How to Book a Goods Lift for Moving Day in London

Most London flats above the ground floor have some kind of lift, and on moving day that lift decides more about the price and the timing than almost anything else. A lift that takes the sofa turns a hard day of stairs into a few hours of trolley runs. A lift that someone else has booked, that is switched off for maintenance, or that cannot fit a wardrobe, turns the same day into a problem nobody planned for.

Booking it properly is a small piece of admin that most people leave too late or do by a quick word with the concierge. This guide covers the booking itself: who actually controls the lift, the email to send, the questions to ask and why each one matters, what to measure, how long to ask for, and what it costs if the lift is not available.

The person at the front desk is rarely the person who decides. In most London blocks the lift sits in the common parts, which are run by whoever manages the building on behalf of the freeholder. That might be a managing agent, a residents' management company, a housing association, or the freeholder directly. The concierge usually keeps the booking diary, but the rules on hours, deposits and paperwork come from management.

If you own a leasehold flat, your lease is the starting point. GOV.UK says the lease sets out the conditions you have agreed to, and that a leaseholder who breaks them can be taken to court and ordered to pay for any damage. Moving rules, lift use and damage to common parts are often covered in the lease or in house rules issued under it. GOV.UK also says leaseholders have the right to know the landlord's (freeholder's) name and address, so if you do not know who to write to, ask for that first.

Some buildings are run by the leaseholders themselves. GOV.UK explains that leaseholders who take over management under the Right to Manage can run the building themselves or pay a managing agent. Either way, there is a named body with authority over the lift.

If you rent

If you rent, ask your letting agent or landlord who manages the block, and copy them into your email to building management. Your landlord may hold the relationship with the managing agent, and some buildings will only take bookings through the flat's owner. Doing this early also means your landlord knows the move date, which helps with the check-out.

Where to find the contact

• The residents' handbook or welcome pack, which many purpose-built blocks issue
• A notice board in the lobby or by the post boxes
• The concierge desk, who can give you the managing agent's email
• Your service charge demand, which names who sends it
• For a new flat you are buying, your conveyancer or the seller's agent

No official source sets a notice period for lift bookings; each building sets its own, and some fill up at month-ends and on Saturdays. The timeline below is the order we suggest, and it works for most London blocks. If your building asks for more notice, follow the building.

Book the removal company and the lift around the same start time, not one after the other. If you book a lift for 9am and the removal company can only arrive at noon, you have lost half the slot before anything has moved. The simplest order is to ask the building for two or three possible dates, then confirm whichever date the removal company has free.

Copy this, fill in the brackets, and send it to the managing agent with the concierge in copy. Sending one complete email gets you one complete answer, and it gives you a written record if anything is disputed later. Send a version to each building, because the old and new addresses usually have different rules.

Keep the reply. If the building answers only some of the questions, reply to the same thread and ask again about the rest. A missing answer about the deposit or the paperwork is the one most likely to cause trouble on the day.

Every line in that email is there for a reason. Here is what the answers change on the day, so you know which ones to chase if they come back blank.

Lift size and rated load

The size decides what goes in the lift and what goes on the stairs. A lift that takes boxes but not the sofa still helps, but the large items then need the stairs, and the crew needs to know before the day. The rated load matters for heavy items such as a range cooker, a piano or a fully loaded chest of drawers. The crew loads the lift to suit, but they can only do that if the figure is known.

Booking slots and move hours

Many buildings allow moves only in set hours, and some do not allow them at weekends or on bank holidays. If the hours are short, the slot length decides the start time. A slot that ends before loading finishes means the crew either stops or carries the rest down the stairs, which costs time.

Lift protection and padding

Some buildings fit their own protective blankets or panels to the lift car for moves; others expect the removal company to protect it. Ask who fits them and when. If the building fits them, ask the concierge to have them up before the crew arrives so no time is lost. Our crews protect floors, doorways and common areas as standard, so tell us what the building provides and we will plan around it.

Loading bay

A goods lift is often next to a loading bay or rear service entrance rather than the main lobby. Ask where the van should stop, whether the bay has a height barrier, and whether it is shared with deliveries or bins. If the bay cannot take the van, the crew needs a legal place on the street, and in a controlled parking zone that may mean a parking suspension, which you apply and pay for with the council. Parking suspensions for moving day explains how.

Deposit or damage bond

Some buildings ask for a refundable deposit or bond against damage to the lift and common parts. Amounts and terms vary from building to building, and no official source sets them, so ask how much it is, how it is paid, when it is returned, and who inspects the common parts afterwards. Ask for that inspection to happen with you present, or take dated photos of the lift and corridor before and after the move.

