A good half of the house clearance work we do around Northwich starts the same way. Somebody inherits a house they grew up in and now live two hundred miles from. They need a firm that will turn up at the agreed hour, do the work, send photographs and leave the keys where they were told to.
The other half comes through solicitors and executors. A legal secretary rings, then puts it in an email, and the whole job is settled in writing before anybody sets off. What is staying, who holds the key, who will be at the property to let the team in. Both sorts of instruction are ordinary work for us, and neither requires the person paying to stand in the hallway watching three men carry furniture past them. Abacus has been doing house clearance work since 2007 and a fair share of that has been for people who were never going to see the property again.
Where we go
Northwich sits in CW8 and CW9, and our Cheshire runs take in the whole spread of CW, CH, WA and out to SY on the Shropshire border. So that's Hartford, Davenham, Barnton, Weaverham, Rudheath, Lostock Gralam, Sandiway and Cuddington on the doorstep, then Winsford down the A5018, Tarporley and Malpas out in the lanes, Frodsham towards the Mersey, and Chester, Ellesmere Port and Neston to the west.
Some customers come up for the day by train, and we work the timings round the return. Northwich station on the Mid-Cheshire line puts people in from Chester one way and Altrincham and Manchester the other. Greenbank is the closer stop for the Castle and Greenbank sides, a quarter of an hour on foot; Hartford, on the Crewe to Warrington main line, is the one to aim for if you're coming from further afield. If you're coming up for the day to open the house for us and going home the same evening, tell us and we'll work the timings around your return train rather than the other way round.
The housing round Northwich is a mixed bag and it changes the day's work more than people expect. Victorian terraces near the town centre with a back entry and no off-street parking. The black-and-white timber-framed places built light on purpose, because of what the salt and the brine did to the ground underneath. Interwar and post-war semis out through Hartford and Davenham with deep lofts and a garage tacked on the side. Newer estates at Kingsmead and Rudheath where you can usually get a tipper right up to the door. Then the odd farmhouse out past Weaverham with a yard full of things that were once going to be useful. We'd rather know which of those we're coming to before we set off.
Cheshire West and Chester is the council here. Their tips are set up for householders bringing their own bags in a car boot. A house clearance does not go through that route, and a firm turning up at one with a tipper full of somebody else's furniture would be turned away, quite rightly.
A two-bed bungalow, start to finish
This one came from a solicitor's office rather than from a family. A legal secretary rang on the Friday, then confirmed it in writing the same week so there could be no argument later about what had been agreed, which is how we prefer it. The property was heading for auction, and rather than try to describe the rooms she sent through the link to the auction listing so we could look at photographs of every room before quoting anything at all. Sight of a house beats any amount of description down a telephone.
Two-bed bungalow, garage included. One line in her email mattered more than the rest of it put together:
> "Further to our telephone conversation on Friday, I can confirm we do not require the carpets clearing from the property."
That sentence changes the shape of the day. Carpets staying means the floors get protected rather than stripped, the gripper rods stay where they are, and nothing goes out of the door that a buyer at auction might have expected to find. Carpets going means underlay, tacks, dust and a good deal more weight in the van. It is worth saying which you want before the team arrives, because on the day itself the answer tends to be guessed.
Before we book anything we send the same short list of questions back. Full postal address of the property to be cleared. The date you want it done. Confirmation of the size of the property and the outside areas, phrased the way people actually think about it: a three-bed house including loft with garage and garden shed, or in this case a two-bed bungalow including the garage. A contact name and number for the team on the day. Who will be present to gain access and instruct the team. And whether there is anything hazardous or verminous in the property, which is not us being squeamish but a genuinely different class of work with different kit, different clothing and a different route for disposal. Decaying food, animal mess, needles, anything of that sort: we would far rather read about it in an email than meet it at ten past nine.
The answers came back typed in red underneath each question, which is the mark of somebody who has done this before. Date wanted: as soon as we could get there, because auction dates do not move for anybody. Access: the solicitor would be at the property himself to open up and instruct the team, so no key safe, no neighbour with a spare, no standing about on the drive. Nothing hazardous, nothing verminous, no illness in the house.
Bungalows are, on the whole, the kindest properties we clear. Everything is on one level, there is no staircase to turn a wardrobe on, and the garage usually opens straight onto the drive so the van can stand a few paces from the load. The garage is where the surprises live, though, and this one was no exception: the tins and tools and stacked boxes that accumulate in a building nobody has to tidy. Inside, a two-bed bungalow is a day's work for a team, not a week's, provided somebody has said clearly what stays.
Everything came out except the carpets. Photographs before and after, and the keys handed back to the man who had let us in.
