What a house clearance actually costs, and why

Every clearance is different, so nobody can quote you honestly from a phone call alone. What you can know up front is how the price is built, and roughly where a house like yours tends to land.

Most people asking what a clearance costs are really asking two things: will this be hundreds or thousands, and will the number change once the van arrives. Both are fair questions, and both have straight answers.

Two things set the price

Our charges are based on the time it takes our team to do the job, and the cost of disposing of or recycling anything that isn’t reusable. That is the whole model. There is no minimum, no per-item tariff, and nothing added afterwards.

What that means in practice:

• A small load (a few bags, one item, a single room) is a short job and a small disposal cost.
• A full house clearance is more labour and considerably more to dispose of, particularly where there is furniture, carpet or garden waste.
• Anything we can reuse or recycle brings the disposal side down, so a house of good furniture costs less to clear than the same volume of broken chipboard.
• Access changes the labour more than people expect. A third-floor flat with no lift is a different job from a bungalow with a driveway.

How other firms price it

There is no single convention. Some firms charge a flat fee, some by volume, some by room and some by time, which is why two quotes for the same house can be built in completely different ways and are awkward to compare line by line. Ask which of those you are being quoted on before you put two numbers side by side, and ask what happens if the job turns out bigger than it looked. Ours is time plus disposal, agreed before we start.

Where a clearance turns up items with genuine resale value, that value can be offset against the cost, occasionally cancelling it out entirely. That is worth raising before anything is taken away, not after.

Why we ask for photos

A photo of each room or area is the fastest way to an accurate price. It shows us volume, condition, access and the awkward items all at once, which is everything we would otherwise have to guess at. It takes two minutes and it is the difference between a real figure and a range. Send them through the quote form.

If you would rather we came and looked, that is fine too. It just takes longer to get you a number.

The price is agreed before we start

We agree the price before any work begins and there are no hidden extras. If we open a loft and find three times what the photographs showed, we tell you and re-agree it before we carry on, not on the invoice afterwards.

Payment is by bank transfer, which we prefer, or cash on completion, and you only pay once the job is done. If your timing is tight, say so when you enquire; urgent clearances can usually be completed within twenty-four hours.