Keys are late
The vehicle stands where we arranged, crewed, and we deliver the moment they release. Nothing about this needs a decision on the day.
The day itself
Completion day, run properly
Everything you own is on a vehicle between two events that neither you nor we control. The whole craft of a London house move is in how that gap is handled.
Most people move house rarely enough that completion day happens to them exactly once or twice, and nobody explains it beforehand. So it arrives as a day of unexplained waiting punctuated by phone calls, and the removal company is either the thing that held it together or the thing that made it worse.
It is not complicated. It is a fixed sequence of events that nobody schedules, and the only real question is whether somebody planned for the gap in the middle.
The runbook
Completion day, stage by stage
There is no timetable — there is a sequence, and each stage starts when the one before it finishes. Any mover who hands you an hour-by-hour plan is telling you what you want to hear. This is what you should get instead.
- 01
Load out
Starts on arrival, before any legal event
Crew arrives at the outgoing house and loads. This happens whether or not anything has completed, because being loaded early is the only thing that buys flexibility later.
Yours: Be packed. This is the one stage where being ready makes the whole day easier.
- 02
Sale completes
When your buyer’s funds reach your solicitor
Your solicitor confirms the sale has completed and releases your keys to the estate agent for the buyer. At this point the old house is no longer yours and the load must already be out of it.
Yours: Nothing. This is between solicitors — but keep your phone charged and on.
- 03
The hold
Between your sale completing and your purchase completing
The loaded vehicle stands somewhere legal and the crew stays with it. This is the stage nobody plans for and the one that defines whether the day is calm or awful. We arrange the standing place in advance.
Yours: Nothing, and that is the point. You should be able to get a coffee.
- 04
Purchase completes
When your funds reach the seller’s solicitor
Keys to the new house are released to you, usually via the estate agent. Only now can anything be unloaded. If this does not happen, we move to the contingency rather than to panic.
Yours: Collect the keys and get to the property, or send someone who can.
- 05
Deliver in
Keys in hand and access confirmed
The load goes in, placed room by room against the inventory rather than stacked in the hall. Beds are reassembled first so the house is sleepable whatever else is still in boxes.
Yours: Be at the door, and tell us where things go as they come off.
- 06
If it does not complete
Keys are not released
The load stays sealed on the vehicle or goes into containerised storage, and we deliver when the chain finally moves. Agreed in advance and written into the plan, so it is a contingency rather than a crisis.
Yours: Tell us as soon as your solicitor tells you. Early warning is the whole game.
The contingency
What happens when it goes wrong
Most removal companies will not discuss this until it is happening. It should be settled at the survey, because a contingency agreed in advance is a plan and one invented on the day is a crisis.
Keys do not come at all
The load stays sealed on the vehicle overnight or goes into containerised storage, and we deliver when the chain moves. Agreed and priced before the day, not negotiated during it.
The date moves before the day
We rebook. A slipped completion is a normal feature of English conveyancing, and we would rather hear "this might move" early than "this has moved" on the morning.
Ask any mover you are considering these three questions before you book. The answers tell you whether they have run a London chain before.
Why nobody can give you times
Funds move between solicitors through the banking system, and they arrive when they arrive. A completion can be confirmed early in the day or very late in it, and the position of every other transaction in your chain affects yours.
A removal company that promises you a delivery time on completion day either has not run many chains or is telling you what you want to hear. What you should get instead is a sequence, the trigger for each stage, and a stated answer for the stage that fails.
What you can actually control
Three things, and they are worth more than any amount of worrying about the rest.
- Be packed. Load-out is the one stage entirely within your gift, and everything downstream is easier if it goes quickly.
- Decide who fetches the keys. An estate agent will not hand keys to a removal crew. Make sure that person is reachable and is not also needed at the old house.
- Keep a bag with you. Documents, medication, chargers, a change of clothes, and the kettle. Completion day is when "it is in a box somewhere" becomes a real problem.
Tell us early, not accurately
If your solicitor says the date might move, tell us then. You do not need certainty to be useful. A company that hears "this might slip" has room to rearrange; one that finds out on the morning has a crew and a vehicle already committed.
Tell us where you are in the chain
Where you are moving from and to, how many bedrooms, and whether you have a date yet. Even an uncertain date is worth telling us about.