How to compare removal quotes
Three firms can price the same move hundreds of pounds apart, and the reason is rarely that one of them is cheaper. Usually they have priced different jobs, or one of them has not given you a price at all.
That last one catches people out, so it is worth settling first.
An estimate and a quote are not the same thing
They get used interchangeably in conversation. In consumer law they are not interchangeable at all. Citizens Advice puts the distinction plainly, in a page about work done on your home but making a point that holds for any service: a quote is a promise to do the work at an agreed price, while an estimate is the trader’s best guess at what it will cost.
| Estimate | Quote | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A best guess at the cost | A promise to do the work at that price |
| Can the final bill be higher? | Yes. It has to be reasonable, and the law does not define reasonable, so you would have to agree it between you | No, unless they told you extra work was needed and you agreed to pay for it, or the price was an obvious mistake |
| Is the price binding once you accept it? | No | Yes |
| What to do about it | Ask for a quote instead | Get it in writing |
A quote you have accepted binds the firm whether or not it was written down. The catch is evidential rather than legal: if it was said on the phone, you are arguing about what was said. So ask which one you are being given, and ask for it in writing either way.
Our guide to what a removal cost calculator can tell you covers the ballpark you get before anyone has seen the job; this one is about what happens after that.
What a written quotation should name
A quotation is a document, not a figure in an email body. It should name:
- the firm, with a trading address, and your own details
- both addresses, and the date of the move
- what the price covers, service by service
- what the price excludes - the part worth reading twice
- the terms of payment, including any deposit
- the circumstances in which extra charges can arise
- the total, and what makes it up
- how long the quotation stands
Those are not arbitrary, and the British Association of Removers’ Code of Practice, approved by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, is worth reading on this because it splits the obligation in two.
On the quotation, it requires members to assess the work accurately and give fixed-price written quotations free of charge, with a clear description of the work through a service specification or equivalent. It adds one thing people miss: if the items being moved have been identified by a list, the member must make clear that the quotation covers only the items on that list. So if your inventory is a list, what is not on it is not priced.
On the contract, it goes further. That document must show the member’s name and address, describe the services provided for the price quoted and identify clearly those services which are excluded, describe the terms of payment, and identify the circumstances under which additional charges may arise. The Code calls the description of services the Quotation and treats it as part of the contract documentation, so the exclusions belong in writing whichever document carries them.
The practical version: if all you have been given is a figure, you have not yet seen the document that commits anyone to anything.
A firm outside the scheme is not bound by the Code. It is not off the hook either, though, because the same Consumer Contracts Regulations in the next section require any trader selling at a distance or in your home to tell you who they are, their address, the total price including tax, any additional charges, and the arrangements for payment, before you are bound.
Do not assume you have 14 days to change your mind
This is the one people get wrong, and it works the opposite way round to what most of us expect.
Book most services by phone, online or on your doorstep and you get 14 days to cancel without giving a reason. Removals are a likely exception. The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 carve out contracts for the transport of goods that provide for a specific date or period of performance - the same exemption that covers hotel bookings, car hire and theatre tickets. A removal booked for a named day looks very much like that, so the cooling-off right you would have on an ordinary online purchase may simply not be there.
What protects you instead is the firm’s own cancellation terms, which is another reason to read them before you pay a deposit rather than after. Ask what you lose if you cancel four weeks out, two weeks out, and the week of the move. Those are three different numbers at most firms, and completion dates slip.
If you are not sure where you stand on a particular booking, Citizens Advice is the place to check it rather than the firm that took your deposit.
Making three quotes comparable
Most of the spread between quotes is not pricing. It is that each firm answered a slightly different question.
Write the brief once and send the same one to everyone:
- The same inventory. Room by room, including the loft, the garage and the shed. Say what is going and what is being sold or dumped.
- The same access facts. Floor, lift or no lift, how close a van can park, and whether you need a parking suspension at either end.
- The same services. Packing or not, dismantling or not, storage or not. If you want to see what packing costs, ask every firm to price it as a separate line rather than asking some with it and some without.
- The same date, including whether it is fixed or still moving.
Then compare the exclusions before the totals. Two quotes that name the same number describe the same job only if they exclude the same things, which is why the exclusions are where to start reading.
If you are moving abroad or moving a business rather than a home, the brief is a different one and so is the pricing. Our guide to domestic, international and commercial removals sets out what each needs from you.
When one quote is well out of line
A number far below the rest is worth investigating rather than either grabbing or discarding.
Check it is a quote and not an estimate. Check what it excludes, which is usually where the difference lives. Check the firm has goods in transit cover and its own vehicles. And check the business exists as it describes itself: a trading address, a company number you can look up, and references you can follow.
If all of that holds up, a low price can simply mean a firm with a van already going your way that week. It happens, and it is worth asking about directly. If you want a sense of whether the whole set is high or low, our guide to how much removals cost has the figures.
Frequently asked questions
How many quotes should I get?
Three is the usual advice and it holds up here, because the useful information is the spread rather than any single number. Two quotes tell you nothing about which of them is the outlier.
What if the quotation has expired by the time I am ready to book?
Ask the firm to re-issue it rather than assuming the old figure stands. Dates matter to removals pricing, so a quote written for a quiet Tuesday in March does not necessarily hold for the last Friday in July.
What do I actually need before I can get quotes worth comparing?
Both addresses, a room-by-room list of what is going, the access facts at each end, and your likely date. With those four things written down once, you can get quotes from removal companies on identical information, which is the only way the numbers mean anything.