How to Compare Removal Companies Before You Book

Most people ask three removal firms for a price and get three numbers that sit a long way apart. Nothing in the emails explains the gap, so the decision drifts towards whichever firm sounded nicest on the phone.

There is a more useful way to read them. Below is the order we would check things in, including the parts of a quote that are easy to skim and expensive to get wrong. Most of it is asking the same question of every firm and writing the answers down.

Check that the quotes describe the same job

Two prices are only comparable if both firms priced the same move, and very often they have not.

List what each quote actually includes. Rooms counted, whether the loft, garage, shed and garden are in or out, packing or self-packing, boxes supplied or bought, dismantling and reassembly of beds and wardrobes, a second delivery address, storage between dates, and whether the date is fixed or a window.

Gaps here explain most of the price difference before you look at anything else. A quote that leaves out packing will always undercut one that includes it, and a quote with no storage line has assumed your two dates line up neatly.

Work out whether the price is fixed or an estimate

A fixed written price and an estimate are different products, and both get called a quote.

An estimate can move once the crew sees the house. Hourly billing moves too, and it puts the cost of a slow day, heavy traffic or a late key handover onto you rather than onto the firm. A fixed price puts that risk the other way round.

So ask one question in writing: is this the figure I will be invoiced, and what would change it? A straight answer tells you plenty. How a price is built in the first place is covered in our guide to removal costs and quotes, and our own reasoning for quoting a fixed price rather than by the hour sits alongside it.

Find out who is actually turning up

The company that quotes you is not always the company that arrives.

Some firms subcontract at busy times. Some trade under a national name as a franchise. Long-distance jobs are sometimes handed between depots, so your goods change vehicle and crew part way. Load-matching platforms sell you a slot on somebody else's van.

None of that is automatically bad, but you should know which one you are buying. Ask whether the crew is employed by the company, whether the person who surveyed the house will be there on the day, and whether the load changes vehicle at any point. The crew that saw the narrow lane is the crew that planned for it.

We do not subcontract. The crew that quotes your house removal is the crew that loads it.

Read the insurance, not the word insured

Fully insured usually means two separate policies, and only one of them is about your belongings.

Public liability covers damage to property and injury to people. Goods in transit covers your things while they are being moved, normally with a limit per load. They are not interchangeable, and a firm can hold a large public liability figure while carrying very little cover on what is in the van.

Ask four things. What is the goods in transit limit per load. Is it included in the price or charged as an extra. What has to be declared in advance. Can I see the certificate. Antiques, art and instruments often need naming before the day, which is worth raising early if you have specialist items. Our removals insurance answers go through the rest.

Ours is £2.5 million public liability and £50,000 goods in transit per load. The goods in transit cover is included rather than sold as an add-on, and the certificate is available on request.

Ask what the survey involves

A fixed price is only as sound as the inventory it was built from, and the survey is where that inventory comes from.

Surveys take three forms. Somebody walks the house, somebody walks it with you on a video call, or you fill in a list yourself. All three can work. A price produced from a three line email and no list has been guessed at, and a guess is the thing most likely to move later.

Find out whether the survey costs anything, how soon it can happen, and whether the surveyor is the person who will run the move. Ours is free, and on larger homes we will usually want to do one before we fix the price. Our home survey answers set out what a visit actually covers.

Read the deposit and cancellation terms before you pay anything

Deposit terms tell you what happens when the chain moves, and chains move.

Ask how much the deposit is, whether it is refundable, what the deadline for a refund is, and when the balance falls due. Then ask separately what happens if your completion date shifts rather than falls through. A rescheduled date and a cancellation are not the same event, and good terms treat them differently.

Ours is a £100 deposit, refunded in full if you cancel more than 48 hours before the move, with the balance due before moving day. Our deposit and cancellation answers have the rest of it.

Check they have asked about access at both ends

A firm that has not asked where the van will park has not finished quoting.

Access is the most common reason a bill grows on the day. A lane too narrow for a large lorry, no parking outside, a permit or bay suspension needed, a flat with no lift, a long carry from the van to the door, a gravel drive, a low bridge on the obvious route. Around Shaftesbury, SP7 and the villages either side of the Blackmore Vale, none of that is hypothetical.

If access is not mentioned anywhere in the quote, it has not been priced. Ask directly and get the answer in writing. Our parking and access answers cover what usually needs arranging, and the Shaftesbury removals page shows how we handle it locally.

Weigh accreditations and reviews honestly

Trade bodies and review platforms are both useful, but they answer different questions.

The British Association of Removers is the main UK trade body. Membership brings a code of practice and a route to dispute resolution, which has real value. It does not tell you who employs the crew, what your goods are covered for, or whether your price is fixed, so treat it as one signal rather than the answer.

Reviews repay a bit of care. Read the recent ones rather than the average, look for reviews describing a move like yours, and read the awkward ones and the replies underneath them. Check that the trading name on the quote matches a real registered company while you are at it.

We are not a BAR member, and we say so plainly on our removals page. We are Checkatrade registered, and we would rather be judged on the insurance certificate and the written terms than on a badge.

Notice how the awkward questions get answered

How a firm handles a difficult question before you book is a fair guide to how it will handle a difficult moving day.

Watch how quickly the quote arrives and whether it comes in writing. Watch whether they will tell you something you would rather not hear, such as a date they cannot cover or an item they will not carry. A firm that says yes to everything on the phone has not thought about your move yet.

The questions to put to every firm

Ask all of these of everyone on your list and the comparison stops being about the headline number.

• Is this a fixed price or an estimate, and what would change it?
• What is included: packing, boxes, dismantling, reassembly, storage?
• Who employs the crew, and will the person who surveyed the house be there?
• What is the goods in transit limit per load, and is it included in the price?
• Can I see the insurance certificate?
• Is the survey free, and can it be done in person?
• How much is the deposit, and when does it stop being refundable?
• What happens if my completion date moves rather than falls through?
• Where will the van park at both ends, and is a permit needed?
• When is the balance due, and how is it paid?

Getting quotes you can actually compare

Give every firm the same brief and the comparison does most of itself.

Send a room by room list including the loft, garage, shed and garden, both full addresses with a note on parking and access at each end, your date and how flexible it is, and anything you want quoted as an add-on. The same information to three firms produces three prices for the same job, which is the only point at which the numbers mean anything.

Send us that and you will have a fixed written quote back within the hour, with the insurance and the terms attached rather than buried. Get a fixed quote.