Most people approach a survey as a formality, or occasionally as a test they might fail. Neither is right. It is closer to a site visit, and the more accurately it reflects your house, the more likely the price you are given is the price you pay.
What follows covers what the surveyor is actually assessing, the things worth mentioning without being asked, and why the whole exercise protects you rather than the firm.
Volume, and Why Your Own Estimate Will Be Low
Ask someone to describe their home and they will mentally walk from the living room to the kitchen to the bedrooms. That tour stops at the internal doors, and the difficult volume is on the other side of them.
The surveyor is not relying on your figure. They are counting furniture, judging how many cartons each room will produce, and quietly adding the spaces you have not mentioned. If your own estimate turns out low, that is expected rather than embarrassing.
Worth knowing for context: a three-seat sofa is roughly two cubic metres, a double wardrobe around one and a half, and about ten medium cartons stack into a single cubic metre. Our guide to what size removal van you need sets out the vehicle capacities, and how many boxes you need covers carton counts by property size.
Access, Which Matters More Than People Expect
This is the part of the survey that customers consistently underestimate, and it is where a video call is weakest unless you deliberately show it.
Where the van can stop. Every metre between the vehicle and the door is walked repeatedly across a whole day. A van outside the property is a different job from one parked round the corner.
Stairs, and their shape. Not just how many flights, but the turns. A half landing with a tight turn stops more furniture than a narrow doorway does, and it is the single most common reason something will not go up.
Lift dimensions where there is a lift. A lift helps only if the furniture fits in it. Measuring the internal dimensions beats assuming.
The far end, in the same detail. Half a survey is about the property you are leaving. The other half is about the one you are arriving at, which you may have seen once, briefly, months ago.
Thinking about your own move?
Send us both addresses and your date. You will get a fixed written quote, usually within one working day, and an honest answer about whether your date is a busy one.
What Edinburgh Access Looks Like Specifically
The stair is the main event. Traditional tenement stairs are stone, they turn, and the turn is usually where a sofa or a wardrobe stops. Surveyors look at the half landing rather than the front door, because that is what decides it.
Parking often needs arranging. Much of central Edinburgh is controlled, and a removals vehicle frequently needs a dispensation or a suspended bay organised in advance. That is a lead-time job, which is another argument for surveying early.
Some streets simply will not take a large vehicle. New Town setts, narrow lanes and restricted access mean a shuttle from a smaller van is occasionally the only workable approach, and that has to be planned rather than discovered.
Common stairs are shared. Blocking a close for hours affects neighbours, and it is worth a conversation beforehand as well as a note in the survey.
The Things Worth Mentioning Without Being Asked
The loft, the cellar and anything under the stairs. These are the classic omissions, and the loft in particular is often still full when the survey happens.
Anything in storage elsewhere. A unit across town holding furniture is part of your move even though it is not in your house.
Items that need dismantling. Beds, wardrobes, some flat-pack. Routine work, but work that takes time.
Unusually heavy things. Pianos, safes, gym equipment, large tool collections, substantial book collections. Weight limits on a vehicle are legal rather than flexible, and a van can reach its payload while looking half empty.
Fragile or high-value items. Anything needing crating, specialist wrapping or separate insurance is better identified now than on the morning.
Timing constraints. A block that only permits moves between certain hours, a shared lift needing booking, a school run that has to happen mid-morning.
What is not coming. Just as useful as what is. Furniture being sold or left for the buyer should come off the list rather than being assumed.
In Person or by Video
Practical advice for a video survey: walk it slowly, open cupboard doors on camera, go into the loft space if you safely can, show the garden and any shed, and go outside to show the street and where a van might park.
An in-person survey is worth requesting where the property is unusual, where there is a great deal of high-value or fragile content, or where access is genuinely complicated, which in Edinburgh often means a traditional stair.
Either way, the survey is also your opportunity to ask questions. What is the waiting time policy if settlement runs late. What happens if the date shifts. What is covered and what is not. Our guide to removals insurance covers the cover question in detail.
Why the Scottish Timetable Helps
That last part is the real benefit. A survey that identifies a wardrobe which will not clear the stair is useful information at six weeks and a problem at six days. The same applies to parking dispensations, which take time to arrange, and to any decision to reduce the volume.
Buyers in England frequently cannot commit until contracts exchange, which compresses everything into a fortnight. There is no reason to work that way here, and yet plenty of households do, because they wait for certainty they already have.
Our guide on how far ahead to book a removal company in Scotland covers the wider timeline.
How to Prepare for the Survey Itself
Do not tidy for it. This feels counterintuitive and it is the most useful advice here. A house tidied for a survey conceals exactly the quantity the surveyor needs to see, and the volume does not shrink because the boxes were hidden. Show the house as it lives.
Unlock everything. The shed, the garage, the cellar, the loft hatch. A space nobody can see is a space that gets estimated rather than counted.
Decide what is being sold or left. If the buyer is taking the wardrobes and the dining table is going on a local selling site, say so. It comes off the volume and reduces the price.
