They have a legitimate interest
Your front door is on their frontage. For the time you are moving, people cannot easily walk past, the pavement outside their window is full of furniture, and there is thumping directly above somebody serving customers.
That is a real cost to a small business on a street where people shop on impulse. They are entitled to mind about it, and the ones who mind most are usually the ones nobody warned.
What to say
Short, specific, in person if you can:
- Which day.
- Roughly when it will start and that you will be out of the way as soon as possible.
- That you will keep the frontage clear as much as you can.
- Ask whether there is a period that would be worse for them — and mean it.
Ask about the back
They will know whether the rear route is genuinely usable or whether it is their working space. That is a much more reliable answer than looking at it from the outside, and it is exactly the kind of thing they are pleased to be asked rather than presented with.
What it buys you
In our experience: somebody who moves their own A-board out of the way, keeps an eye on the boxes on the pavement, tells you when the traffic warden has been past, and does not ring the landlord.
That is a considerably better outcome than anything a removals firm can bring in a van.
We will do it if you would rather
Some people have a complicated relationship with the business downstairs, or would simply rather not. Say so and we will speak to them ourselves on the day before, which is nearly as good.