Moving house is stressful. Moving two properties simultaneously? That’s exponentially more complicated. Add a third property into the mix, and you’re managing logistics that would challenge a professional event planner.
Yet for some people, this is reality. Landlords acquiring multiple rental properties often move between them. Business owners relocating offices whilst maintaining residential properties. Families managing moves between different regions. Property investors scaling up their portfolios.
The challenges aren’t just about having more stuff to move. They’re about coordinating timelines, managing access to multiple properties, ensuring nothing gets lost in the shuffle, and keeping costs under control when you’re paying for multiple removals simultaneously.
How do you even begin to organise something this complex?
Understanding Why This Happens
Before tackling solutions, it helps to understand why people move multiple properties at once. The reasons vary, but they’re usually compelling.
A landlord might be purchasing two buy-to-let properties whilst selling their current home. They need to coordinate three separate moves to ensure continuous occupancy of their rental properties and secure housing for themselves. Any gap in timing creates financial losses—empty properties generate no rental income.
A business owner relocating to a new region might need to move their office, their residential property, and possibly acquire a small storage facility. Each has different requirements, timelines, and logistics.
Property investors sometimes close on multiple acquisitions within weeks of each other. They need to coordinate inspections, arrange removals, and organise renovations across several properties simultaneously.
The common thread: coordinating multiple moves at once isn’t optional. It’s driven by business necessity or life circumstances that demand it.
The Cost Factor Is Genuinely Significant
Moving a single property in the UK typically costs £1,200 to £5,000 depending on distance and volume. A local move within Norfolk might be £1,500 to £3,000. A long-distance move to London or Manchester could exceed £5,000.
Now multiply that by two or three properties.
A landlord moving two rental properties and their own home could be looking at £4,500 to £15,000 in removal costs alone. Add in fees for separate conveyancing on each property (typically £500 to £1,500 per property), and the professional fees stack up quickly.
But here’s where it gets more complicated. Moving companies often give discounts for larger jobs. A single large move across three properties might cost less than three separate moves. However, coordinating timing so all three moves can happen together creates logistical challenges that sometimes offset the savings.
Some property investors use different strategies entirely. Rather than moving belongings between properties, they might:
- Keep furniture and essentials at each property
- Use storage facilities to hold items between moves (£50 to £150 monthly depending on size)
- Purchase budget furniture for rental properties and replace it periodically
- Hire cleaning companies to manage turnovers between properties
The choice depends on budget, timeline, and how many properties you’re managing.
Have you calculated the total cost of moving all your properties, including not just removal costs but also the hidden expenses like storage, cleaning, and professional fees?
Timeline Management Is Your Biggest Headache
Moving a single property requires coordination between several parties: your solicitor, the removing company, utility providers, and the seller/buyer. It’s complex, but it’s one timeline.
Multiple properties create multiple timelines that must somehow intersect.
Consider this scenario: you’re purchasing two buy-to-let properties and selling your current home. Your solicitor is working on completion dates. The removal company needs at least two weeks’ notice for each move. Utility companies need 2-3 weeks to arrange disconnection and reconnection. Your tenants for the rental properties might need time to arrange their own moves.
If completion dates slip—and they often do—the entire schedule cascades. Your removal company might have another job scheduled for the day your original move was supposed to happen. Your new tenants might already have arranged time off work. Utility reconnection might be delayed if engineers are overbooked.
The solution many people use is building in buffer time. Schedule your moves with 3-5 days between them rather than back-to-back. It costs more but prevents catastrophic scheduling failures.
Alternatively, some use a staged approach:
- Complete on one property, then move in
- Organise that property fully over 2-3 weeks
- Then move on to the next property
- This extends the overall timeline but reduces daily stress
The trade-off is between cost and sanity. Rushing multiple moves creates chaos—items get damaged, important boxes go missing, and you end up paying premium rates for expedited utility reconnections.
What’s your realistic timeline for completing all moves, and have you built in buffer days between them?
Coordinating Utility Providers Across Multiple Addresses
Most people find utility coordination annoying with a single move. Multiple moves multiply the frustration exponentially.
You need to:
- Provide final meter readings for each property you’re leaving
- Arrange disconnection dates that align with your move dates
- Provide new addresses for billing
- Arrange new connections at each property you’re moving to
- Sort out direct debits and payment arrangements for each property
Electricity, gas, water, internet, and phone services all need individual coordination. If you’re managing business properties, you might need business accounts rather than residential accounts, with different providers and different pricing structures.
Many people use a removals company checklist. Some removal firms—particularly larger national companies like Pickfords or Allied—offer property management services that coordinate utilities alongside moving. They charge extra (typically £100 to £300 per property), but they eliminate the administrative burden.
If you’re doing it yourself, create a spreadsheet tracking:
- Current supplier for each property
- Disconnection dates and final readings
- New supplier for new properties
- Reconnection dates
- Account numbers and contact details
- Direct debit arrangements
Missing a deadline means you’re paying for services you’re not using, or you’re without essential utilities in your new property. Neither is ideal.
Have you assigned a specific person the responsibility of managing utility coordination, or is it something you’re planning to handle yourself whilst managing everything else?
