When the chain collapses: where your things go

There is a specific failure mode in English house-buying that catches people who have done everything right: you are contractually out of one property before you are contractually into the next.

It happens because completion dates in a chain are agreed by everyone or nobody, and any link can slip. It also happens to renters, when a tenancy end and a tenancy start are a week apart and the landlord will not move either.

The result is the same. You need somewhere for your belongings, and you need it at short notice.

Why the gap happens

Chains. Every purchase above you and below you has to complete on the same day. One slow solicitor, one mortgage offer expiring, one survey coming back badly — and the date moves for everyone.

Exchange and completion are different days. Until exchange, nothing is binding. People book removal firms against a date that is not yet certain, because the alternative is having no van at all.

Tenancy dates rarely align. A tenancy ends on a fixed day. The new one starts when the landlord says. A gap of a few days is common and a gap of a fortnight is not unusual.

Renovation before you move in. Sometimes the gap is chosen — floors sanded, a wall taken out, the place painted while it is empty. This is the version where planning is easy, because you know in advance.

The options, worst to best

Leave it in the van. Some removal firms offer overnight or short-term storage in a container. Convenient for one or two nights, expensive as a week, and your possessions are somewhere you cannot reach them.

Friends and family. Free, and the reason people fall out. Fine for a few boxes, unwise for a household.

Self-storage. The default answer, and usually the right one. Units come in sizes from a locker to a garage, most sites offer monthly terms with short notice, and you can access your own things.

A part-load with the remover, held. If you are using a full-service firm, ask about storage — many hold goods between collection and delivery, and one company handling both ends removes a handover.

What it actually costs

Two costs, and people usually only budget the first.

The unit. Priced by size and location. A one-bed flat's contents typically needs something in the region of a small garage.

The second van. This is the one that surprises people. If your things go into storage, they have to be moved twice — into the unit and out of it. That is two jobs, not one, and in peak season the second one may not be available at short notice at any price.

Self-storage near the new area is usually easier to arrange than a second van, so if you are going to be caught out, that is where the pressure will land.

One practical note on location: put the unit near the new address rather than the old one. You will visit it during the gap, and you will be living at the new end by then. If you are moving from inner to outer London — Hackney out to Bromley or Havering, say — that also tends to mean a larger unit for the money, because storage sites cluster where industrial land is cheaper.

How to pack for it

Packing for storage is not the same as packing for a move, because things sit for weeks rather than hours.

• Label for retrieval, not for unloading. You will want three specific boxes out of forty. Number every box, keep a list of contents, and put the things you might need near the door of the unit.
• Nothing perishable, nothing damp. Obvious, and still the most common cause of an unpleasant surprise on collection.
• Cover soft furnishings properly. Mattresses and sofas want covers if they are sitting for a month.
• Keep documents with you. Passports, deeds, certificates. Never in storage.
• Use sturdy boxes. Storage means stacking, and stacked boxes bear weight for weeks. Supermarket boxes fail at exactly this. Our packing supplies checklist covers what to look for.

Reducing the risk in the first place

Ask for a gap rather than fearing one. A deliberate two or three day overlap between properties is worth paying for, and turns a crisis into an inconvenience.

Do not book the van until exchange, if you can bear it. Or book a firm that will move the date without charging. Ask this before booking, not after.

Get quotes early even so. Knowing what it costs and who is available means that when the date does move, you are making a phone call rather than starting from nothing. Comparing removal quotes early costs nothing, and our directory of London firms shows which are British Association of Removers members — whose code of practice includes an advance payment guarantee, which is exactly the protection that matters if a firm folds while holding your deposit.

The wider point

A collapsing chain is the one moving problem you cannot solve by being organised. You can only be less exposed to it.

Everything else in a move rewards planning — the timeline sets out what to do when, and what it costs covers the money. This is the part where the useful preparation is a reserved storage unit you hope not to use.

At least be sure about the destination

One 1-10 score for any London postcode — crime, transport, schools and green space, down to the street.

Open app (Beta)