Moving house with a disability or limited mobility is mostly a question of order: the access, adaptations and equipment you rely on need to be ready at the new home before you sleep there, and the move itself should be planned around your energy rather than the van's schedule. Sort the new home first, tell the removals company exactly what the day needs to look like, and keep everything you depend on out of the van and with you.
Start with the new home, not the van
Most of the problems we see on these moves were decided weeks earlier, when someone agreed to a flat without checking the route from the kerb to the bed. The van can be booked in a day. A ramp, a wider door or a working lift cannot.
Before you commit to a date, go through the new place with a tape measure, or ask someone to do it and send photos. The questions that matter:
- Is there a step-free route from where a car can stop to the front door, and how far is it?
- How wide are the front door, the bedroom door and the bathroom door?
- If there is a lift, how big is it, and what happens to you if it breaks down for a week?
- Where can the bed go so there is room to get in and out on the side you use?
If you are renting, raise anything you need changed with the landlord in writing before you sign. Once the tenancy has started, every request is a negotiation.
Will the adaptations be ready when you move in?
Often not, so plan for that. In England the main help is a Disabled Facilities Grant from the council. According to the GOV.UK guide to Disabled Facilities Grants, it can pay for things like ramps, wider doors, a stairlift or a level-access shower, and at the time of writing it is worth up to £30,000 in England, £36,000 in Wales and £25,000 in Northern Ireland. It is not available in Scotland, where there is separate support.
Three rules in that guide shape the timing of a move:
- The disabled person must intend to live in the property for the grant period, which is usually 5 years.
- You might not get any grant if work starts before the council approves the application.
- The council has up to 6 months to make a decision.
It is also means tested on household income and savings over £6,000, except for disabled children under 18, whose parents' income is not counted.
So a level-access shower you need on the first night will rarely be fitted by then. Decide early whether to stay put until the work is done or to move in stages. Say the new two-bedroom flat needs its bathroom converted into a wet room, and the builder needs three weeks after you get the keys. The bedroom, kitchen and living room go in on move day; everything else waits in our secure storage, which is charged by the week with no minimum term, and comes back room by room as each one is finished.
What to tell the removals company
The person who takes your call may not be on the van, so put these points in writing when you accept the quote:
- Which room has to be ready first, and what has to be in it.
- Whether you need a room kept free of boxes so you can rest.
- Times a carer visits, so the van is not blocking the drive at 12:00 when they arrive.
- Equipment that is moving with you, with makes and weights where you have them.
- Who can make decisions on the day if you are not at the property.
For larger homes we offer a free video or in-person survey before fixing the price. A video survey suits many people with limited mobility: someone walks the rooms with the phone while you stay in one chair and answer the questions.
Here is who else usually needs to hear about the move, and when:
| Who | What they need to know | When |
|---|---|---|
| Removals company | Access at both ends, the first room, carer visit times, equipment | When you ask for the quote |
| Council or NHS equipment service | That you are moving, and whether it is to another borough | As soon as you have a date |
| Care agency or personal assistants | New address, move date, whether visits pause or move | Two to three weeks before |
| Energy supplier and network operator | Priority Services Register at the new address | Before move day |
| New council | Council Tax, and any reduction you qualify for | The week you move |
Equipment, medication and what stays off the van
A van is unloaded in reverse order, so the one thing you need at 15:00 is usually behind a wardrobe. Pack a bag that travels with you in the car instead. It should hold your medication for several days along with the repeat prescription slips, chargers for a powered wheelchair, scooter, hearing aids and phone, any continence supplies, the walking aid you use indoors, and a change of clothes. If you use a mobility scooter or powered chair, charge it fully the night before.
Equipment on loan is a separate question. A hospital bed, hoist, commode or shower chair from the council or the NHS belongs to that service, not to you. Call them as soon as you have a date. If you are moving borough, the service at the new address may need to assess you and supply its own, so do not assume loaned equipment can go on the van.
Anything fixed to the building, such as a stairlift or a ceiling hoist track, is for whoever owns or installed it to deal with. Our crews do not unbolt adaptations.
Your own furniture is different. Standard beds, wardrobes and tables are taken apart and rebuilt as part of our house removals service. An electric profiling bed or a riser recliner is not standard furniture, so give us the make and model when you ask for a quote and we will confirm how it will be handled before the day. If the move is into a care home, our guide on moving an elderly parent covers the home's own furniture rules.
Plan the day around your energy
A normal move squeezes packing, loading and unloading into one long day. If fatigue or pain sets your limits, spreading the work out costs a little more and makes the move far easier to live through.