Insurance documents

Buildings often ask to see a removal company's insurance before the move. Ask exactly which cover the building wants evidence of, in what form, and the deadline. Then pass that request to your removal company when you book, not the day before.

Every move with us includes this cover: - Goods in Transit cover. Included on every move, not sold as an add-on. - Public Liability cover. In place on every job, at home or at work.

We send our insurance certificate to the building on request. We do not publish cover amounts on the site, so the certificate is the document the building sees. If it asks for something specific, such as being named on the certificate, send us its wording when you book and the team will confirm what can be provided and when.

Porter or concierge hours

The concierge may hold the lift key, switch the lift into service mode, or have to sign the crew in. If the desk is unstaffed at lunchtime or after 5pm, a move that runs into those hours can stall. Ask who holds the key and whether anyone is on site for the whole slot.

Fire doors and the route

The route from your door to the lift is a common part, with fire doors along it. Ask whether the building has rules about how large items pass through, and whether a member of staff can hold doors while items go through. The section on fire doors below explains why propping them open is not an option.

Measurements turn a vague answer such as "it's a decent-sized lift" into a plan. If the building cannot give you figures, measure yourself; it takes ten minutes with a tape measure.

The lift

• Door opening width and height. The clear gap when the doors are fully open. This is usually the tightest point
• Car internal width and depth. Wall to wall, ignoring handrails, then again between the handrails
• Car internal height. Floor to ceiling, and to any light fitting or panel that hangs lower
• The car's diagonal. Corner to opposite top corner is hard to measure, so work it out: the square root of (depth² + height²) gives the longest thing that fits tilted from back to front
• The space outside the doors. How much room there is to turn a long item in the corridor before it enters the lift

The large items

• Sofas. Length, depth and height, and whether the feet or back cushions come off
• Wardrobes and tall bookcases. Height and depth; these usually need to stand upright or lie diagonally
• Mattresses and bed bases. Length and width; a mattress can often travel on its side, so its width becomes the height you need
• Appliances. A fridge freezer is tall and should travel upright where possible
• Anything that does not come apart. Glass cabinets, pianos, solid wood dressers

A worked example of the diagonal: a lift car 140cm deep and 220cm high has a back-to-front diagonal of about 261cm, so a 250cm item could travel tilted, as long as it gets through the door first. If the door opening is 80cm wide and the sofa is 90cm deep, it will not go in however big the car is. Flat-pack furniture and many beds come apart, which often solves it; we can dismantle and reassemble with the move. Sofa won't fit up the stairs? covers measuring sofas and doorways in more detail.

Send the lift and item measurements to the removal company with your inventory. It lets them tell you before the day which items go in the lift and which need the stairs, and price the move on that basis.

Ask for the time the crew needs to load or unload at that address, plus a margin. The loading and unloading hours below are the figures our quote form uses for each home size, with the crew it suggests. The last column adds one hour of margin, which is our advice for a London block, not a building rule: it covers the walk to the bay, a busy lift, and the first and last checks.

Two points about the table. First, the slots at each end are separate: the collection building needs the loading time, the delivery building the unloading time, and the drive sits between them. Second, these are typical figures for a packed, ready home with the lift working. If you are not packed, or there is a lot of furniture to take apart, the loading takes longer, so tell us and ask the building for more time.

If the building only allows a fixed slot that is shorter than this, tell us when you ask for a quote. The crew can sometimes be increased so the loading finishes inside the slot, or items can be staged near the lift before the slot starts, where the building allows it and nothing blocks a corridor or fire door.

Every lift is built for a maximum load, and the building should be able to tell you what it is. In workplaces, lifts come under the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER). Regulation 7 requires machinery for lifting loads to be clearly marked with its safe working load, and equipment designed for lifting people to be marked as such. Regulation 9 requires equipment for lifting people to be thoroughly examined at least every 6 months, or under an examination scheme.

Not every residential lift falls under LOLER. HSE says LOLER applies to lifts provided for people at work, and may not apply where a lift is not used by people at work. But it also says that where a lift is operated by a business, that business still has health and safety duties to the people who use it, and a similar regime of maintenance, inspection and examination may be reasonably practicable. In practice, a managed London block should be able to give you the lift's rated load and tell you whether it is in service.

