Settling · E
Indefinitely
You are not planning to leave. It is the simplest row on the horizon table and the smallest, and it is the only one where a London move looks much like a move anywhere else in the country.
The horizon stops being a variable, which means this page is mostly about a house rather than about a plan.
What an indefinite move involves
The questions change completely
On every other row of the table, the decisive question is how long you will be here. Here it is not a question at all, so the conversation moves to the ordinary business of a household move: volume, access, parking, the chain and the date.
That sounds like a smaller page and it is. The horizon was doing the work everywhere else on this site, and here it has nothing to do.
The chain, which is usually involved
This horizon generally means a purchase, and a purchase means keys released once money has moved up a chain with the household at the bottom paid last. So the load goes on early and the day is planned around waiting rather than around a time.
Say how many households are in the chain at the point you book. Almost no enquiry includes it and it is one of the few things that genuinely changes the plan.
London access, one last time
Parking suspensions where the borough requires one, applied for once the date is firm. Goods lift bookings in managed blocks, which buildings will usually take from a resident and not from a contractor. Freeholder permission where a lease requires it.
All of it is straightforward with notice and none of it can be arranged on the morning.
And the storage unit you may still have
If you arrived on a shorter horizon years ago, there is a reasonable chance something is still being held somewhere. This is the move on which it should finally be dealt with.
Empty it, list it, and let most of it go to a buyer or a charity. It is the natural moment and the one people most often miss.
Indefinitely
Questions about indefinitely
- Does anything change at this horizon?
- Everything travels and nothing sits in store on the off-chance. The conversation moves to volume, access, parking and the chain — the ordinary business of a household move.
- Is this like a move anywhere else?
- Largely, yes. It is the only row on the table where London stops being a special case and becomes just a city with difficult parking.
- What about the chain?
- Keys are released once money has moved and the household at the bottom is paid last. Tell us how many households are in it when you book — it changes what we plan for.
- Who arranges the parking?
- We apply for suspensions where a borough requires one, once you have confirmed the date. Lift bookings usually have to come from you, because buildings deal with residents.
- We still have a storage unit from years ago.
- This is the move on which to deal with it. Empty it, list it, and let most of it go to a buyer or a charity — it is the natural moment and the one most often missed.
- Should we count the loft?
- Always, in the outer suburbs especially. A London house with a loft holds as much more than people estimate as one anywhere else does.
How long are you staying?
Both addresses, roughly what is going, and how long you expect to be here. A rough answer is enough — the boundaries between horizons are soft and the advice barely changes within one.