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Can anyone tell me the typical UK cost to move a 4'6" grand. Ground floor to ground floor with houses 5 miles apart? My daughter has bought a house where the previous owner left it until he could sell it. He has failed to do so despite repeated requests. I suspect it is because the piano is not worth paying for the move. I inspected it and there is structural damage possibly caused by it being dropped. She is saving to buy a grand but she will not consider buying this one even if it was at zero cost.

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Moving costs

Colin,
Thanks that is the information she needs.
Ian

Isn't it possible to place an advertisement somewhere? There was an advertisement for the piano I have now, it said something like, this piano is going to the junkyard on the first of May. If you want to have it for free you have to pick it up before the first of may.

Piano bonfires are fun. You get to smash away with a sledge hammer and hear things crack and shatter (wear appropriate protective gear of course, as well as remove the lead from the keys), and all that old dry wood burns like crazy...loads of fun!

Peter Grey Piano Doctor

Around here (Surrey), you'd be looking at about £250 for a ground floor move of that distance, or £150 to dump the piano.

Or you can turn it into a grand piano bookshelf.

Just put it in the garden with flower pots and a garden ornament on it on it. If Its wood it should be OK. I do not know what happens to a cabinet made of MDF when its left outside though?

It sounds like the previous owner probably tried unsuccessfully to sell it, and essentially abandoned it. As you probably know, stories come up here from time to time about former owners leaving pianos behind. As you noted, they can reach the point at which they aren't even worth the cost of moving, even though many people assume that they're valuable.

Even buyers coming to look could be a nuisance, since it's not her piano, but I'm guessing that there haven't be many, if any.

Someone handy with tools could probably break it down and dispose of it piece-by-piece, but the frustration might be worse than paying for disposal.

Too bad it's not a piano worth having.

Perhaps she could threaten the previous owner with a law suit if he doesn't remove his piano. ???

Sounds like he took advantage of her. Cost of removal should have been written into the P&S in case this happened.

Peter Grey Piano Doctor

A similar thing happened when we bought our house. The previous owners had a printing business in the house and had some big machine in the lower level. They promised they'd move it but we had the lawyer add $1000 to the closing documents so if it wasn't gone when we closed there would be $1000 deducted from sale price of house. They ended up leaving it and we had to pay to have it removed, fortunately it was a bit less than $1000 but not much. The documentation also helped "legalize" that they forfeited it, so we didn't have to worry about them showing up a month later and claiming we owe them a machine.

That is up to the owner not my daughter. Also if it is advertised as free buyers might suspect it is not worth paying, e.g. £200-300 to have it moved.

I would be so angry at a certain moment that I would send a message to the owner that from now on he has to pay 500 dollar a month for storage of the piano and he can expect the first bill next week.

I wouldn't move the piano because the owner might say that there was no damage before moving it. If you decide to move it, take a lot of pictures of the piano before that.

Time for a "friendly" letter from an attorney. Amazing what that alone can accomplish.

Peter Grey Piano Doctor

This is what I was thinking too. If you dispose of it, the owner could claim you stole or gave away his "valuable" piano.

Yes, some caution needed. I once had a piano in for refinishing and waited for the deposit. It never came and months went passed. Then a relative of the client advised me that he never paid anyone so after several months I had to write a very careful letter advising him that he was effectively using us as free storage and that he had 28 days to collect it or pay. The wording had to be just so and the letter had to be sent recorded delivery. He never replied so we disposed of it in due course. It only cost us our solicitor fees and wasted time!

Yes, he used you as his disposal service. Cute...

Peter Grey Piano Doctor