Emerging from lockdown – is it safe to move home?

Ballards and Steeles Removal Trucks

Are many people moving home at the moment? What’s changed following the COVID-19 lockdown?

House moves were all put on hold for a couple of months from March due to COVID-19, however since 11th May, in line with government guidance, we’ve been fully up and running and helping many families to move home.

You may be wondering what the experience is like now, and whether it’s safe to move – yes it is! At Ballards, we have appropriate safety measures in place to protect our customers, surveyors, removals teams and everyone involved in a home move, and we take care to discuss any particular concerns our customers might have, so we can agree a detailed plan which meets their needs. Our aim is, as always, to make your experience of moving home as stress-free and enjoyable as possible.

During lockdown, we took the opportunity to fully review our procedures, to make them even better than before and we’ve also expanded our storage capability, which is proving very popular with people in-between moves or just needing to store a few items short or longer periods.

Is it possible to move home now?

Yes, it is. Most of the moves which had to be postponed during lockdown have now been rebooked and, in many cases, have now taken place. We are receiving a good level of enquiries from people planning to move over the next couple of months and estate agents are reporting increased property search activity.

The renewed interest in moving home has no doubt been encouraged by the temporary increase in the stamp duty threshold to £500,000 for property purchases in England and Northern Ireland. This was announced earlier this month and will run until 31 March 2021. See more information about the Stamp duty holiday here. Scotland and Wales have also announced increases in the thresholds for their equivalent taxes, although to a lower level.

It also seems that electronic signatures will soon be accepted on legal documents as part of the conveyancing process and this will also make things easier for people to complete their home move paperwork. Read more about electronic and digital signatures here.

Recent experiences of home removals

Here are some extracts from customer comment forms received for moves which took place earlier this month:

“Great staff, great service will always recommend.”

“Fantastic team from 1st contact to final drop off. The team we had have been fantastic, helpful courteous. Ballards should be very proud of their excellent workforce.”

“Excellent service, made moving house easy and fun. Thank you so very much will definitely use your firm again.”

“…I knew with lockdown and other restrictions in place, I needed my 83 year old mum to keep some distance from proceedings, so I was as pre-organised as I could be. The guys turned up early, masks and gloves in place and away we went. I provided hand washing and sanitising stations at each end, and refreshments in sterile cups. They work so well together, calmly and organised….”

Our estimating and removals teams also comment favourably on their experiences post-lockdown. Apart from a few teething troubles making sure that our face masks and other PPE were not only fit for purpose but also enabled us to do our jobs efficiently, we’ve settled into the new way of doing things. The overall message is that if we all work together and take the necessary precautions and social distancing measures, home moves can be carried out much as before and the positive feedback we receive from our customers never fails to give us a boost.

So if you are thinking about moving home, you can rest assured that it is possible as many people have already discovered. Professional movers like Ballards can guide you through the process and take care of you and your possessions as you make your move.

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