Moving to an apartment

In a house move, the furniture is the job. In an apartment move, the building is. There is a loading dock or a visitor bay, a lift with its own booking rules, corridors with tight turns and a front door that may be narrower than the sofa. Every one of those is decided by people other than you and your removalist, so the earlier you start asking, the smoother the day.

This guide walks through an apartment move in order, from the questions to ask before you sign or settle to the cartons on the first night. It applies whether you are moving into an apartment from a house, between two apartments or out of a unit into a home. For how we run apartment moves, see our apartment removals page.

Most apartment buildings have rules about moving, and they differ from one building to the next. If your building is run by a body corporate, its by-laws regulate how owners and occupiers use the common property, such as driveways and car parks. Renters are included: tenants must comply with the by-laws and should be given a copy when their lease starts.

Ask building management or the body corporate these questions as soon as you can, at both addresses:

• Which days and hours are removals allowed?
• How do lift bookings work, and how long can the lift be booked for?
• Does the lift need protective padding, and does the building supply it?
• Where can a removal truck park, and what is the height clearance of the loading dock or basement?
• Is a bond, deposit or building representative needed on the day?

Never assume the rules at your new address match the old one.

Furniture that suited a house can overwhelm an apartment, and a sofa that fits the living room can still fail at the lift. Two measuring jobs save a lot of trouble on the day.

Measure the rooms

Get the floor plan of the new apartment and measure the rooms you are furnishing. Then measure your largest pieces: sofas, wardrobes, beds, dining tables and the fridge. Decide what goes where before moving day, not in the lift lobby.

Measure the route

Measure the lift door and cabin, the corridors and any tight turns, the front door and internal doorways. A long item can sometimes travel standing on end, so compare a sofa's length with the cabin's height and diagonal, not just its depth.

Where a piece won't fit, there are three options. We can dismantle it if it is designed to come apart. It can be assessed for hoisting, charged at $48 including GST per item and subject to the item's weight, the access, the building's permission and safe equipment capability. Or it can go somewhere else: into storage, to a family member, or away with junk removal.

As the resident, you arrange lift bookings, loading-zone or dock access and any parking permits with building management. A month out is the time to lock them in.

• Book the lift at both buildings. Ask for the longest booking the building allows on your moving day.
• Get each booking in writing. Then share the times with us when you confirm the date. Your lift window shapes the crew size, the start time and the order in which rooms are loaded.
• Plan where the truck will stand. A basement height limit can rule out a removal truck, which means it may need a visitor bay, a loading zone or the street. If the truck cannot use the building's driveway, an inaccessible-driveway charge of $48 including GST applies.
• Organise permits. Any parking or permit costs form part of the move cost.
• Book the extras. If you want packing or unpacking, book them now.

With a set lift booking, every minute the crew spends waiting for a carton to be taped is a minute of the booking gone. Packing for an apartment move is about being ready to roll.

• Finish packing the day before. Everything except the essentials should be packed, sealed and labelled before the crew arrives.
• Use the right carton. Heavy contents such as books go in small cartons; linen and cushions in large ones. Easy-to-lift cartons load faster.
• Label for the new floor plan. Write the destination room on the top and one side of each carton.
• Stage near the door. Stack packed cartons close to the front door, heaviest at the bottom, with the walkway clear.
• Keep an essentials bag. Keys, access fobs, documents, medication, chargers and the first night's things travel with you.

If your lift window is short and your inventory is large, additional movers are available, which can help fit the move into the time you have. The crew size and any extra charges are confirmed before booking.

On the day, the lift is the bottleneck. A few things keep it moving:

• Confirm the booking that morning. If a lift booking at either building falls through and delivery cannot be completed in a timely manner, waiting time is chargeable.
• Have someone at each end. One person handing over at the old apartment and one directing at the new one, with access fobs and keys ready.
• Walk the crew through first. Show what is moving, what is staying, the fragile pieces and any existing damage.
• Protect the building. Our crews wrap each piece in blankets and stretch wrap before it leaves the apartment, and trolleys keep heavy items off lobby and corridor floors. If your building requires a particular form of lift protection, tell us what it is and check whether the building supplies it.
• Beds first at the other end. Ask for beds to be reassembled first, so the first night is sorted whatever else is still in cartons.

Not every unit has a lift. Walk-up blocks, townhouses and split-level units put every carton on the stairs, which changes the crew and the time. Apartment stairs are charged at $48 including GST per flight, with every 10 steps counting as a flight, so count the flights at each address and tell us about any tight turns when you request a quote.

Townhouse complexes bring their own details: internal roads, gate codes, visitor parking rules and sometimes a narrow path between the parking area and the front door. Photos of the approach help us plan around them.

The first week in an apartment has a few jobs a house doesn't.

• The cartons. Shared bins fill quickly, and a building may not welcome a stack of flattened boxes in the bin room. Our unpacking service includes taking away the used cartons and packing materials. Doing it yourself? Brisbane City Council's resource recovery centres take residential quantities of recycling free of charge, for vehicles under 4.5 tonnes.
• Moving out of a rental. Photograph each room once it is empty and clean. In Queensland, the exit condition report is compared with the entry condition report to decide whether the property is in the same condition, apart from fair wear and tear.
• Moving into a rental. Return the signed entry condition report within seven days, with dated photos of any existing marks or damage.
• Everything else. Mail redirection, utilities and your change of address. Our moving checklist has the full timeline.