Before you sign anything

No — almost every removals firm in the country is one, including us. It is an ordinary and sensible arrangement. What matters is that you understand what it does: it separates the company's debts from its owners, which is precisely why the insurance behind it matters so much.

A firm that trades, accumulates claims and debts, is dissolved, and reappears shortly afterwards under a similar name with the same vehicles and the same people. It is not always unlawful and it is always bad news for whoever was owed something.

Search the company name on the free, public Companies House register. Look at the incorporation date against how long the business claims to have traded, whether filings are up to date, whether the registered office is a real trading address, and whether the directors have a run of dissolved companies behind them.

Not at all, and we would not want to suggest it. A new company is not dishonest and a long-established one is not automatically careful. What the register gives you is context for a figure that looks surprisingly low.

Yes, and we would think less of a customer who took our word for it. Everything on this site applies to us exactly as it applies to anybody else.

Five things: the goods-in-transit limit, the limit per individual item, the excess, whether self-packed cartons are covered, and whether cover extends to goods in store. Ask for the policy summary rather than an adjective.

Because most claims are one item rather than a whole load. A generous overall limit with a low per-item cap will not cover the single piece you actually cared about, and that combination is common.

Anything of unusual value, before the move rather than after a claim. Undeclared high-value items are a standard exclusion, and declaring them lets appropriate cover be arranged instead of discovering the gap afterwards.

No — different document, different limits, different exposure, and a much longer one. The storage agreement governs it and it is worth reading before you sign rather than when something goes missing.

The first part of any claim that you bear yourself. It is on the policy summary, it varies widely, and it is the reason a small claim is sometimes not worth making at all.

Cover responds to loss or damage arising from our handling — a dropped carton, a crushed one, a carton lost. It does not respond to damage attributable to the packing: too heavy, voids inside, contents unwrapped, lid not closed properly.

Fill cartons to the top so they do not crush, keep them light enough to lift properly, wrap fragile contents individually, and do not leave voids. Or have us pack the fragile things and pack the rest yourself, which is the arrangement we recommend most often.

Noted before we start, in writing, on the job sheet. It is not a formality — an existing mark recorded at the outset is the difference between a straightforward conversation and a disputed one.

Chipboard and cam fixings frequently do not survive a second dismantling. Where we think that is likely we say so before starting; if you ask us to proceed we do so at your risk and we write that down. Saying nothing and hoping would be the dishonest option.

We carry, or we reschedule, and we work out the best remaining option with you. It belongs to the building and nobody in your contract has authority over it, which is why it sits in the neither-of-us column rather than being guaranteed away.

It happens, occasionally with the cones still in place. We apply for the suspension and we cannot make it be respected, which is why a second standing point is surveyed. The job becomes a longer carry rather than a cancelled day.

The load stays secured on the vehicle while we work out the best option with you. Waiting time is chargeable and it should already be on your quotation — a quotation silent on it is incomplete rather than cheaper.

Protecting goods from it is. Roads being closed by it is not. We will tell you at once and work the problem with you rather than treating it as your bad luck.

Tell us as soon as you notice, and put it in writing within the period the terms set out. Keep the item and its packaging so both can be examined, and photograph it where it stands before anything is moved again.

Because it shows how the item travelled, which is frequently the whole question. A damaged item with its packaging is an assessable claim; the same item after the box has gone out with the recycling is an argument.

Say so in writing and we will look again. Beyond that, a dispute about an insurance decision can go to the Financial Ombudsman Service, and a contractual dispute is a matter for a solicitor or the courts. Nothing here is legal advice.

We try not to. A firm that fights every small claim spends more on the fighting than the claims, and it is a bad way to run a removals company. Where something is ours, we would rather settle it and move on.

At the property where the volume or the access is uncertain, and by video or photographs where it plainly is not. A quotation given without either is a guess, and a guess that turns out low becomes a conversation on your moving day.

On request, without hesitating. We ask people to demand it of every firm they approach, so it would be a strange thing to be awkward about.

We will move goods to a buyer, a charity or another address. We hold no waste carrier licence and do not dispose of anything, so a genuine clearance needs somebody else for at least part of it.

Across the UK, throughout Europe by road, and worldwide by sea and air. Oman, Thailand, Mexico and Mauritius have their own pages because each one moves the liability handover to a different place.