Research carried out by insurance company Admiral has found that nearly half of home movers lose items during their house move, some of them valuable or irreplaceable.
The insurer teamed up with removals experts to look at the extent of the problem and list some tips to avoid it.
The study found that 47% of those moving lost items, with 21% of those being expensive and 12% being irreplaceable because they were of sentimental value.
Those moving into a new home frequently find possessions that have been left behind, with 39% saying they had found items.
The average price of misplaced belongings was £410.
Items most commonly lost during a house move
While some people lose odd possessions such as an aircraft chassis, bottles of expensive whisky and the family cat, the more frequently misplaced chattels include books, lost by 19% of those who admitted to losing items, photographs, also at 19%, jewellery at 18%, pictures lost by 17% and DIY equipment at 16%.
Wolverhampton removals company Burke Bros added: “From our experience, some of the most common things that people forget or leave behind during a move are mirrors, wall clocks or photographs. People often leave them behind because they’re so used to seeing them on their wall, it doesn’t occur to them to take them down!
“Documents are also often misplaced during the move. There’s been countless times when customers have packed their passports and driving licences into boxes that have gone into storage. This is a real problem when customers are moving internationally. We’ve had customers put their ID into boxes which have been packed into shipping containers and are on the water before the customer has realised what they’ve done.”
A spokesperson for Clockworks Removals in Scotland said: “Bolts and screws for flat pack furniture are easily the things that get lost most often, which can be tricky if furniture needs to be dismantled and assembled on the moving day – they’re very important. TV remotes and phone chargers are other items that often go walk-about during the move.”
Removals tips to prevent losses
When booking your removals, check what level of insurance your chosen removals company offers. If the loss is their fault, then you will be able to make a claim against their insurance.
It is always recommended that you make a full checklist of everything you need to pack, in particular items that might be forgotten such as mirrors and those that might be misplaced such as important documents.
Furniture fittings such as nuts and bolts can be put into grip seal bags and labelled so that they are kept all together and you will be able to easily tell which piece of furniture they belong to when you arrive.
You are advised to keep the most valuable and important items separate from your main boxes to reduce the risk of them being lost.
The average house move requires 33 packing boxes. Try to keep groups of similar items together, as well as packing room by room to make unpacking easier.
Boxes should be labelled with the contents, the room you would like the box placed in when you arrive and which way up it should be kept to avoid breakages.
Before you hand furniture over to the removals people for dismantling and moving, it is worth checking that it has been properly emptied or, if your removals firm will be packing for you, that you know what is inside. One removals firm found a box when moving a wardrobe with £30,000 inside which the owner did not realise she had.
We won’t pretend that moving house with pets is easy! Follow our tips at https://www.lpropertylawyers.co.uk/conveyancing-information/movinghousewithpets/ and you should be all set for a paw-fect beginning to moving into a new home.
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