Help with moving house

If you are buying a home, the date of your move is dictated by the contract completion date. It is worth planning well in advance for this date, as removal firms and cleaners can be hard to come by at short notice on the days you require.

Choose your date

Before you exchange contracts, it is worth checking that the agreed date is suitable for you. You may wish to move on a Friday, which gives a whole weekend to unpack, before you need to go back to work. Other common choices are:

• school holidays, which allows the kids to get used to an area before starting a new school.
• end of the month, which means there is usually a bit of spare cash around for those extra expenses.

If you do choose Friday however, be careful to make sure all of your services will be switched on, as a weekend without power and heating is not the best way to start life in your new house.
Although a lot of people try to coincide the purchase and sale of houses (or ending their lease and purchase date), you may want to think about staggering this by completing your purchase a few days before you make your sale or more if you have home improvement ideas), so that you have a few days to prepare your new home, before you need to sleep there. You may wish to get the following done in these days:

• clean the new house: it is not always easy to know whether the old occupants will clean the house appropriately
• get urgent deliveries: you may wish to get your new washing machine etc. installed before you bring the rest of your belongings
• get connected: this would give you a few extra days to make sure the phone, electricity and gas are connected.

If you do need to stagger the dates, you may need to get a bridging loan - you should talk to your mortgage provider about this.

Moving your belongings

Once you have bought your new home, you need to get all of your belongings moved from where you currently live. The first thing to do is to work out what you need to take with you and to try to dispose of the rest. You may wish to try auctioning it at Ebay or swapping it for something new. Try webswappers.co.uk for this. You will then need to work out what else you need to buy.

For the rest of your belongings, you will need a removals firm (or organise to move it yourself). If you have a lot to move, we would recommend using a removals firm, who can also help pack and unpack your belongings. Check to see whether your employer will help with these costs.

To ensure that the move goes smoothly, it pays to book a removal firm well in advance. You can get a removals quote to and from anywhere in the UK through our mover's quote engine. If you choose to do it on your own, you will probably need to organise a rental van.

Depending on the process of your move, you may also need to think about storage.

Getting connected

When you move home, you obviously have to contact the main services provided to your home, such as phone, gas, electricity and TV (cable or satellite) to get this disconnected / moved. This should be done ideally 4 weeks before you move.Check out switch utilities for the best approach to your arranging your gas and electricity.

Telling friends, family and other service providers

There are so many people you may need to tell about your change of address, people often wonder whether it is worth moving at all. We have prepared a check list of people to tell and have partnered with a number of firms to help you transfer your addresses smoothly. See our informing friends and business page.

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