Shopping

Moving home

Conveyancing
Always ask for a fixed fee so that you don’t end up with extra payments for every phone call made.

Bruce M Lewin
(020 8446 4000/lawyers@sylvan.co.uk).

Green Williamson Solicitors
(01924 291400).

Law Society Helpline
Will put you in touch with a solicitor in your area.
(0870 606 6575/ www.solicitors-online.com/ www.shop4law.co.uk).
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Margaret James
Frighteningly efficient, but also sympathetic to the housebuyer’s plight Offers fixed fee to help you budget.
11 Eccleston Square, SW1 (020 7834 3447).

Martin Elliot & Co
11 Church St, Colchester CO1 1NF (01206 767112).

Estate agents
www.edingtons.co.uk
This website has a detailed questionnaire which enables the company’s searchers to find a closely matching property for you if you don’t have time to look yourself. It will then try to negotiate good prices on your behalf.
(020 8875 1022/ 07703 532955).

www.findaproperty.co.uk
Sources estate agents and properties.

www.hotproperty.co.uk
Search for properties by postcode.

www.primelocation.com
As well as a big search engine for properties in the UK and abroad, this site offers advice on many aspects of buying homes.

www.sell4less.co.uk
This site aims to cut out the middle man, photographing, valuing and advertising your home for a one-off payment of £99. A vast saving on estate agents’ commission fees.

House doctoring
Homestagers
This company specialises in TV makeover-style home treatments, with a view to getting a speedy sale.
(0800 542 8952/ www.homestagers.co.uk).

Mortgage brokers
www.theadvisory.co.uk
Compiled over the past 18 months, this site offers impartial and well researched advice on a wide spectrum of property-related themes, ranging from tips on home staging to where to find the
best mortgage.

Baigrie Davies & Co Ltd
Ammo Kambo does a great job not only of outlining and explaining the mortgage options available but also negotiating an improved rate once you’ve decided upon the best choice for you.
25 City Rd, EC1 (020 7786 2000).

David Quinn at Charcol
Says one happy customer: ‘My mortgage advisor… and so nice. I’d be living in a box on the Strand without him.’
Direct line 020 7611 7727/ www.charcol.co.uk/ email dvq@charcol.co.uk).

Mortgages and money management
Broker Simon Muir can find you a better deal on not only a mortgage but life, building and contents insurance.
(01920 821333).

Post redirection
www.iammoving.com
Informs, for free, a personal list of companies such as utilities of your new address.

Post Office
Will redirect your mail from the UK to any address in the UK or overseas – priced from £7.10 for redirection to a UK address for one month.
(0845 722 3344/ www.postoffice.co.uk).

Removals
Dulwich Removals
Heartily recommended.
Railway Arch 884, Rosendale Rd, SE24 (020 8678 1774).

Fast Forward
A Time Out favourite, happy to take on a job at very short notice.
(020 8888 1050).

Movers Not Shakers
Caters for all sizes of job, from a simple ‘man-in-a-van’ service from £35 an hour to packing up your entire house contents and transporting them to your new home. Will travel not just to new cities but other countries, and there’s no grumbling at the prospect of four flights of stairs either.
(020 7630 9005/ www.moversnotshakers.co.uk).

Shirley’s Removals
Originally specialising in moving house for the gay community, this small but well-run company promises to treat
your possessions with care, and to move them swiftly.
(020 7254 5580).

Surveyors Countrywide
(0870 600 1500/ www.cwsurveyors.co.uk).

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors
Can put you in touch with a reliable and certified surveyor.
(www.rics.org).