House Clearance Tips

If your searching for a professional house clearance company, please take a minute to review our house clearance tips below, with impartial advice and recommendations.

GETTING A QUOTE

  • If your planning on the selling the house to be cleared have a think if you want to get it cleared in two stages, some estate agents recommend that the house is photographed and then marketed with larger items of furniture left in place for scale. If this is the case it could be a good idea to de clutter and de personalise the property first, and then have the larger items cleared once a firm sale has been agreed.
  • Before contacting a house clearance company for a quote, you might want to take some photos of each room in the house that needs clearing. They don’t need to be perfect just a visual aid to asses size and contents of the property. This way you can share the photos over email with the service provider.
  • Call or email at least two or three companies so you can sense check each quote. Most experienced companies should be able to give you a quote based on the photographs you’ve provided, If there are any valuable items that need to be taken into account or access issues and restrictions then a site visit may be required.
  • If the house clearance contractor needs to view the property, make them aware of any lofts, sheds and cubby holes etc that have lots of contents, it’s up to the contractor quoting to spot this, but worth covering off, to avoid any unknowns on the day.
  • Talk through any concerns special requirements and requests you may have prior to the clearance, so they’re are no nasty surprises or unknowns for either party that might complicate things or turn sour on the day.
  • Agree a price over email and always get a formal written quote before any work is carried out, once quoted the company should stick to the quote, a verbal agreement is not sufficient.
  • DO NOT ever pay a contractor up front for a house clearance, wait until you have inspected the property and are satisfied with the job that has been done. In some cases the company may require a refundable deposit or small percentage payment up front, but never pay in full.

THE CLEARANCE

  • Make sure you have had any Gas Cookers and hard wired appliances disconnected by a professional Gas Safe Engineer or qualified electrician before the clearance, if not most clearance companies wont be able to disconnect them for you.
  • Try to find and remove any sentimental, important and valuable items from the property before the clearance commences, such as photos diaries jewellery etc. A good company will work efficiently to clear the house but should be mindful return anything that we think is sentimental, but a lot of companies wont be so diligent or mindful, once it’s gone it could be gone for good.
  • If  there’s contents in the house that you don’t want cleared, it’s a good idea to put some Post-It Notes or coloured stickers on them prior to a house clearance contractor turning up, you could also put any items that are to be kept in a cupboard or a dedicated room.
  • It’s never a good idea to remove or add contents to the property being cleared once it has been quoted, such as adding rubbish from another property or by removing items that have been used to off set the price of the clearance. If you are going to change the contents let the contractor know so they can adjust the quote accordingly.
  • If parking is an issue outside the property tell the contractor as this could dramatically change the amount of time needed to clear the property. You could try and reserve a space outside by speaking to neighbours or by reserving a spot with some wheelie bins or your car.
  • Try to find and remove any sentimental items from the property before the clearance commences such as photos diaries jewellery etc, we work hard  to return anything that we think is sentimental, but a lot of companies wont be so diligent or mindful, once it’s gone it could be gone for good.
  • In some instances it can be a good idea to let neighbours know especially elderly ones, that you have a company clearing the house, as they make think the property is being burgled, which could cause unnecessary stress and worry.