What is in this guide 11 sections

What actually goes wrong on moving day

Worth being specific, because “choose a good removalist” is useless advice unless you know what you are guarding against. In practice, problems fall into four buckets.

1. The job takes far longer than quoted. Usually because nobody asked about stairs, parking distance, or how much was actually in the garage.
2. Something gets damaged and nobody will own it. The crew says it was already like that, the company says talk to the crew.
3. A different company turns up. You booked based on reviews for one business and got a subcontracted crew you never researched.
4. The final invoice does not match the quote. Travel time, stair charges, materials and a minimum-hours clause were all in the fine print.

Every one of those is visible before you book, if you ask the right question. The rest of this guide is those questions.

Ask who is actually doing the work

This is the single most useful question in the whole process, and most people never think to ask it.

Plenty of removal companies subcontract. You research a business, read its reviews, book it, and on the day a crew arrives from a different operator with different training, different equipment and a different attitude to your furniture. The company you chose has effectively sold your job on.

It is not automatically bad, and some subcontracted crews are excellent. The problem is that you did not choose them and you have no way to check them. The reviews you based your decision on describe a different team.

For what it is worth, this is the reason we do not subcontract at all. Every Alongshore removalist is employed by us and trained in house, so the crew that turns up is the crew whose work the reviews are actually about. It also means there is never a question about who is responsible if something goes wrong.

How removalist quotes really work

There are two common pricing models and they suit different jobs. Neither is a trick, but comparing one against the other on headline number alone will mislead you.

What to check in either case

• Travel time. Some companies charge from depot to your door and back. Others charge only between addresses. It can be an hour of difference.
• Minimum hours. A three-hour minimum on a two-hour job is not a scam, but you should know before, not after.
• Stairs, lifts and long carries. Ask whether these attract a surcharge or simply take longer at the same rate.
• Materials. Are blankets, tape and trolleys included? Boxes almost never are.
• Payment terms. When is it due, and what methods are accepted.
• Get it in writing. A company that will not put a quote in writing has told you something important.

Our own approach is on the moving prices page, and we would rather talk through the specifics of your job than have you compare a number that turns out to mean something different.

When you move changes what you pay

Removal pricing is driven by demand for crew time, and demand is not spread evenly. If your date has any flexibility at all, it is the cheapest lever you have.

• The end of the month is the busiest window. Leases and settlements cluster there, so the last few days of any month are when good crews are hardest to get.
• Fridays and Saturdays go first. Everyone wants to move without taking leave, and everyone wants the weekend to unpack.
• Mid-week, mid-month is the quiet slot. You get better availability, more choice of crew, and a company that is not already running late from the job before.
• Spring and early summer are peak season in Sydney, along with the end of the financial year.
• Book three to four weeks out for a normal date, and longer if you are aiming at any of the above.

Say up front if your date is movable. A company with a gap on a Tuesday would usually rather fill it, and you would rather have the crew that is not rushing to a second job.

What “fully insured” actually means

Nearly every removalist website says “fully insured”. It is one of those phrases that sounds like a guarantee and usually is not the one you assume.

There are generally two separate things:

• Public liability. Covers injury to people and damage to property, for example if a crew member damages the building. Every legitimate operator carries this. It does not cover your belongings.
• Transit or goods-in-transit cover. Cover for your things while they are being moved. This is often optional, sometimes an add-on, and frequently has conditions such as excluding items you packed yourself.

So “fully insured” on a website usually means the first one. The question to ask is: “If a crew member drops my dresser, what specifically covers it, and what is the excess?”

Reading reviews properly

Star ratings are close to useless on their own. Volume can be bought, and a business with a handful of reviews may simply be new rather than bad. Read for patterns instead.

• Go to the three-star reviews first. They are the most honest. Five-star reviews are often written in relief, one-star reviews in anger. The middle is where you find out what the job is actually like.
• Look for named crew. Reviews that name the people who turned up usually describe a real job, and they suggest a stable, employed team rather than a rotating pool.
• Check the recent ones. A business can change hands or change standards. Reviews from four years ago describe a different company.
• Watch how complaints are answered. Every removalist eventually damages something. What matters is what happened next. A defensive or absent reply is more telling than the complaint.
• Be sceptical of clusters. Twenty five-star reviews in one week, all short and generic, is a pattern.

Accreditation, and what it tells you

The peak body for the industry in Australia is the Australian Furniture Removers Association, which sets standards for member firms covering equipment, vehicles, premises and staff training.

Membership is a genuine signal and it is reasonable to ask about. It is worth being clear about what it does and does not mean, though, because a lot of moving advice treats it as a pass or fail test.

• It tells you a firm has met a defined standard for equipment and training, and that there is an industry body to escalate to.
• It does not tell you who will be on your job, whether the work is subcontracted, or what your quote excludes.
• Plenty of good operators are not members, particularly long-established owner-operated firms whose work comes through referral rather than directory listings.

Treat it as one input among several. A membership badge with a subcontracted crew and a vague quote is worth less than an employed crew and a written scope.

Get someone to look at the job first

No one can accurately price a house move from a two-minute phone call. If a quote arrives without anyone asking about your place in detail, it is a guess, and guesses get corrected on the day at your expense.

A proper assessment, in person or over video, should cover:

1. Volume. Room by room, including the garage, the shed and under the house. These are where the surprises live.
2. Access at both ends. Stairs, lifts, driveway width, how far the truck can park from the door.
3. The awkward items. Anything heavy, fragile, oversized or valuable, so the right equipment and crew size are booked.
4. Parking and permits. In parts of the Inner West and the Lower North Shore, where the truck can legally sit is a real constraint.
5. Timing. Settlement dates, lift bookings and whether anything has to happen in a fixed window.

The questions a company asks you are a fair proxy for how well the day will run. A thorough quote conversation is a good sign, not a hassle.

Red flags

The phone call: what to ask

Print this, or keep it open while you ring around. Ask every company the same list and the differences become obvious quickly.

• “Will the crew be your employees or subcontractors?”
• “How many people, and how long do you expect this to take?”
• “What is not included in that price?” The most useful question on the list.
• “How is travel time charged, and is there a minimum?”
• “What insurance applies to my belongings, and what is the excess?”
• “Does that cover things I packed myself?”
• “What happens if something is damaged? Who do I call?”
• “Do you want to see the place before quoting?”
• “Have you moved in my building or street before?” Local knowledge of a tricky terrace or a strata loading dock saves real time.
• “What would make this take longer than you have estimated?”

You are not testing them on trivia. You are finding out whether they think about the job properly, and whether they will tell you an inconvenient truth before the day rather than after.

When you don’t need a full removalist

A guide written by a removalist should still say this: sometimes we are the wrong answer, and a company that will tell you so is one worth trusting with the jobs where we are the right one.

Probably fine without us

• A studio or one-bedroom flat with no stairs and not much furniture.
• A handful of items rather than a household. A single-item or two-item job is often better suited to a small van operator.
• You have time, help, and a vehicle that fits the load in one or two runs.
• Nothing fragile, valuable or genuinely heavy.

Worth paying for

• A full house, especially with stairs at either end.
• A settlement date you cannot move, where running late has consequences.
• Fragile, antique or valuable pieces. Much of our work arrives through real estate agents and antique dealers, which is a reasonable proxy for how carefully a company handles things that cannot be replaced.
• A strata building with a booked lift and a loading dock window.
• You are working, or moving with small children, and the hours matter more than the money.

If you decide it is worth it, our residential moves page covers how we run a house move, and packing and materials can be added if you would rather not do the boxes yourself.

Common questions