What this means for your move:

• Look for the load marking inside the car, or ask the managing agent for the rated load if you cannot find it
• Never overload the lift to save a trip. A stuck lift on moving day costs far more time than one extra run
• Heavy single items need planning. Tell the removal company about anything very heavy so the crew can check it against the lift's limit
• Ask whether any maintenance is booked for your date. A planned lift engineer's visit can take the lift out of service for hours

Moving day is when fire doors are most tempting to wedge open, and it is the one thing the building will not tolerate. The London Fire Brigade says that in a block of flats, fire and smoke doors are on the stairwells, the corridors and the flat front doors. It says the landlord or building owner has legal responsibility for the fire doors in the common areas, and that many publish information in a residents' handbook. It also says a fire door only works when it is closed, and is useless if it is wedged open or cannot close fully.

So plan the route around the doors rather than through them:

• Ask the building how large items should pass through. Some have a staff member or an approved method; the residents' handbook may say
• Have one person hold each door while an item goes through, then let it close
• Do not stack boxes in corridors or lobbies waiting for the lift. Keep items inside the flat until the lift arrives
• Do not use fire doors' closers as a stop, and do not hook or tie them back
• Report any damage to a fire door at once, even a scuff to a seal, so the building can check it

A good crew works in pairs on a route like this: one carries, one opens and closes. That is part of why a two-person crew moves a flat on an upper floor faster than one person alone, even with a lift.

If there is no lift, or the lift cannot take the furniture, the crew uses the stairs, and our rate card charges for it. Stairs are £10 per person on the crew, per flight, per hour at that address: loading hours at the collection, unloading hours at the delivery. A floor counts as 2 flights. The ground floor is free, and a working lift that takes the furniture removes the charge altogether.

The table shows the added charge at the collection address when there is no usable lift, for each home size with the crew and loading hours our quote form suggests. If the delivery address is also upstairs without a lift, it is charged the same way with the unloading hours.

A worked example. A 2-bedroom flat moving 6 miles across London, from a fourth floor to a second floor, with 3 movers in the 5.5 Tonne Lorry. Ground floor at both ends, the move would be estimated at £1,052. With no usable lift at either end, the stairs add £480 at the collection (2 people × 8 flights × 3 hours × £10) and £240 at the delivery (2 × 4 × 3 hours × £10), taking it to £1,772. Booking the lift at both buildings removes both lines.

These figures are estimates before anything specific to your addresses. Your written quote is built on your own inventory and access, and the team confirms the final price in writing.

When the lift takes some things but not others

A small lift is still worth booking. Boxes, bags, chairs and anything that fits can go in it while large furniture goes down the stairs. Tell us which items will not fit, with measurements, and the team will work out the quote on that basis. If you are not sure whether the lift is suitable, say so on the quote request: our quote form treats an unconfirmed lift as something to check, not as free or as charged, and the team confirms it with you.

Even a well-booked lift can let you down. Plan for the three things that most often go wrong.

The lift breaks down

Call the number the building gave you for lift faults, and tell the crew and the removal company straight away. If the lift cannot be fixed quickly, the crew may need to use the stairs, and the stair charge then applies for the time spent on them. Ask the building whether the other lift (if there is one) can be switched to service use instead.

Someone else is using it

Double bookings happen, especially at month-ends. Your written confirmation is the answer at the front desk. If another resident's move overlaps, ask the concierge to share the lift in turns rather than waiting for the other move to finish.

The crew is kept waiting

If the crew is waiting for a lift key, a fob, the concierge or the protection to go up, our rate card charges waiting time at £40 per crew member per hour. For two movers, half an hour of waiting is £40. A confirmation call two days before, and the concierge's number in the crew's hands, prevents most of it.

If the slot is about to run out, speak to the concierge before it ends, not after. Many buildings will extend a slot if nobody else is booked after you, but only if asked.

A move has two buildings, and each one needs its own booking. The new building is easy to forget, especially if you are collecting keys on the day. Ask the estate agent or the new landlord who manages the new block as soon as you have a completion or move-in date, and send the same email.

Once both bookings are confirmed, send us:

1. The floor and the lift details at each address: size, rated load, and whether it takes the large items
2. The confirmed slot times at each end
3. Where the van should load, and any bay height limit
4. The building's rules on hours, protection and fire doors
5. Any document the building asked for, and its deadline
6. A room-by-room list, with measurements of anything large

You will get an itemised written quote within 24 hours, with the stair charge shown separately if a lift is missing or unsuitable. Our flat removals in London page covers how we plan flat moves, and house removals in London covers whole homes on the same rate card.

For the rest of the building admin, such as car-free developments and parking permits, read moving into a tower block or new build. For stairs and parking in older converted flats, see moving a flat in London. For the full move plan, start from our London house removals page.