How to Compare Removal Companies

Nearly every advert you read will proclaim that the house removal company advertising their services are:

‘The best removal company in the UK’

‘The cheapest removal company in London’

 ‘The most trusted furniture removal firm in the Country’

But those titles cannot legitimately belong to nearly each and every home removal company.

So what is the difference between home removal companies? Are removal companies all the same? How do you pick a reliable removal company?

Knowing how to choose the best removal company is vital to a smooth and easy home moving experience.

At the School of Moving Home, our best friends in the playground this term is going to be Comparison and Analysis, teaching us how to find and compare removal companies.

Comparison and Analysis will guide us, offering us advice on finding the best removal firms and showing us how to avoid home removal company scams, those who just want our pocket money, and will scarper off across the playing fields never to be seen again.

So let’s take a peek at how our removal companies’ school report will look before we find out how to award the ticks and crosses, or even a gold star or two.

Removal Company Comparison Chart Headings

• First Impressions from initial contact
• Professional attitude to in-home moving survey
• Inventory of items to be moved made?
• A detailed plan for moving day offered
• Did the surveyor answer all your questions satisfactorily?
• Removal cost
• What are the payment methods?
• What are the terms of payment?
• Packing Costs
• Were packing materials included in the above cost?
• Do they offer specialist packing materials or services? (e.g. Piano)
• What additional services were offered?
• Is there anything you own that they cannot move?
• Is any discount offered?
• How established is the company?
• What is the company rating on review websites?
• Do they use only company staff – not temps?
• What insurance was offered?
• Is the company a member of a professional body (BAR or NGRS)
• Do they have a complaints procedure?
• Do they have a Storage facility?
• Overall impression

You may also like to read: Moving Brokers: What You Need to Know and Why. Moving brokers are middlemen, they take your booking and organise your move for you, but they may not be the company that actually moves you. Find out the pros and cons of booking your home move through a broker and what the pitfalls can be.

Now we know what information we are looking for, let us discover how to find a trusted removal company and award those gold stars.

Which home removal firm is the cheapest in ………….?

Cheap and Good are not normally best friends in this school.

If cost is your only concern then you could head for the back of the classifieds, but consider carefully whether you would entrust all your worldly possessions to an unknown man in a van.

You could hire a cheap mover who causes damage to your furniture for example which will wipe out any savings you have made in an instant.

Of course, there are very good and trustworthy man and van operators as well as very poor removal firms, but what is important is that your removal costs offer you value for money.

Cheaper operators will usually save money by hiring unskilled labour or not using wrap and padding to protect your things during the move.

Consider if saving money is worth the upset and stress that it may cause you on moving day.

The safest way to compare home removal costs is to first get a quote using an online home removal cost estimator.

There is a simple online form to complete, or a free-phone number to call, to obtain a home moving estimate from up to four reputable home removal companies.

The only information you will need to generate those estimates is:

• The date you wish to move (an approximate date at this stage is acceptable).
• The number of bedrooms the home you are moving out of has.
• The postcode you are moving from.
• The postcode you are moving to.
• Your contact details.

By using an online quote estimator you can be sure that the removal companies that contact you are reviewed by real home movers just like you, and that the home removal estimating website has checked that the removal firms are legitimate companies.

You will usually receive the home removal quotes via email or telephone, typically within 20 minutes of making the request.

Once you have your no-obligation quotes you can decide if your budget stretches to hiring a full-service removal company, or you will pack your things yourself and get a company to move and transport your things, or whether the move is so small and local that you can do it all yourself.

You may also like to read: Online Home Removal Cost Estimates: Your Questions Answered. Find out whether online home moving estimates are reliable, how and why to get an online quote, whether you can you trust the removal firms who will contact you, and more are answered in this guide.

Which is the best furniture removal company in……..?

Best and Low Rates tend not to play together either.

As with most things in life, you get what you pay for, but the home removal market is very competitive, so prices tend not to vary enormously between reputable home moving companies.

If you get quotes that are wildly different find out why and be aware that come moving day you may face some extra charges that you were not expecting.

