House removals · North London
House removals in North London, where the house has usually been altered twice
House removals in North London are nearly always a chain move inside a house divided into flats years ago. The street reads as an ordinary Victorian terrace, which reveals nothing about the staircase inside it. Behind the communal front door there is a flat above a flat, a loft conversion added later, and often a lower-ground flat down steps from the pavement. That settles two questions: what has to be dismantled to leave the room, and how long the load waits on the van while a solicitor releases the keys. We survey both addresses before we price anything.
Written by Daniel, founder, Metro City Moves
Usual job
A chain move, flat above a flat
Decides the day
The stair turn and the key release
Quote
In writing, after a survey
What is different here
House removals in North London is its own job
What changes the plan and the price here, rather than a list that would fit any London postcode.
The biggest pieces arrived before the house was altered
A North London terrace has usually been altered more than once. A wall was removed, the loft became another bedroom, a rear extension carried the kitchen towards the garden. The wardrobe, the sofa bed and the mattress on the top floor often arrived before that work, by a route that no longer exists. The way out is therefore not the way in. We measure the staircase, the landing and the door frame at the survey, and we decide there what has to be dismantled. Bed frames and flat-pack wardrobes nearly always have to. A sprung mattress will not bend around a winding loft staircase, which is considerably better known beforehand.
On a chain day the load waits, then the day has two addresses
Keys are not released until the payment clears, so the house is emptied in the morning and the load then waits, strapped, on the van while the solicitors finish. We organise the crew and the timings around that delay rather than hoping it does not happen. A chain also means two separate addresses: one house emptied, another filled, frequently a few streets apart, because families here generally upsize inside the same postcodes rather than leaving them. The loading order becomes part of the plan, because whatever comes off first has to go on last.
One communal door, shared with neighbours who are not moving
In a converted terrace the communal hallway belongs to everybody. The staircase is narrow, the post piles up on the mat, and there are usually bicycles or a buggy against the wall. The carry has to leave room for a neighbour to get past, so one of the crew stays on the door while the rest work the staircase. Protective sheeting covers the communal hallway before anything is lifted. Telling the flat below your date is worth more than it sounds, because it decides whether the hallway is clear when we arrive.
A lower-ground flat is reached down steps, not along a path
Lower-ground and basement flats here sit behind railings, down a flight of steps, with a gate at the top narrower than the steps below it. Everything is carried down into the flat and back up out of it, and the turn at the foot of the steps is tighter than the doorway itself. Bin stores and meter cupboards occupy what little landing there is. We look at the gate, the steps and the handrail before quoting, because that approach determines the crew size rather more than the number of bedrooms does.
Where this applies
The parts of North London this page is about
Named, because a page about an area in general is no use to anyone standing in one. These are the places where what is written above is what we actually find.
- Crouch End
- Tufnell Park
- Upper Street
- Green Lanes
- East Finchley
- Palmers Green
- Before you fix a date
- Photograph the loft or top-floor staircase, including the headroom at the top of it.
- List anything carried in before a wall, a staircase or an extension was altered.
- Ask your solicitor when the keys are likely to be released, and pass that on as soon as you know.
- Give the neighbours on the communal stair your date, and find out who can hold the front door open.
- If either end is a lower-ground flat, photograph the steps and the gate at the top of them.
Questions
House removals in North London, answered
- Our keys may not arrive until the afternoon. What happens to our belongings?
- They remain wrapped and strapped on the van, and the crew remains with them. That is the ordinary shape of a chain completion here, so the waiting is planned into the day instead of being treated as a surprise. At the survey we also agree what happens if the chain slips beyond the point where unloading is sensible.
- We have a bedroom in the loft conversion. Will the furniture come down?
- Usually, although usually in several pieces. Loft staircases are steep, the headroom at the top is low, and the turn is what stops a wardrobe rather than the width. Beds and flat-pack units are dismantled and reassembled at the other end. Where something genuinely will not come down, we say so at the survey rather than on the morning.
- Can you empty one house and fill another on the same day?
- Yes, and across North London that is the ordinary job rather than the exception. The two ends are often a short run apart: Crouch End to East Finchley, or one address to another inside Palmers Green. It runs as one job, with the loading order worked out backwards from the second address. We also agree where the van can stand at each end beforehand, because a completion day leaves nobody time to go looking.
- What decides the price of a house move here?
- The staircase, the steps and the waiting, considerably more than the mileage between the two addresses. We survey before we quote, the quote comes in writing, and the number you accept is the number you pay.
Keep reading
Everything else on house removals and on North London
House removals elsewhere in London
Related reading
Before you book in North London
Parking suspensions, red routes and the ULEZ — read from the councils' and TfL's own pages, with the date each fact set was checked.
- Guide
Barnet parking suspension and dispensation for moving house
A Barnet parking suspension costs £171.39 admin plus £69.63 a bay at 7 days' notice. The £51.90 dispensation at 2 working days can suit a house move better.
Read it - Guide
Controlled parking zone London: the hours belong to your zone, not your borough
A controlled parking zone in London decides when a bay needs a permit. The hours are set per zone, not per borough, and Islington alone runs 24 different sets.
Read it - Guide
Enfield parking on moving day: no suspensions for removals — what to do instead
Enfield does not list removals as a reason for a parking suspension. The route for a house move is a £10-a-week dispensation, collected in person in EN1.
Read it - Guide
Hackney parking suspension: why a dispensation cannot cover a Luton
Hackney's dispensation caps vehicles at 2.27m high and 5.25m long, so it cannot cover a Luton van. Only a suspension works, at 7 working days' notice.
Read it - Guide
Haringey parking suspension: £360, two weeks, and the windscreen sign
A one-day Haringey parking suspension costs £360 — £280 admin plus £80 a space — at 2 weeks' notice. The van also needs a printed logo sign in the windscreen.
Read it - Guide
Islington parking suspension, and the free loading rule for liveried vans
Islington wants 14 days' notice and £164.80 for a first-day parking bay suspension. A signwritten removals van can often load free of charge instead of paying.
Read it
What people say
Reviews left by people we have moved
Left on our Google profile. Every card links back to it, so you can read the rest — including any we would rather you did not.
Good experience with Metro City Moves. 4 bedroom house seemed bit difficult to move from London to Liverpool, but they planned well and successfully executed. Thank you.
Saqib AwanRead on Google, opens in a new tab
Get started
Tell us where you are moving from
Send a postcode and we will come back to arrange the survey, which we can do on a video call.
What you get before you commit
- A survey first, by video call or in person, so the price is built on what is actually there.
- The quote in writing, listing what is included and what is not, so both sides read the same list.
- Anything you add before you accept is priced into the quote you sign off.
Talk to us about your move
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