Removals companies: moving day texts that save calls

Ask anyone who runs a removals firm what Friday is like and you'll get a look. HM Land Registry's price paid data puts a number on it. Of the 822,654 standard home sales in England and Wales that completed in 2025, 385,042 completed on a Friday. That's 46.8%, more than four and a half times as many as on Tuesdays. Moving day texts are how a removals company gets through those Fridays without the office phone ringing from 7am, because almost every call on a moving day is a question with a short answer. When are you coming? Have the keys been released?

The answers change through the day, often more than once, and the customer is standing in a kitchen full of boxes waiting to hear them. A text reaches them there.

Fridays, month ends and the busy months

The Friday figure comes from our own count of HM Land Registry's 2025 price paid file, as published on 28 October 2026. Each sale carries a "date of transfer", which the Land Registry defines as the "date when the sale was completed, as stated on the transfer deed". Counting category A sales (single homes sold for value) by weekday gives the chart below. Weekend completions barely exist, at 895 in the whole year.

Month ends show up too. The twelve last days of the month are 3.3% of the days in a year, but in the same file they took 8.4% of completions. MHCLG's How to Buy guide warns buyers that "Fridays and the first and last days of the month are often very busy, so you may get better rates and availability if you try to avoid these times." The Fridays and the last days bear that out. First days of the month didn't, at least for completions in 2025: they had 2.3%, below their share of the calendar.

Over a year, HMRC's monthly figures give the shape. UK residential transactions totalled 1,144,580 in the year to March 2026. In the twelve months to September 2026, October 2025 was the busiest month with 117,780 completions and January 2026 the quietest with 80,900.

The rules can move the busy month as well. In March 2025, 165,690 UK residential sales completed, then 56,970 in April. HMRC's quarterly stamp duty commentary said SDLT transactions in January to March 2025 were 42% higher than a year earlier, "likely due to residential transactions being brought forward prior to the changes in SDLT thresholds effective from 1 April 2025". A firm whose diary filled up that March will remember it. HMRC also says completions are "on average two to four months after an initial offer is made on a property", which is about the lead time a removals firm gets between the first enquiry and the day itself.

Sales are only part of it. The English Housing Survey for 2024 to 2025 estimated that about 1.8 million households in England had moved home in the previous 12 months, and 955,000 of them had moved into a private rented home (640,000 from another private let). Renters' dates are usually fixed by a tenancy start, so their bookings firm up sooner, with no chain to wait on.

Why the day goes wrong, and what the customer needs to know

The How to Buy guide says that at exchange "you will also confirm a completion date; often around 2-4 weeks later". Until exchange, the removals date is provisional, and most firms have had a booking slide by a week because a chain stalled. After exchange it's fixed, and the guide tells buyers to "inform your removal company of your move date" between exchange and completion.

On the day, completion is when the buyer's solicitor sends the money and, in the words of GOV.UK, "you get the keys to the property from the seller or estate agent". The How to Buy guide adds that keys "are often handed over around lunchtime", and warns that "if there are delays to your money being paid to the seller (which is more common in long chains) you may not get access to your new home when expected. These delays may incur additional charges from your removal company." So the customer's day has a hole in the middle. The van's loaded by late morning and the crew may then wait, sometimes for hours, for a call from a solicitor the removals firm has never spoken to.

Most of the stress of the day sits in that gap. The customer wants to know the crew knows. The crew wants the customer to tell them the moment the keys are released. Texts handle both sides of that in writing, with a time on each.

The texts, from survey to keys

Written for a fictional firm, Pennington Removals. All of these are about a booking the customer has made, which the ICO treats as service messages (it lists messages to "confirm or remind them about appointments" as administrative), so none needs an opt-out line.

The survey (this firm does them by video):

Pennington Removals: your video survey is booked for Wed 4 Nov at 18:00. We'll call this number. Have each room's cupboards open so we can see what's going.

The quote and provisional booking:

Pennington Removals: we've pencilled you in for Fri 27 Nov. Your quote is in your email. Text us as soon as you exchange and we'll confirm the date.

When exchange happens (the customer usually texts first, which is why the line above asks them to):

Pennington Removals: thanks, Fri 27 Nov is confirmed. Packing team arrives Thu 26 Nov at 08:00. Reply if parking is tricky at either address.

