3 Steps to Take If Movers Damaged Your Walls

Hiring a moving company is one of the most effective ways to simplify a major relocation project. Sadly, however, this is only true when movers are competent, ethical, and committed to providing excellent service. Countless consumers have dealt with fraudulent movers who've overcharged them, damaged their furnishings, lost their personal items, and more.

If professional movers damaged walls in your home, you have the right to be reasonably compensated. Although you always have the option of filing a complaint with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association (FMCSA), doing so won't repair your walls or get your money back. The good news is that you can always count on DoNotPay to help you find and leverage the best possible recourse.

When to File a Complaint Against Movers

Even professionals make mistakes. However, if your movers caused structural damage in your former living environment or your new one, they should take steps to provide a mutual resolution. After all, this is what commercial insurance is for. You might be asking, "Does renter's insurance cover moving damage?". However, damages caused to your property by a company you've hired should be covered by this entity's own insurance policy.

It's important to give moving companies the opportunity to address the issue themselves. To do this, you'll need to report the damage. It's generally best to do a walk-through with movers before they start boxing your items up and loading cartons into their trucks. You can take photos as you do to create a record of your unblemished living environment. If your movers cannot or will not be present for this process, you can always do walk-throughs on your own. However, even if you failed to do a walk-through with or without your movers present, you can still file a claim.

When hiring anyone to complete work on your property, you should always verify their insurance. Many moving companies publish insurance certificates right on their websites. To do your due diligence, be sure to contact the issuing insurance companies as well. This way, you can verify the limits of this coverage and ensure that the company's policy or policies are still valid. Insurance certificates that are published online may represent policies that have lapsed due to non-payment or for other reasons.

As soon as you've identified wall damage caused by a mover you've hired:

1. Contact the moving company to report the damage
2. Request the contact information of their insurance company if you do not have it
3. File a detailed claim
4. Share details from your pre-service walk-through if you have it

There are several solid reasons for filing a complaint against a moving company that has caused structural damage in your home. You should definitely file a report if:

• Your moving company denies having caused property damages and refuses to take any other actions
• Your moving company refuses to share its insurance information
• Your moving company does not have insurance or if the policy that it had at the time of hire has lapsed or been voided

Other Reasons to File Complaints Against Movers

If you're looking at a gigantic hole in your wall, it may be difficult to imagine that there are worse things that unethical or negligent moving companies can do. However, there are many intentional and unintentional missteps that these companies can make including:

• Charging you more than the amount that you were quoted
• Claiming that your items weigh more than they actually do
• Breaking your furniture
• Losing or stealing your items
• Delaying delivery to increase your charges for interim storage

In each of these instances, you have the right to file a complaint with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). FMCSA accepts and processes complaints against moving companies, moving brokers, and auto transporters. Although submitting an FMCSA complaint won't solve your issue, it will increase the likelihood that the offending party is held accountable. Moving company complaints that are filed with the FMCSA are entered into the National Consumer Complaint Database. When companies are revealed as habitually violating federal regulations, the FMCSA will investigate them.

What to Do Before Filing a Complaint About Damaged Walls

It's always a good idea to make sure that your complaint is a legitimate one before you file it. Take the time to read through your service agreement or contract, and be sure to contact the company that's responsible for damaging your walls. If your mover readily shares their insurance information, you may not need to file a complaint at all. When movers are unresponsive, rude, or otherwise abusive, filing complaints is often the best choice.

Is Your Mover Being Difficult? Use DoNotPay to Take Them to Small Claims Court

Filing an FMCSAcomplaint is only one part of dealing with a difficult mover. After all, you paid for moving service as a way to make both your move and your life a little easier. Negligent and careless moving companies can cause consumers a tremendous amount of stress. If you're wondering how to send demand letters to a moving company and want to take action against a rude, unresponsive, or uninsured service provider, DoNotPay can help. With the DoNotPay Send Demand Letters To Now product, you can send demand letters to your movers in small claims court.

How to File a Complaint With the FMCSA When Movers Damaged Walls in Your Home

The FMCSA accepts complaints against moving companies online. To file a complaint, simply use the FMCSA's Online Complaint Tool. When doing so, be prepared to share the following details:

• Your name and contact information
• The name and contact information of the moving company you hired
• Your job number
• The origin address for your move
• The destination address for your move
• The nature of your complaint

If you have multiple complaints against a single company, you'll have the opportunity to select all of the allegations that apply before clicking submit.

FMCSA Contact Information

If you have questions about filing an FMCSA complaint, you can submit these by mail or by calling the FMSCA directly.

DoNotPay Can Help if Movers Damaged Walls When Performing Their Services

Whether you have yet to collect your items from your movers or you're still unpacking in your new home, you shouldn't have to deal with the stress and hassle of filing moving complaints on your own. The DoNotPay Moving Issues product provides a swift, seamless, and completely hassle-free solution.

How to file a complaint against a moving company that's damaged your walls using DoNotPay:

1. Search for moving issues on DoNotPay.

2. Start our Solve My Moving Issues product by telling us the name of the moving company you are having issues with.

3. Answer some questions about your specific move, your moving company, and the complaint for which you’d like relief.

DoNotPay will write a letter to your moving company, detailing both your complaints and your demands for compensation and relief and warn against a lawsuit if those demands aren't met. If you don't get a response within two weeks, we can help you escalate to small claims court.

DoNotPay Works Across All Companies and Agencies With a Single Click

DoNotPay works across all companies and agencies with a single click. Thus, if you have multiple moving companies to complain about or multiple agencies to submit complaints to, DoNotPay can handle it all within minutes.

Other Problems DoNotPay Can Solve

DoNotPay can certainly help you if your movers damaged walls in your home and you want to file a complaint. However, you can also use DoNotPay to solve many other problems and complete many other complex tasks. With DoNotPay, you can easily:

• Get compensation for flights that were canceled or delayed
• File complaints against troublesome neighbors
• Find and claim lost items
• Jump to the front of customer service queues

Subscribe to DoNotPay today to get started.