A customer asked us this before a clearance, and it is the right question to ask anybody. He was arranging the job from another county and a stranger was going to be handed the keys to a house he was responsible for.
Yes. Ask for it, and be suspicious of anyone who is vague about it.
What you should expect
Our crews are our own staff, not subcontractors, and they turn up in uniform in a marked van. The team leader carries identification and will show it without being asked twice.
If you are arranging a key handover with a third party — an estate agent, a neighbour, a key safe — tell us the arrangement and the name of whoever holds them, and we will confirm back who is collecting and when.
What we do at our end
Nobody comes through the door who is not named on the instruction. That sounds obvious until you have seen how many people turn up at an empty house on a clearance day: a relative, a neighbour who wants a wardrobe, someone who says the family sent them. A cleared house standing open is an invitation, and the crew treat it as one. If a person is not on the instruction, they get a polite no and a phone call to you.
Anything that looks like it might matter — money, documents, photographs, medals, jewellery — is set aside and the person who instructed us is told before another thing moves.
Getting the keys back
Say how you want them returned when you book. Back to the agent, through the letterbox, to a neighbour, posted to you. Posting is fine and we do it regularly; it goes recorded and we tell you when it went.
One customer asked whether she should post the keys to us in the first place. The answer is usually no — a key safe or an agent is safer and faster, and it means nothing is in the postal system while the house stands empty.
If you are an executor
You are responsible for the property until the estate is settled, and that includes who has access. Keep the list of key holders short and written down. We will work to it exactly.