The day before:

Pennington Removals: see you tomorrow. Crew of 3 arrives 07:30 to 08:00. Please keep a box of first-night things with you, and remember meter readings at both houses.

The meter readings line comes straight from the How to Buy guide, which suggests a date-stamped photograph at each end. Then the day itself:

Pennington Removals: Gary and the team are leaving the yard now, with you by 07:45. Big white lorry, AB12 CDE.

Loaded and waiting:

Pennington Removals: all loaded. We're parked up and ready to go. Text us the moment your solicitor says the keys are released.

And the arrival, once the customer has replied with the good news:

Pennington Removals: on our way to Elm Close, about 35 minutes. We'll start with beds and the kitchen.

The day-before text and the morning text carry the same habits as our on-my-way texts for trades: the firm's name first, a time window, and something that helps the customer spot the van. The loaded-and-waiting text does a different job. It puts the request in writing, so if the keys come at 15:30 and the firm charges for waiting time under its terms, nobody's arguing about who knew what when.

When completion slips

Sometimes the call never comes. The money hasn't arrived by the end of the afternoon, the chain has a problem somewhere upstream, and the move can't finish that day. What happens to the customer's furniture then depends on the firm's terms (some keep the load on the lorry overnight, some take it back to store), and the customer needs to hear the plan before the crew finishes for the day, in words they can show to their solicitor or their partner:

Pennington Removals: no keys yet, so we'll keep your things safely on the lorry overnight at our yard. We'll be back at Elm Close from 08:00 once you have the keys. Call Sarah on 07700 900218 with any questions.

That text should come from a person, and after a phone call where possible. It's the one message of the day that changes the customer's plans for the night, and it's the one they'll go back and read again.

The crew need their own messages too. A Friday at the end of the month can mean every lorry out at once, with jobs shuffled the evening before as dates firm up. Our page on staff alerts covers rota and shift texts, which are the same pattern: who, where, what time, and a reply to confirm.

Running it from the diary

Most removals firms keep jobs in booking software or a shared calendar. The day-before text is the one to schedule as soon as a date is confirmed; on CaptiFi Connect a text can be scheduled up to a year ahead and cancelled (with its credits refunded) if the date moves. Because provisional dates move so often, it's worth scheduling only after exchange. If the software can call an API, POST /messages with schedule_at sets it up and POST /messages/{id}/cancel takes it down again; an Idempotency-Key built from the job number and the date stops a retried request scheduling the reminder twice, and client_ref carries the job number back in the webhooks.

The texts on the day are better sent by a person from the two-way inbox (or a phone with the inbox open) than set up in advance, because their timing depends on the lorry. Replies land in the same thread, so "keys released!" at 14:10 reaches whoever's running the job and the crew can be told straight away. Each text gets a delivery report, which settles the occasional "I never got a message" when the crew turned up at 07:30 to a sleeping house.

Quiet hours (21:00 to 09:00 London time by default) apply to campaign sends to a list, and one-off texts to a customer go when you send them, so a 07:30 arrival text isn't held back.

A review request a few days after the move is fine as a separate message; our page on review requests covers the wording. Anything that adds an offer (storage at a discount, say) turns a service text into marketing, which needs consent or the soft opt-in and an opt-out line.

Common questions

What day do most house moves happen?

Friday, by a long way. HM Land Registry's price paid data shows 46.8% of standard residential sales in England and Wales in 2025 completed on a Friday. The last day of the month is also busy, with 8.4% of the year's completions.

What time do you get the keys on completion day?

MHCLG's How to Buy guide says keys are often handed over around lunchtime, once the buyer's solicitor has transferred the money to the seller's. Delays are more common in long chains, and a late completion can mean extra charges from the removals company.

When should I book a removals company?

As early as you can, and confirm the date once contracts are exchanged. The How to Buy guide says completion often follows exchange by 2 to 4 weeks, and that you should tell your removal company your move date between exchange and completion.

Do removals companies need consent to text customers about a booking?

No. Texts about a move the customer has booked, such as arrival times and key updates, are service messages. A text that promotes another service, like discounted storage, counts as marketing and needs consent or the soft opt-in plus an opt-out.