Moving House in London at Christmas and New Year 2026

Moving at Christmas has a reputation for being either impossible or chaotic. It is neither. Plenty of London moves happen in late December, because tenancies end on the last day of the month, because a purchase completes before the year closes, or because the days between Christmas and New Year are the only time off work someone has. What makes a festive move harder is not the removal itself but the calendar around it: offices that close, councils that stop processing paperwork, payment systems that do not run on bank holidays, and bin collections that shift by days.

This guide goes through the festive fortnight one day at a time. It shows which days are bank holidays, what each day costs with us, when the Congestion Charge applies, which days completion money can move, and, for 28 London councils, the last day to apply for a parking suspension for five real moving dates between 21 December 2026 and 4 January 2027.

In England and Wales there are 3 bank holidays over the festive period, all listed on GOV.UK:

• Friday 25 December 2026: Christmas Day
• Monday 28 December 2026: Boxing Day (substitute day, because 26 December falls on a Saturday)
• Friday 1 January 2027: New Year’s Day

Because Boxing Day falls on a Saturday in 2026, the bank holiday moves to the following Monday. That gives a long block with no working day at all, from Friday 25 December to Monday 28 December, and a second one from Friday 1 January to Sunday 3 January. In between sit 3 ordinary working days: Tuesday 29 December, Wednesday 30 December and Thursday 31 December.

Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are not bank holidays. Legally and on our rate card they are normal working days. In practice many offices wind down early on both, so treat them as working days you should not rely on for anything that needs a reply from someone else.

Across the four weeks from Monday 14 December to Friday 8 January there are 20 weekdays but only 17 working days, so 3 are lost to bank holidays. For anything counted in working days, such as a council's suspension notice or a storage appointment, those 3 days push every deadline back.

This is the table to plan around. For each day from the Monday before Christmas to the first Monday of January, it shows the official status, our rate, the Congestion Charge hours in central London and whether CHAPS, the payment system conveyancers use to send completion money, is open.

Over these 15 days, 8 are working days and 5 carry our Sunday or bank holiday surcharge. The pattern is clear once it is laid out. The cheapest days to move are the weekdays and Saturdays, including the three days between Christmas and New Year. Those three days also fall inside TfL's free period, so a move in central London on Tue 29 Dec, Wed 30 Dec or Thu 31 Dec pays our normal rate and no Congestion Charge, while CHAPS is open for a completion.

Saturday 26 December is worth a note. It is Boxing Day by date but not a bank holiday in 2026, so it is an ordinary Saturday on our rate card. Plenty of people will be away or busy, and the roads can be quieter, but CHAPS is closed, so it does not suit a completion.

Our Sunday and bank holiday surcharge is 20% of the removal labour. The evening surcharge is 15%. Mileage is not surcharged, and the two do not stack: an evening move on a bank holiday is charged at the bank holiday rate. Saturdays have no surcharge at all. Here is what that means for two typical London moves of 6 miles, priced the same way as our quote form, with the vehicle and crew the form suggests for each home:

So the same 1-bedroom move costs £90 more on Christmas Day, Boxing Day (Mon 28 Dec) or New Year's Day than on any of the working days around them, and the 2-bedroom move £208 more. These are guide prices: stairs, dismantling, packing and parking depend on the addresses and are left out, and the team confirms the final price in writing.

If your date is flexible by a day, move it. Monday 28 December is the substitute bank holiday, so Tuesday 29 December is the first normal-rate weekday after Christmas, and Saturday 2 January the first normal-rate day after New Year. If your date is fixed, for example because a tenancy ends on a bank holiday, you can still move: we work bank holidays, and the surcharge is shown as its own line on the quote so you can see exactly what it adds.

Ask whether you really need to move on the last day of the tenancy. Many tenancies end on a rent day, and if yours ends on Fri 1 Jan, a move on Thu 31 Dec is cheaper and leaves a day to clean and hand back keys. Moving out of a rented flat in London covers the check-out itself.

If your street needs a parking bay suspension, the council's notice period matters more at Christmas than at any other time of year. Working-day councils lose 3 days to bank holidays, and calendar-day councils' deadlines can land on a bank holiday or a weekend and move back. We took every council in our parking suspension finder whose notice is a single stated figure and worked out the last day to apply for five moving dates. The counting rule is the strict one explained in how far ahead to book movers in London: for working days, the full number of working days must sit between the day you apply and the move.