Have the new address details to hand. Floor number, whether there is a lift, what parking looks like, and any building rules about move times. Photographs of the new place help enormously if you have them.
Write your questions down beforehand. Surveys move quickly and people remember the important question after the surveyor has left.
What the Written Quote Should Contain
Read it against what you actually discussed, and query anything missing rather than assuming it is covered.
The volume assessed. This is the basis of everything else, and it should be stated rather than implied.
Crew size and vehicle. How many people, how many vehicles, and roughly how long the job is expected to take.
What packing is included. Full, partial, fragile-only or none. This is the most common source of confusion between customer and firm.
Dismantling and reassembly. Which items, at which end, and whether rebuilding is included or priced separately.
Materials. Whether cartons, wrapping and covers are included in the figure or charged in addition.
Waiting time and cut-off arrangements. Particularly relevant on a Scottish date of entry, where the hour keys arrive is outside everybody’s control.
What is excluded. Paint, chemicals, gas cylinders, fuel and pets are standard exclusions across the industry, and there may be others specific to your job.
If two quotes differ substantially, the explanation is almost always in this detail rather than in the headline figure. Comparing a fully inclusive quote against a bare transport price is not comparing like with like.
If Something Changes After the Survey
Moves change. A sale falls through and the date shifts, or a relative asks you to take a piece of furniture, or the loft gets cleared after all and there is considerably less than expected.
Tell the firm when it happens rather than on the morning. Volume going up may need a larger vehicle or an extra crew member, and that is arrangeable with notice and awkward without it. Volume going down should reduce the price, and it will not do so on its own.
The same applies to access. If you discover the new building requires moves to happen before a certain hour, or that the lift is out of service, that is information the firm needs while it can still be planned around.
What a Survey Protects You From
It is reasonable to wonder whether a survey exists to talk the price up. It does the opposite, and the reason is straightforward.
A quote built on an inaccurate estimate is not a cheaper move. It is a number that changes on the day, when your options have narrowed to whatever is in front of you. A second trip, an overloaded vehicle, a job that runs past the crew’s cut-off, or somebody deciding in an empty hallway what stays behind.
An accurate survey removes that category of surprise. If the resulting figure is higher than you hoped, that is information you can act on now, by reducing volume, adjusting the service or comparing firms on a like-for-like basis. All of which are options that exist at six weeks and not at six hours.
How Edinburgh Moving Surveys
We survey in person or by video, and we ask about lofts, cellars, sheds and anything already in storage, because those are the four that move the number most.
We look hard at access at both ends, particularly the stair, because in this city that is where the day is won or lost. Where parking needs a dispensation, that is better identified at survey stage than on your date of entry.
Our packing services also remove most of the volume uncertainty, since a crew packing a kitchen knows exactly what came out of it. House removals cover the move, storage covers a gap between dates, and further guides sit in our Edinburgh moving guides.
Common Questions About Removals Surveys
What is a removals surveyor actually assessing?
Two things principally: how much there is, and how difficult it will be to move. Volume covers furniture and the cartons your cupboards will produce. Access covers carrying distance, stairs, lift dimensions and parking at both properties, and it affects the price at least as much as volume.
Is a video survey good enough?
For most homes yes, provided you show the whole property rather than the tidy parts. Open cupboards on camera, show the loft and any shed, and step outside to show where a van could park. A video survey is only as accurate as what you point the camera at.
What do people most often forget to mention?
The loft, the cellar, anything in storage elsewhere, and anything unusually heavy such as a piano, a safe or a large book collection. Also worth raising is what is not coming, since furniture being sold or left behind should come off the list rather than being assumed.
Why does access affect the price so much?
Because time is the second half of every quote, and access decides time. Every metre between van and door is walked repeatedly across a day, and a tenement stair with a tight half landing slows everything considerably compared with a house you can walk straight into.
When should I arrange a survey in Scotland?
As soon as your date of entry is agreed, and earlier if you can. The advantage of a fixed date weeks ahead is time to act on whatever the survey finds, whether that is arranging a parking dispensation, reducing volume or solving a piece of furniture that will not clear the stair.
Will a survey push the price up?
It produces an accurate price, which is not the same thing. A low quote based on a low estimate simply changes on the day, when nothing can be done about it. A figure you dislike at six weeks is something you can still act on.
Should I get more than one survey?
Two or three is sensible, and it is the only way to compare firms meaningfully. Make sure each one has seen the same spaces, because a quote based on a house without its loft is not comparable to one that includes it. Differences usually sit in what is included rather than in the headline number.
Does a survey cost anything?
Pre-move surveys are normally provided as part of quoting rather than charged for, though it is worth confirming when you book one. Note that this is entirely separate from a property survey for your purchase, which is a different exercise carried out by a different profession.
This describes typical Scottish practice as at 11 August 2026. Parking dispensations, permit requirements and building access rules are set locally and change; check with the council and, for flats, with the factor or building manager.
