Hiring the truck is the easy half. In a Miami high-rise the building has to say yes as well — with its own paperwork, its own calendar and no obligation to fit around yours. It's the slower booking, and it's the one people leave until last.
Quarter truck $241 · half $431 · full $732 · same price on any floor
Upload Photos & Get Quote →It can't tell you what your building requires. Every tower in Miami-Dade sets its own rules, and they differ on nearly everything — insurance limits, elevator hours, whether the dock must be reserved, whether a resident has to be present.
So nothing here is a statement about your building. It's a description of what's common in South Florida high-rises, plus the questions to put to your management office to get your actual answer.
We also won't tell you what an association may lawfully require or enforce. That's in your association documents and, if it matters enough, a question for an attorney.
Here's the structure of the problem.
Booking one is us. Photographs, a flat price, a slot. That takes minutes and it's entirely within your control.
Booking two is the building — approval to have a contractor on site, insurance filed, an elevator or dock reserved inside permitted hours. That takes days, runs on somebody else's process, and can be refused.
The two are not independent. Booking one can't happen until booking two is settled, because a confirmed truck outside a building that won't admit it is worth nothing.
Almost everyone does them in the wrong order, which is why so many condo removals get rescheduled once before they happen.
Demystifying it, because the phrase makes it sound more complicated than it is.
A COI is a one-page document issued by an insurance company confirming that a contractor has active coverage. It lists the types of policy, the limits, and the dates it's valid between. That's all.
It isn't a contract, it isn't something the hauler writes, and it doesn't cost you anything. It's evidence, in a standard format that management offices recognise on sight.
The reason buildings want one is simple: people they didn't hire are about to carry heavy objects through shared spaces they're responsible for.
The phrase that confuses people most, in plain terms.
Naming the building as additional insured extends the contractor's policy protection to the building for the duration of the work. If something in a shared area is damaged, the building isn't left relying solely on its own coverage.
Buildings ask for it routinely and it's not a sign anything unusual is going on. It does need to be requested specifically, though — "we're insured" and "the building is named as additional insured on our certificate" are different statements, and management offices check.
Tell us the exact entity name management gives you. It has to match what they have on file, and a mismatched name is a common reason a certificate gets bounced back.
The single most useful thing to understand about timing.
The certificate comes from an insurer, not from a printer in the truck. It has to be requested, issued with the correct entity named, and then filed with and accepted by management — and management reviews it on their schedule.
So a crew arriving with a sofa and no certificate on file isn't a paperwork hiccup that gets waved through. In most buildings it's a refused entry and a wasted slot.
Build the lead time in. It's not long, but it isn't zero, and it's the step with the least flexibility in the whole sequence.
Four steps, and the sequence matters more than the speed of any one of them.
1. Ask management what they need. Before anything else, and in writing if you can, so you have the list.
2. Get the COI filed and accepted. Tell us the entity name; we request it and send it over.
3. Reserve the service elevator or dock slot. This is usually the scarce thing.
4. Book the removal into that slot. Last, not first.
Run it in that order and a high-rise removal is unremarkable. Run it backwards and you'll be rescheduling.
Not the truck, not the crew, and not the price.
Buildings typically have one service elevator shared by every resident who is moving, renovating, taking a delivery or clearing a unit. It's reservable, the reservable windows are finite, and in a busy week it's genuinely contested.
Some buildings restrict move-in and move-out activity to particular days or hours entirely. Many close those windows around holidays. None of this is negotiable by your hauler, and a company promising to work around it is promising something it doesn't control.
Which is why the honest answer to "can you come tomorrow?" is usually "what does your building allow?"
Common expectations, so nothing surprises anyone.
All of it is normal and we plan around it. But the specific list belongs to your building — get it when you ask about the COI, and pass it to us when you book.
Five questions, one message. Copy them if it helps.
Do you require a certificate of insurance from contractors, and what entity name should be listed as additional insured?
What limits do you require? So it's right first time rather than reissued.
How do I reserve the service elevator or loading dock, and what windows are available?
Are there days or hours when move-out activity isn't permitted?
Does anything need to be submitted in advance, and how long does approval take?
Send that, and you'll have your real timeline in a day. Everything after it is straightforward.