Three things stand out. First, every date in the table is on or before Thursday 24 December. Even for a move on Monday 4 January, nobody in London who needs a suspension can leave the application until after Christmas. Second, the 9 councils that ask for 10 working days, including Westminster and Lambeth, need the application by Tuesday 15 December for that 4 January move, and by Thursday 10 December for Tue 29 Dec. That is ten days or more before Christmas Day, with the busiest working days of the year in between. Third, short notice does not escape the holidays: Bromley's 3 working days for a move on Thu 31 Dec mean applying by Wednesday 23 December, because Christmas Day and the substitute Boxing Day both fall in the window.

For a move on Mon 4 Jan, the gap between the deadline and the move is long. Westminster's application would need to be in 20 days ahead, Hackney's (7 working days) by Fri 18 Dec, 17 days ahead, and Camden's advised 17 days by Fri 18 Dec. Of the 28 councils we dated, 22 need the application before Christmas Eve for a 4 January move, and 28 for Tue 29 Dec.

5 councils publish no single notice figure we can date: Waltham Forest, Havering, Kingston upon Thames, Richmond upon Thames, Enfield. For these, apply as early in December as you can and ask the council directly. Havering and Enfield do not offer bay suspensions for house moves, and parking suspension or dispensation explains the alternative.

The table assumes each council works normally right up to Christmas. Some do not. Last year, for 2025/26, Newham said the last day to submit a parking bay suspension application was 17 December 2025, and that later applications might not be processed until 2 January 2026, when normal service resumed. In other words, an application sent in the last week before Christmas could have sat unprocessed over the whole break, whatever the normal notice period said.

When we checked on 5 November 2026, we had not found a London council's cut-off for this Christmas. Look again in the first week of December. Search your council's site for its Christmas service changes, and read the parking section, not only the bins.

The practical rule follows from both the table and the cut-off: for any move between mid-December and the second week of January, get the suspension application in during the first half of December. That is earlier than the notice period alone would suggest, but it is the only way to be sure a holiday closure does not catch you out.

• Before you apply, have your written quote, so you know the vehicle and how many bays to ask for
• When you apply, keep the confirmation email and the reference number. If you need to change something after Christmas, nobody may be there to look it up
• After you apply, diarise the day the warning signs should go up, and check them in person if you are still at the address

You apply and pay for the suspension yourself, and we plan the van and crew around the space you get. If you do not need one at all, because there is a driveway, a loading bay or a quiet street, none of these deadlines applies to you.

TfL makes no Congestion Charge from Christmas Day to the New Year's Day bank holiday, inclusive. In 2026 that is 8 days, Friday 25 December to Friday 1 January. Outside that window the normal hours apply: 07:00 to 18:00 on weekdays, and 12:00 to 18:00 on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays.

For a move with an address inside the zone, that changes our quote. We add the Congestion Charge as its own line when either address is inside the zone during charging hours, so a move on Tue 29 Dec, Wed 30 Dec or Thu 31 Dec has no Congestion Charge line at all, while a move on Mon 21 Dec, Wed 23 Dec or Mon 4 Jan does, if the van is in the zone during charging hours. We never add a ULEZ charge, because our vans meet the standard.

Moving van road charges in London covers the zone boundary, tolls and the rest of the road rules for a removal van. For a festive move, the one thing to remember is that the free period starts on Christmas Day, not Christmas Eve, and ends after New Year's Day, not on it.

If you are buying or selling, the moving date depends on completion, and completion depends on the money arriving. The Bank of England says CHAPS is commonly used by solicitors and conveyancers to complete housing transactions, and that it is usually open from 6am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, excluding bank or public holidays in England and Wales. So completion money cannot move on Fri 25 Dec, Mon 28 Dec or Fri 1 Jan, or at the weekends either side.

That leaves 3 days between the holidays, Tue 29 Dec, Wed 30 Dec and Thu 31 Dec, when CHAPS is open. Whether your conveyancer, your lender and the other people in your chain are working on those days is a separate question, and not one any official calendar answers. Ask your conveyancer directly, early in December, whether they will be open and able to complete on your date. If anyone in the chain is not, the completion will move to January whatever the payment system allows.

For a move on completion day, the timing matters to us too. The keys are released only once completion has taken place, and that waits on the money arriving. If the crew is loaded and waiting, waiting time is charged at £40 per crew member per hour, which is £120 an hour for a crew of 3. Two ways to keep that down over Christmas:

• Load the day before, deliver on completion day, if you can leave the old home a day early. We arrange storage overnight through a partner if needed
• Pick a completion day with a working day after it. A completion on Thu 31 Dec that fails has no working day until Mon 4 Jan, because New Year's Day and the weekend follow. One on Tue 29 Dec has two more working days behind it

If you are renting, the money question is simpler, but the people question is the same. A letting agent's office may close over the holidays, and the person who checks you out and takes the keys may not be working. Ask the agent in writing who will meet you, when, and what happens to the keys if nobody is there.

