What removal companies will not move, and what to do with it instead

The short version

What removal companies will not move at all

Start with the category that is not negotiable: petrol or diesel in cans, LPG and camping gas cylinders, paint, white spirit, solvents, aerosols under pressure, fireworks, pool chemicals, weedkiller.

Part of the reason is regulatory. Carrying fuel, gases and explosives by road in Great Britain sits under the Carriage of Dangerous Goods and Use of Transportable Pressure Equipment Regulations 2009. The HSE describes those regulations as now cross-referring almost entirely to ADR, the international agreement holding the detail. The gov.uk page for drivers seeking that qualification lists the classes it covers, among them explosives, gases, flammable liquids, oxidising substances and corrosives. Exemptions exist for small loads and limited quantities, so one sealed aerosol is not a prosecution waiting to happen. But a removals business is no dangerous goods operator, and its crew hold no ADR certificates.

The remainder of the reason is practical. A loaded van in slow traffic gets hot, and hot aerosols vent. A jerry can with a tired seal puts petrol vapour through everything you own, and nothing afterwards removes that smell from a mattress.

So deal with these items before the week of the move.

• Fuel. Run mowers, strimmers and generators dry, or drain them. Whatever remains goes to a recycling centre that accepts it.
• Gas cylinders. These return to wherever they came from. Calor's returns page tells you to contact a Calor Centre about collection, or take the bottle to one of its retailers after ringing ahead.
• Paint, solvents and garden chemicals. GOV.UK groups asbestos, chemicals, solvents, pesticides and oils together as hazardous waste, with a duty of care attached. Boroughs collect it separately. Islington allows residents three collections in a rolling year, up to 50 litres, and excludes pressurised vessels such as gas cylinders.
• Asbestos. Do not bag it, lift it, or put it in a vehicle. Our house clearance and rubbish removal pages already exclude asbestos, chemicals, clinical waste, gas cylinders and fuel, and a removal is no different.

A gas cooker is the near relation of all this. The appliance can travel; the disconnection cannot be done by a removals crew. The HSE states that a gas business must be on the Gas Safe Register to carry out that work lawfully, so book a registered engineer early.

Things that should never leave your hands

Nothing here is refused, and we will carry a laptop or a jewellery box. The point is that you should not let us.

• Passports, driving licences, birth and marriage certificates.
• Deeds, the tenancy agreement, completion paperwork, the solicitor's correspondence.
• Medication and repeat prescriptions, including anything somebody needs that same day.
• Jewellery, watches, cash, bank cards, and small items whose value is not a price.
• Keys, all of them, labelled, down to the window keys and the one for the shed.
• Laptops, phones, hard drives, chargers, and the documents for your car.

Pack one bag or crate, keep it in your own car or at your feet, and say out loud on the morning that it is not going on the van. A box standing in a bedroom with twenty others gets loaded, because loading is what a crew does. Your completion paperwork then sits behind a wardrobe and half a kitchen when the solicitor rings.

Living things

Plants are not refused on a short London move, and they still travel badly. A load space is dark, and in summer hotter than any room in the house. Pots tip over at the first roundabout, and wet compost through a box of linen is a poor exchange. Stand pots inside crates, water lightly a day or two ahead, and carry anything you genuinely care about in your own car. A plant is a living thing rather than an item of furniture, so nobody can promise it arrives as it left.

Pets travel with you, in a carrier, with water, and that is the entire answer. A load space has no climate control and no way for anyone to watch an animal, and the doors stand open at both ends while strangers walk through. There is a regulatory edge too: DEFRA's guidance applies the animal transport rules to anyone moving live vertebrate animals in connection with an economic activity, and journeys over 65km require an authorisation from the Animal and Plant Health Agency. A removals firm holds none of that, so book a cattery, a friend, a pet courier, or a quiet room at the new address.

Fish tanks are three jobs rather than one. The fish come out into bagged water, and the water comes out as well. A full tank is heavier than it looks, and a part-full one shifts in a way that works on the seals. The tank travels empty and dry, with gravel, pump and heater crated separately. A seal that has held for years can still weep afterwards, so refill it where you can watch it.

Things that need a different arrangement, not a refusal

This category causes most of the arguments, because people hear a refusal where the honest answer is "yes, and it is a separate job". None of it gets priced down a telephone line.

• A piano needs the right equipment and a measured route, not an ordinary crew with a sack barrow. Piano removals explains what we measure: the tightest turn, the half-landing, the steps at both ends. Tuning afterwards belongs to a tuner, and hoist work through a window is priced on its own.
• A safe concentrates considerable weight on a small footprint, which makes it a question about staircases and floors before it is one about lifting. Send the make, the model and a photograph.
• A pool or snooker table comes apart. A slate bed travels in sections and is relevelled on reassembly, which is a table fitter's work as much as a remover's.
• A shed or summerhouse is a dismantling job, and not every panel survives being taken apart.
• Anything fixed to the building is not a removals item. Our house clearance page states that we do not remove fitted kitchens, bathrooms or anything structural, so settle in writing with your buyer or landlord what is staying.
• Anything going away rather than going with you is a different job at a different price. Rubbish removal and clearance are quoted apart from your move, and getting rid of furniture in London runs the cheaper routes first.

Each of these is assessed at the survey and quoted separately. We will also tell you when the answer is genuinely no, which is better news on a Tuesday than on a Saturday morning.

Why finding out on the day is the whole problem

A removal runs to a timetable with very little slack in it. The crew arrives, the van loads in order, the vehicle leaves, and a key handover or check-out inspection waits at the other end. Now add two gas bottles in the garage, a piano nobody mentioned, and a shed containing weedkiller.

What follows is not a debate about regulations. It is forty minutes of standing in a hallway, because the crew cannot load the items, you have nowhere to put them, and no time is left to arrange anything. So something gets abandoned in a property you are handing back, or a plan gets invented on a doorstep.

The remedy is boring, which is exactly why it works. We survey every job before quoting, by video call or in person, and the survey is where this list gets worked through room by room. The garage gets opened. Somebody asks about the loft. The piano gets measured. Anything needing a separate arrangement is priced as one, in a written quotation you see before agreeing to anything, and the number you accept is the number you pay. We are fully insured.

Ask every firm quoting for your move what they will not take, and when they decide it. A firm that will only tell you on the morning has told you something useful anyway. Start at house removals, and mention the garage.

Common questions

Sources

Every page above was opened on 14 October 2026. Council hazardous waste entitlements and supplier return policies both change, so check your own borough's page and your own cylinder supplier rather than relying on this list.