What to do when forced to move house abruptly

The bulkiness or fragility of some items calls for specialised handling to ensure that they arrive in one piece. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Pack delicate and fragile items like TVs, fridges, glassware, among others, in boxes buttressed with pillows or blankets to protect from damaging shock.
  • Be careful when dealing with agents because some are wily and might force you to pay commitment fees, which forces you to live in a house for a certain minimum period even if you don’t like it and want to move out.

Moving house can be traumatising, as Ms Caroline Wangeci and her neighbours found after they were given a month’s notice to vacate their flats in Nakuru because the landlord wanted to change the rental units from residential to commercial use.

Although she was lucky to find another house a few blocks away, she felt uprooted from her comfort zone to a place where she was a complete stranger. “The shopkeeper around the corner or mama mboga across the street cannot extend you credit facilities like in your old place,” she says.

And the process of shifting can be challenging. Many people cannot afford the fees charged by professional moving companies and are, therefore, forced to hire lorries, pick-ups, donkey or hand carts, or to transport their belongings a few at a time using boda bodas.

Since such people are not professionals, and sometimes pile items haphazardly, they can damage a lot of your stuff. As Ms Wangeci notes, the bulkiness or fragility of some items calls for specialised handling to ensure that they arrive in one piece.

And since most people don’t insure household items, you might end up giving out or throwing away prized personal possessions damaged or broken on the way. Worse still, these small-time movers, who are usually hired through a verbal agreement, cannot be held liable for loss or damage to your belongings.

WATERPROOF WRAPPINGS

Mr David Kamau found this out the hard way. When moving, he piled his belongings on the back of an open-carrier pick-up. On the way to his new home, it started raining and everything was drenched. Some water-sensitive items ha not been secured with waterproof wrappings, and ended up getting damaged. His advice to anyone planning to move is to hire transport with a covered carrier, irrespective of the weather.

Mr Gaston Sisa, a real estate agent in Nakuru, says moving house can be challenging and attributes poor handling, bad roads and theft by the hired people for the damage or loss of items in transit. To minimise damages, he says, it is advisable to pack delicate and fragile items like TVs, fridges, glassware, among others, in boxes buttressed with pillows or blankets to protect from damaging shock.

“And always supervise the loading and offloading instead of entrusting your belongings to your transporter,” he adds. He further warns that you should be careful when dealing with agents because some are wily and might force you to pay commitment fees, which forces you to live in a house for a certain minimum period even if you don’t like it and want to move out.

“Some of these commitment fees can be exorbitant, forcing you to live in a house for, say three months,” he notes.