Moves in the winter weeks are not unusual for us. These are earlier London and South East jobs from our booking records in December and January, with the month, the vehicle and crew booked and the price agreed at the time. The records give the month only, not the day, so they are not necessarily festive-week moves. Prices are from our earlier pricing, a price for a time slot, not today's rate card, and the miles are straight-line distances between outward postcodes.

Most of these are short moves within south London, booked as a fixed slot with two or three movers. The office move from West Norwood in January is a reminder that some businesses use the quieter first weeks of the year to move. For today's prices, the cost table above and our London house removals page use the current rate card.

Council bin collections usually change over Christmas and New Year, and that affects a move more than people expect. Last year, for 2025/26, Newham moved its Christmas Day collection to Saturday 27 December and its Boxing Day collection to Monday 29 December, shifted each later day on by one, and did not return to normal collection days until Monday 12 January 2026. Check your own council's revised dates for this year before you fix the clear-out.

That matters in three ways when you move:

• Clear out early. Whatever you are not taking should go before the collections change, not in the last week. A sorting session in early December is easier on the bins and on the move
• Do not leave bags behind. At a rented home, rubbish left after the check-out can come out of a deposit. If the collection after your move day has been shifted, take the bags with you or arrange a tip run yourself
• Recycle the boxes after New Year. Cardboard from unpacking piles up fast, and with Christmas packaging on top the recycling bin at the new home fills in a day. Flatten the boxes and keep them dry until normal collections are back

We move what you are taking. We do not offer waste clearance or take rubbish away, so plan the clear-out as its own job before moving day.

A Christmas move has less slack than any other, because a missed day can mean waiting until after a weekend and a bank holiday. Have a fallback in mind before you need it.

Storage between the two homes

If the old home has to be empty before the new one is ready, we can arrange storage through a partner. For a 1-bedroom flat's contents, our 2026 quotes have been £250 to £350 a month, VAT included, with the first month paid upfront. The move into storage and the delivery out of it are each priced like any other move, from the same rate card.

Access to stored goods is by appointment, with at least 2 working days' notice. Over Christmas that notice is counted in working days, so the holidays stretch it: to have goods delivered on Monday 4 January, the request needs to be in by Wednesday 30 December, and for Tue 29 Dec by Wednesday 23 December. Storage costs in London has the full picture on sizes and prices.

Moving at short notice

If the date moves the other way, and you can suddenly move earlier, a home of up to two bedrooms can often be moved the same day if you book by 2pm, and larger homes the next day, subject to a crew and van being free. There is no premium for short notice. The only date-based extras are the 15% evening and 20% Sunday and bank holiday surcharges, the same as for a move booked weeks ahead. Last-minute removals in London explains how it works. The limit at Christmas is the kerb, not the crew: a short-notice move works best where no suspension is needed.

Here is one move, planned with the dates above. A 1-bedroom flat in Lambeth moves to a flat in Southwark on Tuesday 29 December, the first normal-rate weekday after Christmas. Both streets need a suspension. Lambeth's 10 working days give Thursday 10 December. Southwark's 7 calendar days give Tuesday 22 December. The earlier one, Lambeth's, sets the plan.

Notice how little of this happens in Christmas week itself. The quote, the booking and both applications are done by mid-December. The week before Christmas is for confirming and packing, and the move itself sits in the quiet days after Boxing Day. For the rest of the jobs around a move, from council tax to redirecting post, follow our London house move checklist; this guide only covers what the holidays change.

If you have a choice, the calendar points to a few clear answers. Each one depends on what matters most for your move.

• For the lowest price: any weekday or Saturday. Avoid Fri 25 Dec, Mon 28 Dec and Fri 1 Jan, which carry the 20% surcharge, and Sundays
• For a central London address: Tue 29 Dec, Wed 30 Dec or Thu 31 Dec. Normal rate, no Congestion Charge, and CHAPS open for a completion
• For a purchase: Tue 29 Dec or Wed 30 Dec, so a delayed completion still has a working day behind it. Check your conveyancer is open first
• For the least paperwork stress: a date in the week of Mon 4 Jan or later, with every application in during the first half of December
• For a rented home ending on Fri 1 Jan: Thu 31 Dec, the last working day before it, at the normal rate

Whichever you choose, the order is the same: quote, book, apply to the council, then pack. Our house removals team in London can suggest the right vehicle and crew for your date, which is the figure your suspension application needs. If the timing feels tight, how far ahead to book movers in London shows how the same deadlines work at other times of year.