London · every borough
The person paying
is often not the person moving
A landlord. An employer. An insurer after an escape of water. An executor. A council carrying out a decant. In London a great many removals are paid for by somebody who will never set foot in the property.
That changes who signs, who we take instructions from on the day, who receives the invoice, and what we can do when the two want different things. So it is the first thing we establish, in writing, rather than the thing we discover in a hallway.
One property, three arrangements
- A A flat in Hackney
- Customer
- The householder
- Payer
- The householder
- Instructions from
- The householder
- B The same flat, end of tenancy
- Customer
- The letting agent
- Payer
- The landlord
- Instructions from
- Agent on scope, tenant on the goods
- C The same flat, after a leak
- Customer
- The policyholder
- Payer
- The insurer
- Instructions from
- The policyholder, within what is authorised
The tinted fields are where the payer and the householder are different people. Every complication on this site lives in one of them.
Six arrangements
Find the one that describes yours
Each page sets out how the arrangement works, who we take instructions from, what we will and will not do, and where the difficulties usually arise. Three of the six describe situations that need proper advice from somebody who is not a removals firm, and they say so.
Your own money
One person instructs, one person pays. Everything else is a variation on this.
A business is paying
A landlord, an agent or an employer. Contracts, orders and policy limits.
- 2 A landlord or agent is paying End of tenancy, voids, and moving a tenant's goods Common across London and full of edges. The person paying is usually not the person whose belongings are in the property, which changes who we can take instructions from and what we are willing to do with the contents.
- 3 An employer is paying Relocation packages, purchase orders and policy limits The company signs and the employee lives with the result. What matters here is what the relocation policy covers and, far more often, what it quietly excludes — storage, insurance above a limit, and anything called an ancillary service.
A claim or an estate is paying
Authorisation comes in stages and from somebody who is not present.
- 4 An insurer is paying Escape of water, fire, and moving out while work is done A whole category most removals firms never mention. Goods out to storage, a household into temporary accommodation, and back again when the work finishes — with an insurer or a loss adjuster authorising each stage.
- 5 An estate is paying Executors, beneficiaries and a house that has to be emptied Slow, and rightly so. The executor instructs and the estate pays, while several beneficiaries may have views. We take instructions from one named person, and we will say so at the outset rather than in the middle.
A public body is paying
Procurement, scheduling, and two households moving at once.
Unsure which applies — or dealing with two at once, which happens? Describe it in the notes on the quote form and we will sort out the arrangement before anybody books anything.
Established before the booking
Who instructs, who pays, who signs
Six arrangements, and the differences between them are not administrative. They decide whose word the crew acts on, what we are able to do with somebody else’s belongings, and who carries the risk when something is disputed.
-
You
- Contract
- With you.
- Instructions
- You, on the day and beforehand.
- Invoice
- To you, as the written quotation sets out.
Where it gets difficult None to speak of. This is the arrangement everything else is measured against.
-
A landlord or letting agent
- Contract
- With the landlord or the agent, as the paying party.
- Instructions
- The paying party — but we will not move a tenant's belongings without the tenant's written agreement or a court order.
- Invoice
- To the landlord or agent named on the quotation.
Where it gets difficult Where a tenant has left goods behind, the landlord cannot simply instruct us to dispose of them. That is a legal process and not one a removals firm can carry out on request.
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An employer
- Contract
- With the employer, against a purchase order or relocation policy.
- Instructions
- The employee, on everything practical. The employer, on everything the policy covers.
- Invoice
- To the employer, usually with a reference they supply.
Where it gets difficult Where the employee wants something the policy excludes, we quote it separately to the employee rather than absorbing it or arguing with a procurement department.
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An insurer or loss adjuster
- Contract
- With the policyholder in most cases, with the insurer settling.
- Instructions
- The policyholder, within what has been authorised.
- Invoice
- To the insurer or adjuster against the authorised scope.
Where it gets difficult Authorisation arrives in stages and sometimes covers less than the policyholder expects. We will say what is and is not authorised rather than start work and settle it afterwards.
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An estate
- Contract
- With the executor or administrator, in that capacity.
- Instructions
- One named person. We ask for that name in writing before we start.
- Invoice
- To the estate, via the executor or the solicitor acting.
Where it gets difficult Beneficiaries frequently have different views and no authority to instruct. We will not act on a call from somebody who is not the named instructing party, however reasonable the request.
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A council or housing association
- Contract
- With the provider, under its own terms or a framework.
- Instructions
- The resident on practicalities, the provider on scope and scheduling.
- Invoice
- To the provider, on its own process.
Where it gets difficult Residents in a decant have usually not chosen to move. We take that seriously and it changes how the day is run rather than what is on the invoice.
All of this is settled at the booking and written into the quotation. It sounds bureaucratic on a website and it prevents almost everything described in the next section.
The difficult six
When the payer and the householder want different things
These happen. Not often, and often enough that having a position beforehand is worth more than good intentions on the morning. Here is ours, in advance and in public, so nobody has to negotiate it in a doorway.
