What the property is
A second home
Who is there You, sometimes
A place you come down to. The defining feature of a second home removal is that the owner is very often somewhere else on the day, and everything has to work anyway.
What this changes
You may not be there. That is normal for this kind of property and it is fine, but it changes the paperwork: we need written authority naming whoever is letting us in, and we need to agree in advance where things go, because nobody will be there to ask.
A second home is furnished in stages rather than in one move. Much of the work is a part-load — a sofa, a bed and six boxes coming down, rather than a household — and pricing a part-load as a household move is how people get overcharged for this.
The property has usually been shut up. Damp, a dead fridge, a tripped consumer unit and a smell of sea air are all normal and all better discovered by us on arrival than by you on a Friday night.
Things get left behind. A second home accumulates the previous owner’s garden furniture, three barbecues and a set of golf clubs nobody claims.
What we do about it
Work to a named keyholder with your written authority, and confirm the handover in writing at both ends
Photograph the property as we find it and as we leave it, and send both sets to you
Quote part-loads as part-loads, so furnishing a place in stages does not cost what moving a household costs
Tell you what we found — the damp patch, the dead fridge, the window that will not shut — rather than leaving you to discover it
The catch
Give us the keyholder in writing before the day, not on the morning. A verbal "my neighbour will let you in" is not something we can act on, and we will not force it.
Get a quote
Moving a second home?
A home you live in, a let with a changeover, a second home you come down to, or a studio you work from. That answer shapes the quote more than the number of bedrooms does.