house where something always needs doing. Every one of those has a published range you can look up except the last two, and the last two are the ones that arrive without warning.
The removals line is the one people compare hardest, partly because it is the only one where three different firms will give three different answers for what looks like the same job. That is worth understanding rather than just picking the cheapest, and it is the same reasoning behind choosing between a man with a van and a full crew.
What the removals line covers
A proper removals price is buying four things: the vehicle and the mileage, the crew and their hours, the protection for your things while they are in transit, and the insurance behind all of it. A quote that gives you a single figure with no breakdown is not necessarily wrong, but you cannot tell what has been left out of it, which is the whole problem.
Prices vary across Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire more than people expect, because distance from the crew's base is a real cost. A move inside Dunstable is the shortest job my crew and I do. The same house contents going from St Albans to the other end of the county is a different day and a different price, and any quote that does not reflect that has either absorbed it or has not thought about it.
The four things that move the number
Access at both ends. This matters more than the number of bedrooms and it is the thing most often left out of a phone quote. A ground floor house with the van on the drive is a completely different job from a third floor flat with a shared entrance and no lift, even if the contents are identical. Stairs and carry distance are hours, and hours are the price.
Volume, not rooms. Two people in a three bedroom house who moved in last year have far less than a family who have been in a two bedroom for fifteen. Lofts, garages and sheds are where the surprises live. Nobody has ever overestimated their loft to me.
Parking. If the van cannot get near the door, the crew carries further and the day gets longer. In towns with permit bays and narrow terraces this can add hours, which is why it comes up so often on moves around Hitchin and St Albans.
Timing. Fridays and month ends are when everybody completes, so they are the hardest days to book and the least flexible if a chain slips. A midweek move in the middle of the month is easier for everyone.
Packing, and whether to pay for it
Full packing is a genuine cost and a genuine time saving. The question is honestly about time rather than money: if you have two free evenings a week for a month, do it yourself and spend the difference on something else. If you are working full time and completing in three weeks, paying someone is not an indulgence.
A middle option that people forget is part packing, where the crew does the kitchen and anything fragile and you do the rest. The kitchen is the room that takes non-professionals the longest and breaks the most, so it is the best value part to hand over. There is more on the order to work in on the house moving checklist.
Where the surprises come from
Almost always one of four things. A completion date that moves and turns a booked day into a rescheduled one. Something that will not come apart, or will not go through a door at the new place. A loft nobody had been into. Or an access problem at the far end that only became obvious on arrival.
Three of those four are avoidable at the survey. That is the entire argument for having someone look at the job properly instead of pricing it from a bedroom count over the phone, and it is why my crew and I would rather spend twenty minutes now than have a conversation on the pavement on moving day.
Comparing quotes properly
Put the quotes side by side and check they are describing the same job. Does each one state the crew size and the hours included, or is it open ended. Does it say what happens if the day runs over. Does it list what is being dismantled and reassembled. Does it name the insurance cover and the limit. Is packing included, part included or excluded.
A cheaper number with none of that stated is not cheaper, it is less specified. My crew and I quote in writing with those points spelled out, across Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, and I would rather lose the job to a genuinely better price than win it on one that was never going to hold.
Want this priced properly?
Send us the two postcodes and a rough idea of what is coming, and we will give you a fixed price in writing. No obligation, and no follow-up pestering if you decide to go elsewhere.