Probate house clearance in Northwich
A good share of the work here is probate. The executor is usually not local, the house has stood shut for months, and a sale cannot move until the rooms are empty. On a probate house clearance we invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly, payment can come out of the estate once probate allows it, and there is no deposit. Our probate house clearance page sets out the paperwork side in full.
Garage and loft clearance, and end of tenancy work
A garage and loft clearance on its own is a normal booking: the loft with the ladder missing, the garage that has not had a car in it for years, the shed behind it. End of tenancy clearance is the other regular one — landlords and agents ring with a check-out already in the diary, and it is usually a half day rather than a full one.
Not everything is a whole house
Plenty of what we do around Northwich is not a full house clearance at all. A garage that has swallowed forty years of somebody's projects. A loft that nobody has been up into since the ladder went stiff. One room in an otherwise occupied house, usually after a bereavement, where the family want the furniture gone and everything else left exactly where it stands. Storage units, where the site office generally wants the names of our lads in advance and checks them against driving licences at the barrier, and where the unit is as often as not up a flight of stairs.
Commercial work runs to a different rhythm again. Offices, an estate agent's back store, a landlord's void property between tenancies. Usually booked well in advance by somebody at a head office who will never see the building, cleared over a weekend or on a fixed date, cleaned afterwards, keys returned by recorded post. We are equally used to both rhythms, and the same team does both.
What happens to the contents
Furniture that's sound, tools, crockery, books, unopened bedding: we'd sooner see it go on to a Cheshire charity shop or a community reuse scheme than get tipped, and where there's time on the day we'll drop it in. What can't be reused goes to a permitted transfer station where it's weighed, sorted and recorded, and you're welcome to ask for the tickets. Abacus is a registered waste carrier, licence CBDU419679, and insured for the work.
Certain things can't ride in a general load and it's the law rather than fussiness. Upholstered seating, so sofas, armchairs, padded dining chairs and some headboards, has to be kept apart from mixed waste and sent for incineration under the POPs rules. Fridges and freezers go for degassing. Paint that's still wet, gas cylinders, oils, car batteries: tell us in advance and we'll route them properly, or tell us on the day and we'll do our best, but they don't just get thrown in the back.
What it costs
One thing only on this, and it is the same answer for every house clearance Northwich throws at us. Ring the office on 0800 046 5555, or send photographs of each room, the loft hatch, the garage and the shed, and you'll have a figure back by email. Not a number invented on your doorstep by somebody standing in your hallway.
Where the clearance is part of an estate we invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly, and payment can come out of the estate rather than out of a family member's own account. We don't take a deposit. The work is done first and the invoice follows, which is what solicitors and executors expect and what we have always done.
Booking a date
Ring us or send an email with the postcode, roughly what's in the property, whether carpets and curtains are going, and any parking restriction on the street. Loaded houses, hoarded houses, cellars nobody's opened in years. All of it is ordinary work here, and we'd rather you told us the truth about the state of the place so we bring the right van and the right number of hands.
For a house clearance in Northwich, Winsford, Hartford, Weaverham or anywhere else in this corner of Cheshire, tell us what you've got and we'll tell you what it takes, how long, and what it will cost.
Common questions about probate house clearance in Northwich
How long does a house clearance in Northwich take? Most three-bedroom houses are a single day with a team of three. Bungalows and flats are often quicker. A property that has been lived in for forty years, or one where the loft, garage and shed are all full, can run to two days. We would rather tell you that at the quoting stage than discover it together on the second afternoon.
Do I have to be there? No. A good many house clearance Northwich jobs are opened up by a solicitor, an agent or a neighbour, and plenty are done on a key we collect and post back. If you want to be there for the first half hour to point at what stays, that works well too.
What if there's more in the house than the photographs showed? We tell you while it is happening, not at the end. If the load count is running past what was agreed, you hear about it that morning by phone or email, with photographs, and you decide what happens next.
Do you clear lofts, garages, sheds and gardens? Yes, and they should be mentioned when you first get in touch, because they change the size of the job more than anything inside the house does. Greenhouses, cold frames, pots and old garden machinery all go.
Can you leave the carpets and curtains? Yes, and it is worth saying so in writing beforehand. Anything you want left, whether that is flooring, white goods, a fitted wardrobe or a particular chair, gets listed before the team sets off.
Are you licensed? Abacus is a registered waste carrier, licence CBDU419679, and insured. Everything that leaves a house clearance Northwich job goes to a permitted transfer station or on to reuse, and we can show you where.
Do you buy the contents? We are a clearance firm, not a saleroom. If something in the house looks genuinely valuable we will say so and suggest you get it looked at properly before the van comes, rather than let it go out in a mixed load.
