Ultimate Guide: How Much Does it Cost to Move House

Moving to a new home and are completely clueless about how much it’s going to cost you?

For all those who are wondering about how much does it cost to move house, here is a simple guide. The total cost of relocation can be anywhere between £10,000 to £13,000 depending on the location of the house. 

This guide will take you through all the major spending involved during the relocation of the house. With this guide in hand, you can plan your finances for the move and be all set for your life at the new place!

 

How Much Does it Cost to Buy and Sell the House?

If you are buying a new home or planning to sell your old home, here is the cost that you will incur.

Mortgage Fees

When you are trying to get a mortgage to buy a new house, the lending company will assess the value of the property and decide a lending amount to offer.

In the total mortgage fees, there is a booking fee of about £100 to £250. Further, the lending company will also charge an arrangement fee of up to £2000. There will also be a mortgage valuation fee for the lender to come and evaluate the worth of the property. This costs £150 or higher.

All of these fees together make up the mortgage fees, which will come under the cost of moving house.

Stamp Duty

If the residential property you buy costs more than £125,000, then you need to pay the Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT). This tax amount is applicable when you buy a property or a piece of land in England and Northern Ireland and are also applicable when you are taking a mortgage to buy the property. 

The Stamp Duty tax is charged only for the amount above the £125,000. For the first £125,000, there is no tax. For the next £125,000, you have to pay a 2% tax only on this amount. For the remaining amount more than that till £925,001, you pay a 5% tax. For an amount more than £925,001 to £1.5 million, you pay 10% pay tax and for anything more than that is 12%.

For example, if you are buying a property for £300,000,

The first £125,000 – no tax

The next £125,000 – 2% tax (£2500)

The remaining £50,000 – 5% tax (£2500)

Total Stamp Duty tax amount is £5000.

Surveyor’s Fee

Before you proceed with buying a home, you need to get it checked to ensure that there are no serious damages or problems with the property. 

This includes a complete check of the home conditions and it starts from £600. If there are any major defects in the home you are about to buy, you can show the surveyor’s report and ask for a deduction in the home cost.

Legal Fees

When you are buying or selling a home, you need the help of a legal person, a solicitor, to ensure that all the legal procedures are followed. The legal fees start from £850 and can go up to £1500 or sometimes more too.

There is another cost, though technically not legal, is the transfer of money electronically to the solicitor, which is around £45.

Estate Agent’s Fees

If you are selling a property, then you will have to bear the charge of the estate agent. This cost is different based on the estate agent’s fees and would be usually agreed at the start of their services.

Generally, the estate agents charge based on the property they helped to sell and therefore, can cost between 1% to 3% of the total property value of sale exclusive of VAT.

Building Insurance

When you are taking out a mortgage for your home, the lender will ask for your building insurance before approving your mortgage request. This costs around £50 for a whole year and this protects your home from natural calamities that bring down the value of the property.

Council Tax

This tax is paid to the local authorities for maintaining the local areas tidy and for providing proper resources. When you are relocating your home, you need to update the change of address and pay council tax for the new area you are moving to.

How Much Does It Cost to Relocate?

Now that we have seen all the important costs required for buying and selling your house, we will enter into the actual house removal costs. Aside from choosing a new house to move in, the next biggest job in the relocation is to get all your things ready and move it into the new house. You will have to spend money on transportation and sometimes for packing and storing it. 

The average cost of house removals can be anywhere from £600 and can even go up to £2000 or more. So let’s see what are the various factors involved in the removal costs.

Hiring Removalists

When you are planning to relocate, you definitely need a truck to move all the stuff to your new home in a single trip. This is where removalists come in. Apart from providing the necessary services of transportation, removalists also offer a lot more services that help with your move.

You can make use of their packing services, storage facilities and several other associated services, which reduces the need for workforce and completes some of the physically taxing jobs during the move. 

If you are wondering about how much removals cost, there is no concrete pricing that we can give you. Based on the relocation services you opted, the distance of your move, the volume of the stuff you are moving, the cost of hiring removalists will widely differ. It can start from £300 and can increase more depending on the factors mentioned.

Availing Storage Services

As we talked about earlier, some removal companies also offer storage services where you can keep your extra stuff for a few days or even a few years. 

Different removal companies have numerous ways of pricing the use of storage services. Some calculate it by the single trailer you occupy, some by the volume of the stuff and the duration. It generally starts at £30 per week and some have pricing practices per month.

Cost of Packing Materials

When you are planning to pack your things by yourself, you need to get all of the packing stuff. 

It can be cardboard boxes, packing tapes, wooden crates, specific packing papers for valuable artwork and silver articles and so on. While you can try and get some of these for free, some special packing items may need to be bought separately.

Removal Insurance

When you hire a professional relocation company, they will most probably provide relocation insurance. If not, you need to take the relocation insurance on your own from an external insurance provider. Though the relocation insurance doesn’t cost much, going to another firm just to get insurance is extra work.

So it’s best to choose a relocation company that offers relocation insurance as a part of their services.

Additional Moving Costs

Apart from the main removal costs seen above, there can be a small expenditure when you are relocating. 

• It can be flight tickets to the new place you’re moving to or even car charges. 
• You may also hire a cleaning company to clean your home from top to bottom before it goes into the hands of the next person. 
• If you are relocating pets, you may need to spend some extra money for that.
• If you have any toxic waste, then you need to find a proper company for waste disposal too.
• You also need to get parking permits outside your old and new houses for the removal companies to park their trucks and load/unload your things.

These are just some of the extra moving charges you need to factor into your relocation costs. If you feel that the cost of the relocation is high, then there are a few tips with which you can cut down your relocation costs.

Tips to Reduce the Cost of Moving

• Purging: When you have many things in your home, you need more packing materials, big trucks for transportation and more space in the trucks – all of which contribute to increasing your removal costs. If you can declutter your items, purge some and only take what’s necessary, you can cut down on the moving cost.
• Pack on Your Own: When you hire removalists for packing, you need to pay them some extra charges. So you can reduce that cost by packing on your own and getting supplies from local supermarkets and stationery shops.
• Move on a Weekday: Some movers charge extra rates for moving on weekends or for moving on holidays. Therefore, when you move on a weekday, you can avoid those additional charges.
• Avoid Last-Minute Booking: When you book at the last minute, there are high chances that you will have to pay a hefty fee than the nominal charges. It’s best to book the movers at least a month before to reduce the cost of hiring removalists.
• Do Proper Research: Don’t just hire the first mover you come across in the ads. Perform sufficient research, compare the costs of different removal companies that offer the same services, compare their experience and have a look at their reviews before you hire one.
• Hire a Single Company for Multiple Services: Sometimes, hiring different services for different needs can make things complicated and can even increase the relocation costs too. If you can hire a single company that can relocate your things and helps you clear out your home, then your job is simplified!

House Moving is both a challenging task if not planned well. Hire the best removals service at your place and plan and execute well so as to ensure that your house moving is a smooth process.