Insurance and liability
What will movers not transport?
The short answer
Hazardous and flammable materials, most perishables, and often plants and pets. Every company publishes a non-allowable list and they are broadly similar: anything that can ignite, corrode, explode, rot or escape. Ask for the list at the survey, not on the day, because several items on it are not obvious.
The usual categories
- Flammables and pressurised containers: fuel, propane tanks, aerosols, paint thinner, lighter fluid, some cleaning products.
- Corrosives and chemicals: pool chemicals, batteries, some fertilisers.
- Ammunition and, generally, firearms without specific arrangements.
- Perishable food, open containers, and anything frozen.
- Plants, which many movers decline and which some jurisdictions restrict at a border.
- Pets, which are never a moving company's job.
- Some movers also decline items of very high value unless specifically arranged.
Plan for disposal, not discovery
The garage and the shed are where this bites: half-used paint, garden chemicals, an old propane bottle, the fuel in the mower. Household hazardous waste disposal is a local service with its own rules and hours, and finding that out on moving day is too late. Empty the fuel from powered equipment before the move.
Ask whether plants are allowed both by the mover and at the destination. Several jurisdictions restrict plants, soil and produce crossing state or provincial borders, and it is a real inspection rather than a formality.
Also asked
Can movers take my safe?
Often yes, with notice, and it may be priced as a specialty item because of weight and handling. What they will not do is open it or take responsibility for contents they never saw, so empty it and carry the contents yourself.
General information about moving and about hiring, not advice about your move. Interstate household-goods moving within the United States is federally regulated; local, intrastate and Canadian moving is regulated by each state or province, and the rules differ. The authority for your move is the one to check.