Anyone can put a van on a driveway and a phone number on a website. The checks below take about ten minutes and they apply to us as much as to anyone else — so our own answers are on this page, and you should hold us to them.

1. Ask for the waste carrier registration — and check it

This is the one that can actually cost you money, and almost nobody knows about it.

If you are having a property cleared and the waste from it ends up fly-tipped, the liability can come back to you as the person who handed it over. It does not matter that you paid someone to take it away. "I paid a man with a van" is not a defence.

Every firm that carries waste commercially must be registered with the Environment Agency, and the register is public. Ask for the number, then look it up.

Ours is CBDU574812, held by Nabosh Logistics Ltd.

If a firm cannot give you a registration number, do not use them for a clearance. That is not a close call.

2. Ask what insurance they carry, and for evidence

Two figures matter, and they cover different things:

Public liability — damage to property and third parties. This is what a managing agent or a commercial landlord will ask for before letting a van near their building.
Goods in transit — your belongings while they are on the van.

Ask for both figures and ask for evidence. A firm that carries cover will have the documents to hand and no reason not to send them.

Ours are £5 million public liability and £20,000 goods in transit, and we will provide evidence of either on request.

Worth knowing either way: cash, jewellery, passports and documents sit outside standard goods in transit cover with any firm. Those travel with you.

3. Ask what happens if the completion is delayed

This question tells you more about a removals firm than any other, because it is where the money and the goodwill actually meet.

What you want to know:

Is there a waiting charge, and when does it start?
On a fixed price, does the crew take another job that day?
What happens if the keys never arrive at all?

A firm that has thought about it will have a clear answer, including an unglamorous one about charges. A firm that says "it'll be fine" has not.

Our answer: on a fixed-price booking we wait, with no clock and no charge, because the crew has taken no other job. On an hourly booking the first 30 minutes are included and waiting is charged after that. If a delay runs long enough that finishing safely is not realistic, we arrange secure overnight storage and deliver the next day at a discounted rate.

4. Ask what is actually included

"Removals" covers a wide range of service levels. Get specific:

Blankets, straps, trolleys — included or extra?
Floor protection, shoe covers?
Dismantling and reassembly — automatic, or does it need requesting?
Appliance disconnection?
Will they place things in the right rooms, or is it a doorstep drop?

The last one catches people out more than anything else on the list.

5. Ask how they record the condition of your things

If something is damaged, the argument is almost always about when it happened. A firm with a photographic record of the items, the access routes and both properties before, during and after the move can settle that in minutes. A firm without one is relying on everybody's memory, which is where disputes come from.

We photograph all of it as standard, and it protects you at least as much as it protects us.

The quiet one: get it in writing

A quote, a description of what it covers, the deposit terms and what happens if things change. Ours is a 30% deposit to secure the date with the balance due on completion, and changes are free with at least 48 hours' notice.

None of this is exotic. It is just the set of questions that a good firm can answer immediately and a bad one cannot — which is exactly why it is worth asking.