A pattern that works well: our packing team comes the day before and labels every box with its contents and the room it is going to. Move day is then just loading, the drive and unloading. Unpacking can be added, so the kitchen and bedroom are set up before the crew leaves.
On the day, ask for one room to be finished first. For most people that is the bedroom: the bed rebuilt before anything else, the bedside table beside it, a lamp plugged in. Furniture and boxes go into named rooms as part of the move, so put a sign on each door. Next comes a clear route from the bed to the bathroom, with no boxes in the hallway and no rug corner turned up.
You do not have to be in the house all day. Someone you trust can stay at the old address to answer the crew's questions while you go to the new home once the bedroom is done.
Start early if you can. An 08:00 start usually has the heavy work done by mid-afternoon, leaving the evening for rest. Our moving day timeline shows how a typical London day runs, hour by hour.
Parking, the Blue Badge and the removal van
A Blue Badge cannot be used to park a removal van, even outside the badge holder's own home.
The government's Blue Badge rights and responsibilities guidance says the badge may only be displayed if the holder is travelling in the vehicle, or if someone is picking them up or dropping them off. Lending it so someone else can park is misuse, and the guidance warns it could lead to a £1,000 fine and the badge being taken away.
Your own car is another matter. With you in it, the guidance allows badge holders to park on single or double yellow lines for up to 3 hours in most places, with the badge and the blue parking clock displayed; it lists the exceptions. The scheme does not fully apply in four central London areas: the City of Westminster, the City of London, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and part of Camden, which run their own concessions instead.
The van needs its own space close to the door, so if there is no reliable space outside either address, apply for a bay to be suspended. We can make the application for you as an optional extra, and our guide to getting a parking suspension for moving day explains how the process works in London.
Three things to transfer after the move
Some support is attached to your address rather than to you, so it does not move automatically.
Council Tax reduction for disabled people
If the new home has an extra bathroom, kitchen or other room needed for a disabled person, or extra space inside for using a wheelchair, you may qualify for the Disabled Band Reduction Scheme. According to GOV.UK's Council Tax page for disabled people, the bill drops to the next band down, so Band D is charged at the Band C rate, and homes already in Band A get 17% off instead. A reduction at the old address does not carry over. Apply to the new council when you set up the account.
The Priority Services Register
Energy suppliers and electricity network operators each keep a Priority Services Register. Ofgem's page on the register lists what it can give you, including priority support in an emergency, advance notice of planned power cuts where possible, a password scheme for callers, and bills in large print or braille. If you switch supplier you have to ask to join again, and a new address normally means a new account, so ask the supplier at the new home and the network operator too. Ask your water company about its own list as well.
Benefits, GP and prescriptions
Tell the offices that pay any benefits about the new address, register with a local GP, and move repeat prescriptions to a pharmacy that can reach you. Do the pharmacy first: a missed delivery in moving week is hard to fix quickly.
In short
Get the new home right before you set the date, and allow for adaptations taking months, because a Disabled Facilities Grant must be approved before work starts. Tell the removals company in writing which room comes first, when carers visit and what equipment is moving. Keep medication and chargers in your own car, and spread the move over two days if you can. The van cannot use your Blue Badge, so book a parking suspension, then reapply for Council Tax reductions and the Priority Services Register at the new address.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to be at the property on moving day?
No. Someone you trust can be there instead, as long as they can answer the crew's questions and make decisions. Give us their name and number in advance. Many people prefer to wait at the new home once the bedroom is ready, or spend the day with family and arrive when the heavy work is done.
Can I get a grant to adapt a new home before moving in?
Possibly, but plan for it to take time. You apply for a Disabled Facilities Grant as the owner, tenant or landlord, and the disabled person must intend to live there for the grant period, usually 5 years. The council has up to 6 months to decide, and starting work before approval can mean no grant at all. Ask the new council early.
Can the removal van park using my Blue Badge?
No. The badge can only be displayed when the holder is travelling in the vehicle or being picked up or dropped off. Using it for a removal van is misuse, and GOV.UK warns it could lead to a £1,000 fine. Book a parking suspension for the van instead, and use the badge for your own car.
What if my health is bad on the day we booked?
Tell us as soon as you know. Under our terms, changing the date more than 7 days before the move is free and the deposit is refunded. Closer to the day the deposit may be kept, so if your condition is unpredictable, book a date with some slack around it and keep a back-up plan for who can be at the property.
If you want to talk through access, equipment or timing before anything is booked, call us or ask for a quote with as much detail as you can. We will suggest how to split the work across the days and whether storage would help the adaptations fit around the move.