Offer accepted: how to plan your move from exchange to completion day

Offer accepted: how to plan your move from exchange to completion day

The weeks between an accepted offer and the keys changing hands are where a house move is won or lost. Solicitors, surveys and mortgage offers take most of the attention, but the removal itself is the one part of the process you control from day one. This guide sets out what to do, and when, so that completion day runs to plan whether you are moving across Ashford, down the hill into Cheriton or out onto Romney Marsh.

Offer accepted: pencil in a moving window straight away

Nobody has a completion date at this stage, and that is exactly why people leave the remover until last. Do the opposite. Give a removals company an approximate window ("late October, probably a Friday") and ask them to hold it provisionally. Kent movers fill Fridays, month-ends and school holidays first, and a July or August move booked three weeks out will have far fewer options than one booked in the spring.

Ask for a survey rather than a phone estimate. A surveyor visits the property, in person or by video call, measures the volume and checks access, then gives you a fixed written quote. Stranks, for example, starts every one of its house removals across Kent with a survey at the property before a price is put in writing. A figure guessed from “three bedrooms” over the phone is not a quote and tends to grow on the day.

Two credentials are worth checking before you hand over a deposit. The first is membership of the British Association of Removers (BAR), which comes with the BAR Advanced Payment scheme: if the sale collapses before the move, your deposit is protected. The second is BS EN 12522, the British Standard for household removals, which audits how a company trains its crews, maintains its vehicles and runs its storage. Locally, Stranks Removals & Storage, a family-run Kent removals company based in Ashford and trading since 1941, holds both, and any BAR member can be checked on the BAR website in a couple of minutes. Read the Google reviews too, and look for comments about how the crew handled the awkward jobs rather than the star count alone.

Exchange of contracts: the date is now legally binding

Once contracts exchange, the completion date is fixed in law and everyone in the chain is committed. Confirm your booking with the remover in writing the same day, pay the deposit and agree the arrival time. The gap between exchange and completion is normally one to two weeks, though it can be longer by agreement or, occasionally, the same day. If your solicitor suggests exchanging and completing together, tell the remover as early as possible so they can hold the date on a cancellable basis.

You can pack yourself, and plenty of people do, but our advice is to book a packing service, at the very least for the kitchen, the glassware and anything fragile. A trained crew packs carefully, to a system and far faster than a household can, and it removes the biggest single cause of a late start on completion day, which is a house that is not ready when the van arrives. Stranks' packing services in Kent, for example, cover a full pack, a part pack or fragile-only packing, using double-walled boxes, wardrobe cartons with hanging rails and bespoke timber crates for artwork and mirrors, all labelled room by room so nothing gets mixed up at the other end. If you do pack some of it yourself, start with the rooms you are not living in, the loft, the garage and the spare room, and label every box with the room it is going to at the new house, not the room it came from.

Keep your TA10 form to hand while you pack. Anything you listed as staying with the property has to stay, and buyers do notice when a listed light fitting or curtain pole has gone. Our guide to what sellers need to know about the TA10 form covers the detail.

If there is a gap in your chain, with the sale completing before the purchase, ask your remover about container storage. Goods loaded on completion day can go straight into storage and out again when the new keys are released, without a second full move.

The two weeks before completion

14 days before: Confirm parking and access at both addresses. On-street terraces in Cheriton and Folkestone, and town centre flats in Ashford, may need a parking suspension or a longer carry.

14 days before: Notify council tax, utilities, GP, school and the post redirection. Redirection takes several working days to start.

7 days before: Finish packing everything except daily essentials. Crews load faster from labelled boxes than from half-packed rooms.

7 days before: Dismantle beds and flat-pack furniture, or ask the remover to include it. Dismantling on the day adds hours.

3 days before: Defrost and dry the freezer, drain the washing machine. Wet appliances damage other items in transit.

2 days before: Confirm arrival time with the remover and ask your solicitor when funds are due. This sets expectations for the wait at lunchtime.

The day before: Pack a first-night box: kettle, mugs, chargers, medication, bedding, keys and documents. It is the one box that travels in your own car.

Getting the house ready for the crew

A removals crew works fastest in a house that has been prepared for them, and a little effort the evening before saves hours on the day.

• Clear a path from the front door to every room, and move anything that is not going onto the van into one clearly marked corner.
• Leave a parking space outside if you can, and tell the neighbours a lorry is coming.
• Group boxes by destination room and stack them against one wall, heaviest at the bottom.
• Empty and clean the fridge, and take down anything on the walls that is going with you.
• Arrange for children and pets to be elsewhere for the morning, then keep the kettle, mugs and the first-night box in your own car.

Completion day: how the timing really works

Removal crews usually arrive between 8am and 9am and load while the solicitors move the money. Your buyer's funds go to your solicitor, your solicitor pays off your mortgage and sends the balance up the chain, and the keys are only released once the seller's solicitor at each link confirms receipt. In a short chain that is often done by late morning. In a long chain it can slip past 2pm.

Plan for the wait rather than hoping it will not happen. Your belongings sit safely on the van, the crew will typically break for lunch, and you collect the keys from the estate agent's office once your solicitor calls. If you are buying through Skippers, that call goes to the branch handling the sale, so keep the branch number saved in your phone alongside your solicitor's.

Take meter readings and photographs of them before you leave the old house, and do the same on arrival at the new one. Walk the empty property once the van is loaded, checking the loft, the shed and behind the doors, then leave the keys with the agent.

Common mistakes that turn a good move into a long day

• Booking the remover after exchange in peak season and finding the date gone.
• Choosing on price alone without checking BAR membership and insurance cover.
• Leaving the loft, garage and garden until the morning of the move.
• Assuming the new keys will be ready at 9am and asking the crew to unload by midday.
• Not mentioning a third-floor flat, a long garden path or a lane with no turning space, all of which change the vehicle and crew a remover sends.

FAQs

How far ahead should I book a removals company in Kent?

Provisionally book as soon as your offer is accepted, then confirm on exchange. For a summer move, or any Friday, four to six weeks of notice keeps your choice of dates open. Outside peak season two to three weeks is usually enough, but a survey still needs to happen before the quote is fixed.

Do I need to be there on moving day?

Someone with authority over your belongings should be at both addresses: to point the crew at what stays and what goes, to sign the inventory, and to take delivery at the new house. If you cannot be there, nominate a family member and give the remover their name and number in advance.

What happens if completion is delayed on the day?

Your goods stay on the van until the keys are released, and the crew waits. Most companies allow a reasonable waiting period within the quote and charge for extended delays, so ask what that period is when you book. If completion fails altogether, which is rare, your goods can go into overnight storage and be delivered the following day.

Should I pack myself or pay for a packing service?

Book the packing service. It is possible to pack yourself if you have the time and most of what you own is books, clothes and linen, but a professional pack is done by trained crews who pack houses every week, gets through the job in a fraction of the time, and takes the breakables out of your hands. If cost is the worry, a fragile-only packing service covers the kitchen, glassware and pictures and leaves the rest to you.

Plan the removal from the day the offer is accepted and completion day becomes the easy part. If you would like a hand with any other part of the sale or purchase, your Skippers branch is a phone call away.