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Goods left in a property at the end of a tenancy
The payer wants The landlord wants the property emptied so it can be re-let.
The household The former tenant has not collected and may not have been reachable.
What we do We will move goods into storage in the tenant's name, or return them to an address the tenant gives. We will not dispose of them. Disposing of goods left behind is a legal process with notice requirements, and it is not something a removals firm can do because a landlord asked.
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A relocation policy that stops short
The payer wants The employer has authorised a defined scope and no more.
The household The employee wants storage, or cover above the policy limit, or something the policy calls ancillary.
What we do We quote the additional work separately to the employee, plainly, as their own decision. We do not fold it quietly into the corporate invoice and we do not pretend the policy covers something it does not.
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An executor and a beneficiary who disagree
The payer wants The executor instructs and the estate pays.
The household A beneficiary believes a particular item is theirs and says so, sometimes on the day.
What we do We take instructions only from the named executor or administrator. Where a dispute arises on the day, the item stays where it is and both parties are told to resolve it between themselves. We are not a party to it and we will not choose a side.
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An insurer authorising less than the loss
The payer wants The insurer or adjuster has authorised a defined scope.
The household The policyholder believes more should be moved, stored or protected.
What we do We carry out what has been authorised and give the policyholder a written note of what has not, so they can take it up with the adjuster. We will not start unauthorised work in the hope it is approved later.
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A decant the resident did not want
The payer wants A housing provider has scheduled the move as part of works.
The household The resident is unhappy, unwell, or simply not ready on the scheduled day.
What we do We tell the provider rather than pressing on. A crew standing in a hallway is not the right place to resolve a housing dispute, and a move that goes ahead over somebody's objection is not one we want to have carried out.
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An agent instructing on a tenant's behalf
The payer wants The agent is paying and is used to being the point of contact.
The household The tenant has never spoken to us and has views about their own belongings.
What we do We insist on contact with the householder before the day, every time. It occasionally annoys the agent. It has never once been the wrong call.
None of this is legal, probate or insurance advice, and several of these situations genuinely need some. Tenancy questions belong with a solicitor, Citizens Advice or Shelter; probate with a solicitor or the executor’s adviser; a disputed claim with your insurer or the Financial Ombudsman Service. We are a removals firm and we are describing what a removals firm will and will not do.
If your situation is one of these, say so at the enquiry. It is much easier to plan around than to discover.
Tell us who is payingLeaving London
Long-haul out of London is nearly always somebody else’s money
Which makes an international move the purest example of what this site is about. A company signs, a relocation policy defines the scope, and a family who has never spoken to the removals firm lives with whatever the policy left out.
The four routes with their own pages are all corridors where that is the norm, and each one is written round the same three phrases: origin services, destination services, and exclusions. We move across Europe by road and worldwide by sea and air besides.
We collect across every London borough and from Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Bristol where a consignment is consolidated before departure.
Moving abroad from London- London to Saudi Arabia Riyadh, Jeddah and the compounds. Almost always employer-paid.
- London to South Korea Seoul and Busan, and the jeonse deposit nobody warns you about.
- London to Malaysia Kuala Lumpur and Penang, employer packages and long-stay visas.
- London to Brazil São Paulo and Rio, where the paperwork decides the timetable.
Asked most often
Questions about who instructs
- 01
Why organise a removals site around who is paying?
Because in London the person paying is frequently not the person whose belongings are being moved. A landlord, an employer, an insurer, an executor or a housing provider changes who signs, who instructs on the day, and what we are able to do when the two disagree.
- 02
Who do you take instructions from?
From the customer named on the contract, and on practicalities from the householder. Where those are different people we make the arrangement explicit before the booking rather than working it out on the morning.
- 03
A landlord wants a former tenant's things removed. Will you?
We will move them into storage in the tenant's name or return them to an address the tenant gives. We will not dispose of them. Goods left behind are subject to a legal process with notice requirements, and that is not something a removals firm can carry out because somebody asked.
- 04
Our employer is paying. Who do we deal with?
You, on everything practical — what goes, what stays, access, dates. Your employer, on scope and invoicing. If you want something the relocation policy excludes, we quote it to you separately rather than folding it into the company invoice.
- 05
Do you work with insurers?
Regularly, most often after an escape of water. Goods out to storage, the household into temporary accommodation, and back when the work finishes. We carry out what has been authorised and tell the policyholder in writing what has not.
- 06
Do you give legal or insurance advice?
No. This site describes how those situations affect a removals booking, which is not the same thing. Tenancy, probate and claims questions belong with a solicitor, an executor, Citizens Advice or your own insurer.
More on the questions page — who instructs and who signs, landlords and agents, employers and relocation, insurance claims, estates and probate, and housing providers.
Who is paying for yours?
Both addresses, roughly what is going, and — the useful part — who is paying and who will be instructing us on the day. That last question saves more trouble than any other on the form.