The Access Coordination Challenge
Here’s a challenge many people don’t anticipate: managing access to multiple properties during moving day.
removal company needs to access the property they’re collecting from. The previous tenant (if you’re renting) or sellers (if you’re buying) need access to collect their belongings. You need access to direct the removers. New tenants might want early access to measure up for furniture.
With one property, this is manageable. With multiple properties, you’re juggling access for multiple teams across multiple locations often on the same day.
The solution is explicit coordination with clear timings:
- Schedule the removal company for a specific 4-hour window
- Arrange for previous occupants to collect belongings in a different window
- Arrange your own access at a different time if needed
- Communicate these times clearly to everyone involved
Some properties have landlord access issues. If you’re buying a property where the sellers are still living, they might be reluctant to grant access during moving day. If you’re renting, your landlord might have restrictions on when access is permitted.
Properties with difficult access create additional problems. Ground-floor flats in buildings with security doors need different coordination than semi-detached houses with direct driveway access. Victorian terrace houses with narrow staircases make moving large items difficult, you might need specialised removal teams that charge premium rates.
Before booking removers, visit each property. Check for:
- Street parking availability
- Building access restrictions
- Narrow corridors or staircases
- Door and stairwell widths for large furniture
- Whether neighbours might complain about noise or obstruction
These factors directly impact removal costs and timelines.
Document Management Across Multiple Properties
Moving generates paperwork. Multiple moves generate mountains of it.
You need to track:
- Conveyancing documents for each property
- Removal company quotes and agreements
- Insurance documents and policy details
- Inventory lists for furnished properties
- Tenant agreements and deposit details
- Utility connection confirmations
- Council tax band documentation
- Building survey reports
- Mortgage documents
Losing important paperwork creates genuine problems. A missing building survey report means you can’t prove you knew about pre-existing damage. Missing removal company documentation means no claim if items arrive damaged. Lost insurance documents mean you can’t claim when something goes wrong.
Create a physical or digital filing system before moving begins. Use clearly labelled folders for each property. Assign someone the responsibility of maintaining this system—preferably someone who’s detail-oriented and unlikely to file important documents in random places.
Digital copies are essential. Scan important documents and keep them in a cloud storage system (Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox). If physical papers go missing during a move, you still have digital backups.
Managing Moving Company Logistics
Booking removal companies for multiple properties requires advance planning. Most established removal companies like Surrey Removals book up 6-8 weeks in advance during peak moving season (May to September).
If you need three separate moves within a 3-week period, you might not be able to book the same company for all three jobs. You’ll likely use multiple removal companies, which creates challenges:
- Different quality standards across companies
- Inconsistent communication styles
- Different insurance coverage levels
- Varying charges for additional services
Some companies offer package deals if you book multiple moves. It’s worth asking. A company that handles all three moves might offer a 10-15% discount compared to three separate companies.
When comparing removal quotes, ensure you’re comparing like-for-like:
- Is packing included or extra?
- What insurance coverage is provided?
- Are there additional charges for difficult access?
- What’s the cancellation policy if timelines shift?
- Do they offer storage if you need it between moves?
The cheapest quote isn’t necessarily the best. A company that damages your belongings or loses items costs far more than any savings on their quote.
Get quotes from at least three companies for each property. Request references from previous customers who’ve managed multiple moves. Ask specific questions about their experience with coordinating simultaneous moves across several properties.
The Stress Management Angle
Here’s something people rarely discuss about moving multiple properties: the emotional and mental toll.
Moving is consistently ranked as one of life’s most stressful experiences. Moving multiple properties simultaneously puts that stress into overdrive. You’re making dozens of decisions daily. You’re managing multiple contractors. You’re tracking countless details.
Some practical stress management:
- Assign clear responsibilities, don’t try to manage everything yourself
- Use project management tools (even a simple spreadsheet) to track progress
- Build in rest days between major moving milestones
- Delegate what you can afford to delegate
- Don’t attempt three major moves if one person is handling all coordination
Burnout during moving logistics isn’t just unpleasant, it creates mistakes. A stressed person misses deadlines, forgets to arrange services, or fails to communicate important details to removal companies.
If you’re moving multiple properties, treat it like a project that requires genuine planning and resource allocation. Don’t attempt it casually.
Creating Your Coordination System
The people who successfully manage moving multiple properties typically use systematic approaches.
Start three months before your first move. Create a master timeline showing:
- Completion dates for each property
- Removal company booking dates
- Utility disconnection dates
- New utility connection dates
- Inspection and cleaning dates
- Tenant move-in dates
Create individual checklists for each property. Share these with anyone involved—family members, business partners, property managers.
Assign specific people to specific responsibilities. One person shouldn’t be responsible for coordinating everything. Divide the work:
- Property 1: Person A
- Property 2: Person B
- Property 3: Person C
- Utilities and services: Person D
- Document management: Person E
This division prevents bottlenecks and ensures nothing falls through the cracks.
Use regular check-in meetings (weekly or fortnightly) to review progress across all properties. Identify problems early before they become crises.
Moving multiple properties is genuinely complex. But with planning, delegation, and systematic coordination, it’s manageable. The difference between chaos and smooth execution often comes down to whether you’ve invested time in proper planning before the moves begin.
What’s your plan for coordinating your multiple moves, and have you assigned clear responsibilities to specific people?