You own it · V
A freehold sale
The only move on this site where nobody has to give you permission. There is no freeholder, no agent and no clerk — just a contract, a chain, and an hour that belongs to solicitors and lenders rather than to anybody in the house.
Freedom from a managing agent, in exchange for an hour you cannot control. Most people would take the trade.
What the day involves
The hour is not yours
Completion is money moving up a chain, and it moves in order. The household at the top is paid first and the one at the bottom last, so the further down you sit the later your keys tend to arrive.
We load early, secure the vehicle and wait. Waiting is a quiet cost; sending a crew away and recalling them is a loud one. Tell us how many households are in the chain when you book — it is the single most useful thing you can say and the thing most often left out.
The hill is a real variable
Putney Hill and West Hill are steep enough to change where a vehicle can stand and to make the carry materially harder in one direction than the other. On the wrong side of a street it can add a substantial amount to a day.
It is surveyed rather than assumed, along with a second standing point in case the first is taken. In Roehampton the equivalent question is estate roads and block access rather than gradient.
Read the fixtures list
Your sale contract lists what stays: curtains, blinds, light fittings, anything fitted. Taking something on that list is the commonest post-completion argument there is, and it is entirely avoidable by reading the list before the day.
Where our crew is unsure whether something is included, they leave it and ask. That is the rule.
And if the day fails
Occasionally it does. If we have already loaded, the goods stay secured and go into store rather than back into a house you have just emptied, and we return when the chain moves. Your booking contract sets out how that is handled.
A freehold sale
Questions about a freehold sale
- 01
When should we book?
Talk to us at offer stage and confirm at exchange. Anything committed before exchange is a hope rather than a booking, and we would rather hold a provisional slot.
- 02
Why do you want to know about the chain?
Because a longer chain means a later key release. It changes what we plan for, and it is the piece of information customers most often leave out.
- 03
What time will you arrive?
Early, and the quotation says so. Being loaded and ready before the completion machinery starts moving is what makes a late release survivable.
- 04
Is the hill really an issue?
It changes where a vehicle can stand and how hard the carry is. We survey it and plan a second standing point rather than discovering it with a loaded vehicle.
- 05
What stays with the house?
Whatever the sale contract lists as included. Where our crew is unsure, they leave it and ask rather than unscrew it.
- 06
What if completion fails?
The load stays secured and goes into store rather than back inside. We return when the chain moves.
What did you sign?
Both addresses, and what kind of agreement governs the one you are leaving. That second answer tells us most of what we need to know.