Price aside, what does single out the gold star prefect is usually customer service.

How easy is it to contact the company, how professional are they, and how do they react when things go wrong? Great customer service is really important.

So, having received your free home moving estimates you have narrowed your search for a reputable home removal company down from hundreds of contenders to just 3 or 4.

The next stage of the home moving process, and a big section of the comparison chart, is the in-home moving survey.

This is where the removal company will visit your home to gather as much information as possible about your home move, and for you to gain as much information as you can about the removal company and their services.

It is common these days for this survey to be carried out via a video survey rather than a physical visit.

However, the in-home survey is vitally important to ensure a stress-free moving day, and if the removal company does not offer this free service, ask yourself how they will know what issues they may face, and how they can possibly know the specifics of your move if they have not even visited your home or seen what items you are moving.

You may be faced with a higher-than-expected bill come moving day or worse still, they may not even turn up on moving day.

A reputable removal firm will offer, and in most cases insist upon an in-home survey.

You may also like to read: Questions to Ask Your Removal Company. It is vitally important that you know as much about the removal firm and the process of moving home as possible. Here we have created a list of questions that will help you choose the right movers and ensure there are no nasty surprises on moving day.

How do I choose a Removal Company?

Our friend, Analysis, is going to help us determine the best-rated removal companies with the best removal firm consumer reports.

Removal company reviews are a great way to do this.

Visit a reputable moving company review website so that you can gather as much information from real home movers about the removal firms that you are considering using.

The best removal company review websites will have software that will prevent companies from submitting their own reviews, that way you can be sure that the reviews are genuine.

Ideally, there should be at least 10 reviews for each company that you can read, with an overall star rating of no less than 3 or 4.

Look for reviews that are recent, are from movers with a similar size property, and are moving a similar distance to yourself.

You may also like to read: How to Pick a Good Removal Company: The Ultimate Step-By-Step Guide. Choosing a good removal company is not easy so in this guide we take you step-by-step through the whole process with a real-world example of how to find the best mover for you.

Are removal companies regulated?

Removal companies in the UK are not regulated and they require no special license to operate. Anybody can just start a removal company with no experience whatsoever.

However, there are professional associations that removal companies can join such as British Association of Removers or the National Guild of Removers and Storers.

Removal companies that belong to such organisations are bound by a code of conduct and even offer an ombudsman service should you require it.

Are Removal Companies Insured?

Reputable removal companies will be insured but will offer varying degrees of insurance for your possessions during the move.

It is advisable to check this out when comparing removal firms so that you can be sure they offer adequate insurance for your move.

You may also like to read: Home Moving Insurance. Do I Really Need it? In this guide, we explain the different types of insurance that are available to ensure that every aspect of your home move is insured.

By now our report should be getting full of useful information and you may have expelled a removal company or two already based on your findings so far.

We started off the school day with the questions: how do I compare home removal costs? How do I find a reputable home removal company? And, how do I compare removal companies?

But there is also the factor of your gut feeling to take into consideration.

Taking everything else into consideration, did you have a good feeling about one particular company over another?

Having decided upon which home removal company to use, confirm your choice with the removal company as soon as you can, good removal companies get booked up quickly.

How to Prepare for Moving Day

Now all that remains for you to do is to start preparing your home for moving day.

The most important task to do now is to declutter your home, the fewer items you take to your new home the cheaper and easier your relocation costs will be.

Must read: The Epic Guide to Decluttering for a Home Move. Decluttering can seem like an overwhelming task both physically and mentally so in this guide we break down this task room by room with helpful and practical tips and also look at how to emotionally detach from your possessions.

Must have: Moving Home Checklist and Timeline – A Week by Week guide to moving home. A useful resource when moving home is a home moving checklist. There is so much to remember to do that a checklist will ensure you do not miss any important home-moving tasks.

There is one final thing before the end of the school day.

Our home moving blog is full of essential reading for each and every aspect of your home move, so be sure to visit the blog to make your home move cheaper, safer, and less stressful.

Good luck with your home move and in your new home. Class dismissed.