Some texture on the local stock.
The dense tower neighbourhoods are where nearly all of this applies — Brickell, Downtown, Edgewater, Sunny Isles Beach, Miami Beach and Aventura.
Seasonal turnover concentrates the pressure. South Florida's population shifts with the season, and units change hands in clusters — so the elevator that was free in one month is booked solid in another, while the price of the removal itself doesn't move at all.
Elsewhere in the county — Pinecrest, Kendall, Coral Gables and the low-rise stock generally — none of this applies and same-day is routine.
The building changes when. It doesn't change what.
| What leaves | Price |
|---|---|
| Minimum job | $75 |
| Sofa | $126 |
| Dresser | $126 |
| Bed frame — solid wood / upholstered | $126 |
| Dining table (large) | $129 |
| Mattress + box spring, as a set | $143 |
| Loose pile — medium / large | $129 / $208 |
| Quarter truck (4 cu yd) | $241 |
| Half truck (8 cu yd) | $431 |
| Seven-eighths truck (14 cu yd) | $661 |
| Full truck (16 cu yd) | $732 |
No elevator fee, no stair charge, no long-carry fee from the dock, no fuel surcharge, and no charge for the certificate of insurance. A twenty-eighth-floor unit is quoted exactly as a ground-floor one holding the same things — worth checking against any other quote, because access surcharges are common in this trade.
A furnished unit being cleared between tenancies. What went:
Itemised that's $858. By volume it's about fourteen and a half cubic yards, which is the seven-eighths tier at $661 — so the truck rate wins by $197, and that's what was quoted.
The removal itself took one reserved elevator window. The paperwork had been filed four days earlier, which is the only reason the window was usable.
Assume COI, reserved elevator and set hours. Ask early; budget several days. This is Brickell, Edgewater, Sunny Isles and most of Miami Beach.
Often a COI but looser scheduling. The constraint is usually reaching someone rather than the rules themselves.
Frequently the quickest — staff can often confirm requirements immediately. Still ask about the elevator.
Usually none of this applies. Same-day is realistic and the price is identical.
No building layer at all. Book directly and you're done.
Ask whether the building will keep a COI on file for a term rather than per job. It removes the slowest step from every future booking. The condo cleanout guide covers larger clear-outs.
Any hauler can carry a sofa; the binding question is which ones your building will admit. Most towers require a certificate of insurance from any contractor, and many require a reserved service elevator or dock slot within set hours. So: a company that can produce a COI naming your building and will work to the building's schedule. We do both, with no charge for the COI. What your specific building requires comes from management, not from us.
A one-page document from an insurer confirming active coverage — policy types, limits, dates. Naming the building as additional insured extends that protection to the building while the work happens, so it isn't exposed if something in a shared area is damaged. Routine, and not a sign anything unusual is happening. It's issued by an insurance company, so it takes lead time and can't be produced at your door.
Work backwards from the building. If a COI must be filed and approved and an elevator reserved, several days is realistic and some buildings want more. Our truck is rarely the constraint — the elevator usually is. Ask management, file the COI, reserve the slot, then book the removal into it.
Sometimes — but be sceptical of anyone promising it without asking about your building. If our COI is already on file and the elevator is free, yes. If paperwork must be filed and approved, no hauler can compress that, because the delay is the building's. Houses and low-rise buildings are far more flexible.
No. Price is the volume that leaves and it's identical on the twenty-eighth floor and the ground floor — quarter truck $241, half $431, full $732, $75 minimum. No stair, elevator, long-carry or fuel charges. The building affects when, not what.
Commonly: service elevator rather than the resident lift, protective padding, arrival and departure inside the reserved window, the loading dock rather than the front entrance, and sometimes a resident present. All normal — but the specific list is your building's, so ask management and pass it on when you book.
Book the building before you book the truck.
Everything difficult about a high-rise removal in Miami lives in the half of the job you don't control, and all of it is knowable in advance with one message to your management office. The truck is the flexible part; the elevator window is not.
Get the certificate filed, get the slot reserved, then pick a time. Do it in that order and the whole thing is a quiet hour on a Tuesday — and it costs exactly what it would cost from a bungalow in Kendall.
COI requested and filed at no charge · we work to the building's window
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