A move into an apartment or townhouse complex has a second set of rules running alongside your own plan, and they are not negotiable by you, your mover, or the person on the desk in the lobby. They are set by the building.
The good news is that they are almost always knowable weeks ahead, and there are only five of them. The bad news is what happens if you find out on the morning: a crew standing in a loading bay with a truck, and a service lift nobody will release.
The five things a building usually wants
Nearly every strata or building-managed complex draws from the same short list:
- A certificate of insurance from the moving company, naming the building.
- An elevator or service-lift reservation, booked in advance for a specific block of time.
- A move window — the days and hours during which moves are permitted at all.
- A move-in fee, sometimes. Some buildings charge nothing; others do, and it is set in the bylaws.
- A refundable damage deposit, sometimes, released after an inspection.
Which of these apply, and in what form, is decided by the bylaws of your specific building. Two towers on the same street can differ. Ask; do not assume, and do not rely on what a neighbour did three years ago.
The certificate of insurance, and who sends it
A certificate of insurance is a single page issued by the mover's insurer. It does three things: it names the strata corporation or building owner as an additional insured for the date of the move, it states the liability limits carried on the moving policy, and it confirms which company is doing the work and when.
Buildings ask for it because their own exposure sits in the lift car, the lobby floor and the corridor walls. Most will not release a service-lift booking without it.
Two practical points. First, this is a document that goes from your mover to your building manager, usually several days ahead — you should not be forwarding PDFs between two strangers. Ask your mover to send it direct, and ask the building where it should go. Second, check the limits the building requires against what the certificate states. Some buildings specify a minimum, and a certificate that does not meet it will come back.
Booking the elevator
Where there is a service lift, there is almost always a reservation system, and it is generally first come.
A reservation typically covers a defined block of a few hours, includes the building padding out the lift car beforehand, and sometimes puts a member of building staff or security on the floor while you are working.
The sequence is unremarkable:
- Tell the manager your date and roughly when you expect to start and finish.
- Ask what they need from you — certificate, fee, deposit, forms.
- Send those things.
- Get the reservation confirmed back, in writing.
If the job is large, or a piano is involved, ask about a longer block at the point of booking rather than discovering the limit halfway through the load. Many buildings will accommodate an unusual move if they are asked in advance and told why.
Move windows, and why they beat your crew's availability
This is the constraint people underestimate.
Most buildings restrict moves to weekday daytime hours. Some allow a weekend morning. Very few permit evenings, and statutory holidays are usually out entirely. The exact window is in the bylaws.
The order of operations matters here: find your building's permitted window first, then book the crew into it. Doing it the other way round is how people end up holding a confirmed truck for a day their building will not open the lift. Your mover's availability is not the binding constraint — the bylaw is.
If both ends are in managed buildings, you are solving for the overlap of two windows, and that overlap can be narrow. Start earlier.
Move fees and damage deposits
Where a move-in fee exists, it is paid by the resident to the building, not by the moving company, and it is separate from the moving bill entirely. It generally covers the lift padding going up and coming down, staff time, any common-area cleaning, and the administration. The amount is whatever your bylaws say it is — ask, and ask whether it is charged on the way in, the way out, or both.
A damage deposit, where one is held, is a refundable hold against damage to common property. It is returned after building staff have looked at the lift, the lobby and the corridor, typically some weeks after the move. If a wall or a lift panel was marked, the repair comes out of it.
The way to get the whole deposit back is unglamorous: wall protection panels up before anything moves, floor runners down on the route, and a crew that treats the lift interior as part of the job. Buildings notice which movers do this, which is why some of them keep informal lists.
Newer buildings, older buildings, townhouses
The requirements cluster by vintage more than by anything else.
Newer buildings tend to have the process formalised — a standard certificate template, fees published in the bylaws, an online booking system for the lift, and strict weekday-only windows. Everything is knowable in advance, and nothing is flexible.
Older buildings tend to be less formal — a certificate requested by phone, variable or no fees, a booking made by leaving a message, and occasionally a Saturday morning if you ask. Get whatever you are told in writing anyway, because informal is not the same as agreed.
Townhouse complexes are usually the lightest: often no certificate, often no fee, no lift to book. What they do have is parking. Where the truck can legally sit, how far the carry is from there, and whether visitor parking can be reserved for the day are the questions that decide the shape of a townhouse move.
Pianos and oversized items in a building
Two extra checks before the date is held.
The certificate needs to cover the item. Plenty of general policies exclude pianos, safes and fine art, and a building will not care about the distinction until something has happened.
And the lift has to physically take it. The interior dimension that matters is the longest available diagonal with the piece in every orientation it can be presented in — not the door width. That is a measurement someone should take before the booking, not on the day. Where the car does not take it, the answer is a different plan entirely, which is worth knowing early. The same applies to anything on the specialty and heavy list.
The email to send your strata manager
Send this a few weeks out and most of the risk in the move disappears:
- Your move date and the rough window you are aiming for.
- Does the moving company send the certificate of insurance directly, and to which address?
- Are there minimum coverage limits the certificate has to meet?
- Is there a move-in fee, how much, and how is it paid?
- Is there a damage deposit, how much, and when is it released?
- How is the elevator booked, and is that block confirmed in writing?
- What days and hours are moves permitted?
- Any other bylaws affecting the day — parking, loading bay access, quiet hours, holidays.
The reply is your actual move plan. Forward the certificate request to your mover, put the permitted window in front of whoever is booking the crew, and the day becomes logistics rather than negotiation.
Tell us the building and the address along with the rest of the route and we will handle the certificate and the timing with the manager directly. Start your move brief at /quote, or see the residential service for what the move itself covers.