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You rent a room · I

A room, and a licence

The smallest job on this site and the one with the most other people in it. Your room is yours; the hallway, the stairs and the front door belong to everybody, and several of them are trying to use the kitchen while you leave.

The difficulty here is never the furniture. It is doing it without becoming everybody else's problem for an afternoon.

What a room move involves

Right-sized vehicle A van and two crew. A removals lorry for one room is theatre.
Park once, carry once A route worked out before anything is picked up.
Communal protection Hall, stairs and any lift covered, because they are not yours.
Landlord furniture left Unless there is written instruction otherwise. Room lets are usually furnished.
A photographed room Recorded as you leave it, because there is often no inventory at all.
Flexible hours Around a shared house, an hour when the kitchen is quiet helps everybody.

It is somebody else's home too

That is the whole difference between this and a normal move. Four other people live in the building and are not moving, and for them your afternoon is an inconvenience they did not choose.

So the route is worked out first, the hallway is kept passable throughout, and nothing is staged in a shared kitchen. It takes ten minutes of planning and it is the difference between a smooth exit and a bad last memory of a house.

Photograph the room

Room-only lets frequently have no check-in inventory at all, which sounds like freedom and is actually exposure. With no record of how the room was when you arrived, a disagreement about how you left it has nothing to resolve it.

One photograph per wall, plus the floor and the window, taken the moment the room is clear. It takes two minutes and it is the only contemporaneous evidence you will ever have.

What is yours and what came with the room

Most rooms of this kind are let furnished, and the bed, the wardrobe and the desk are the landlord's. We move what you tell us is yours and we leave the rest, and where there is any doubt we ask rather than load.

If you have bought something and want it to go, make sure the landlord knows before the day rather than afterwards.

And the agreement itself

A licence or room-only agreement usually gives less protection and shorter notice than a tenancy does, and the date can move with little warning. That is worth knowing, and it is not something a removals firm should be advising you on.

Citizens Advice and Shelter both cover this properly, free, and are considerably better qualified. Nothing on this site is legal advice.

A room, and a licence

Questions about a room, and a licence

  1. 01

    Do you do single rooms?

    Constantly. A van and two crew handles almost all of them, and it is the right vehicle rather than the cheap option.

  2. 02

    Can you come at a quiet hour?

    Usually, and in a shared house it is worth asking for. An hour when nobody else needs the kitchen makes the whole thing easier for everybody.

  3. 03

    Will you move the bed?

    If it is yours. In a furnished room-only let it usually is not, and we will ask rather than assume.

  4. 04

    There is no inventory. Does that matter?

    It cuts both ways, and it means your own photographs are the only record. Take them as the room clears, before cleaning.

  5. 05

    Can several of us move on the same day?

    Yes, and it wants planning. One vehicle and an agreed sequence beats three vehicles all wanting the front door.

  6. 06

    What if I am storing rather than moving on?

    Common at this stage. Collected, listed and held until the next room or flat exists.

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.

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