How To Avoid a House Clearance Nightmare

At some point a lot of us will have to deal with clearing a house of its entire contents. We’ll be organising a house clearance. You have inherited a house after someone has passed away or you had a property with a tenant who’s left and left behind some of their belonging.  These will need to be cleared before you can rent the property out again.

It could be that you need to de-clutter your own house or apartment or one of a friends or relative. Maybe you’re downsizing or moving into a ready furnished property and you need a house clearance before you go.  So what’s the best way to get a house completely cleared and avoid a nightmare? 

Use the Local Tip 

Taking everything to the local tip is usually the first thing people think of when they need a house clearance. The idea of cramming everything in a couple of cars and driving over to the tip seems like a good idea at first. It will soon become apparent that it’s not going to work.

Firstly a lot of the stuff won’t fit in a car, you’re never going to get a sofa into your daily driver and that wardrobe won’t fit in either.  Perhaps You could dismantle everything? Probably not and even if you did you’re going to be making dozens of trips backwards and forwards to the tip and it’s going to take forever.

When you get to the tip you’re also going to have to separate everything into its main components.  Metal, textiles, wood etc will have to be separated and you’ll be walking from skip to skip with it all. It’s a great way to get your daily steps in and lose a bit of weight but not so good for clearing a house. Realistically it’s going to take over a week to clear a house by making multiple car journeys to the tip.  If there’s some distance between the house and the tip then it’s going to take even longer. 

Hire a Skip For Your House Clearance

Hiring a skip is probably the second  thing people think of when they start to think about clearing a house or flat. They’re readily available, quick to turn up and cost effective. There are considerable downsides to hiring a skip though which may put you off the idea.

You will have to have get everything out of the house and put it in the skip yourself. That’s going to be a lot of work that you will need to do. Secondly you will need more than one skip because skips fill up very quickly when you put furniture in them. You will also require a permit from the council if the skip is being placed on a road or public right of way. It does seem a reasonably cheap way of getting your house cleared if you consider that a decent sized skip will cost between £200 to £300. When you consider that you are going to need four, five or even six of them then suddenly that cost effectiveness disappears. 

Hire a Man and Van

There are plenty of sole traders out there who advertise themselves as a man and van service. You will need to be very careful when asking them to dispose of your house contents. Anybody being paid for clearing away unwanted items from house or removing rubbish must be licensed by The Environment Agency. They must also dispose of the waste at a licensed trade recycling centre and not the local household recycling centre. These are  strictly for the use of private individuals disposing of their own rubbish.

When you employ someone who is not licensed and they get caught trying to use a household tip or even worse fly tipping then they get fined and when the waste is traced back to you so will you.

Another thing to consider is the size of the vehicle they’re going to be using. Clearing a house usually requires a large van like a Luton van. If your guy is going to turn up in a little panel van then he’s going to struggle to get much in it at a time. This is going to make the job last much longer.

Also is your man and van just that; one man? A guy on his own will expect you to help with the lifting and the shifting. He won’t be able to do it alone. This means you will have to be on site the whole time the property is being cleared. Hiring a man with a van can be a cheap option but it has considerable downsides which you should be aware of. As a provider of a Warrington rubbish removal service we know just how much work is involved in disposing of unwanted things.

Donating to Charity For Your House Clearance

There are several charities that will come along and take away some of the things that you need clearing. This is a great way of helping out local and national good causes. There are some drawbacks though, charities won’t take everything that you need to clear. They’ll only take the thing that they can sell on quickly as they have limited storage space.

They won’t take anything that doesn’t have a fire label as it would be illegal for them to re-sell it and they won’t come and collect smaller things like clothes and ornaments. You can, of course, donate the smaller things but you’ll need to sort those out yourself and deliver to them to whichever charity you have chosen. 

Using an Auction House For Your House Clearance

Consider asking a local auction house if you can sell some of the items using their services. Some will come and collect from you whilst others will expect you to deliver the items to their salesroom. It does have the same downside to donating to charity though. An auction house won’t take everything. Another thing to consider with auction houses is that there’s a chance that not everything will actually sell. Then you will have  to take it back to the property and dispose of it another way.

You’ll need to arrange disposal of it another way. It can also be very time consuming having to sort through everything and separate the stuff that’s going to be sold from the stuff that needs to be disposed of. If you don’t live locally and the property to be cleared is some distance away then this may not be a viable option for you.  You would need to make several trips to the property to organise everything. 

Hiring a House Clearance Company 

Hiring a house clearance company is by far the easiest way to get a property cleared. As a leading Warrington house clearance provider we can give you some tips on how to go about it the right way and avoid the pitfalls.

You will want a company who will take everything and not just the things they think they can sell. The idea is you’re left with a completely empty property. Then you can sell it or hand it back to the landlord. Check that the company you employ is licensed with the Environment Agency and not just some fly by night operator.  Nobody wants their  house contents fly tipped in a field somewhere. Maybe you have noticed this has happened to other people while you’ve been travelling about. You will have spotted piles of furniture in a farmer’s field, that will be someones house clearance contents who has used a non-licensed business.

Check They’re Licensed

If you check the website of your company look for their licence number being displayed and if it isn’t ask yourself why it isn’t.  Look for testimonials on the company website from previous happy customers and look for on-line reviews. Any half decent house clearance company will want to come out and take a look at the property to assess it before providing a quote.

Beware of anyone who just gives you a price over the phone. That price will  change once the clearance gets underway. If you live some distance away a reputable company will be happy to collect keys from an estate agent, solicitor or neighbour so they can take a look around. Ask If they have an office where you could post the keys to.  Always use Special Delivery when you’re sending keys in the post. If they get lost in the post you’re also going to have to organise a locksmith. 

House Clearance Summary

To summarise there are pros and cons to all of the options we’ve given for clearing a house. It depends on how much of the work you are willing to do yourself. Also ask yourself how easy it is for you to get to the property. We provide a Chester house clearance service and a Wirral house clearance service  . We know how difficult it is to clear a house. You need manpower, experience and the right equipment to get the job done properly.

Even if you’re simply going to employ someone for a Warrington rubbish removal job it’s easy to get it wrong. Then the  the stuff gets fly-tipped or you get overwhelmed trying to do it yourself .

We meet a lot of people who take on a house clearance thinking they can do it themselves. Then they call us when they realise just what a challenge they’ve set themselves. They soon realise that they just can’t move all of the stuff. Generally they tell us they wish they’d rung us sooner before they spent a few days struggling to move piles of stuff. You don’t  want to move furniture and piles of old clothes and ornaments. What you  want is an empty house and you want an empty shed, garage and loft to go with it, we get it.