We have been doing house clearance in Kingston upon Hull since 2007 — Humberside, as the county was for twenty-two years. The work that comes to us in the city is mostly the same shape: a house that has to be emptied after a death, after a move into care, or after a landlord finally gets the keys back. Abacus is a registered waste carrier and we bring our own crew rather than subcontracting the day out. What follows is two real jobs in Hull, described as they happened, and then the practical part. Where we go, how we get the van in, and what we can and cannot take out of a property.
A four-bed on the Victoria Dock side
This one was in HU9, over on the Victoria Dock side of Drypool, a four-bedroom house with a garage, cleared across the 30th of November and the 1st of December. The booking form told us most of it before we arrived. The family answered it properly: east Hull, HU9. Every room to come out. Carpets up. An upright fridge freezer to go as well, which is a separate stream because of the gas in the cooling circuit.
Two full days with the team on site, and no argument about what state it was in when they opened the door. A family member met us and stayed for the first hour. When a house has sat with food in it, you work room by room from the top so you aren't carrying bags back through the parts you've already emptied. The kitchen goes last because it's the worst of it. Nothing about that day was glamorous. It was done by the second afternoon and the house was walkable again.
Two days is at the longer end for us. Most house clearance work in Kingston upon Hull is a single day, sometimes two loads inside that day. The four-bed with the garage is the exception rather than the rule.
Two loads in a day out west
Back in the February of 2021 we did a much simpler one in HU4, west Hull. A mattress, an upright fridge freezer, and enough furniture besides that the first load plainly wasn't going to swallow it. So the van went to the transfer station, tipped, and came back the same day for a second run rather than making anyone wait another week for a return visit. The keys went back that evening.
That one was booked by a relative living out towards Beverley, who told us at the booking that they weren't in the city and couldn't be there on the day. We'd take that every time over finding out at nine in the morning. The mattress and the fridge freezer both went off on their own routes, as they have to.
Where we work across the HU area
Kingston upon Hull is a compact city to work in and we cover the whole of it. The centre and the Old Town in HU1, the Avenues and Newland in HU5, Sutton and Bransholme up in HU7 and HU8, east Hull through Drypool and Marfleet in HU9, Gipsyville and Boothferry in HU4. Add to that HU2 and HU3 through the older terraced streets west of the centre, HU6 around Orchard Park and the university. HU11 and HU12 out through Preston, Hedon and the Holderness villages. If you can put a Hull postcode on it, we come.
Outside the city boundary, in the East Riding of Yorkshire proper, we're regularly in Cottingham (HU16), Willerby, Kirk Ella and Anlaby (HU10), Hessle (HU13), and Beverley (HU17). If you're just past the edge of that list, ask anyway rather than assuming not.
Neighbouring towns have their own pages rather than being swallowed into this one: house clearance in Beverley for the minster town and the villages around it, house clearance in Driffield for the Wolds side, house clearance in Bridlington for the coast, and house clearance in Goole for the far side of the estuary road. A clearance in any of those is an ordinary day's run for the same crew that works Hull.
Most of the city runs off Hull Paragon Interchange. A good number of the clearances we do are for people travelling in for the day from Leeds or London to hand over a key and go home again. Cottingham and Hessle both have their own stations — Cottingham on the Beverley line, Hessle on the Selby line. You don't need to be there at all, mind. A key safe code or a neighbour holding the key works perfectly well, and we'll ring you when we're in and again when we're out.
Parking, tenfoots and getting the van in
Hull's terraced streets are narrow and a lot of them have a tenfoot running behind. Is sometimes a blessing and sometimes a dead end full of bins. The van we bring is a Luton or a tipper. If your street is permit-only, has a bus lane, or the bay outside is suspended, tell us when you book and we'll plan around it. The difference between parking outside the door and parking forty yards up the road is roughly an hour on the day. On a full house that hour has to come from somewhere.
Flats above shops on the main roads through Newland and Holderness Road are the other one to flag. No lift, tight turn on the stairs, sofas that came in before the banister was replaced. We'd rather know in advance than find out at nine in the morning. Same with a loft ladder that has gone, a garage door that hasn't opened since the handle broke, or a back gate padlocked by a neighbour years ago.
The kinds of house clearance we do in Kingston upon Hull
Probate house clearance in Kingston upon Hull
Most of what we do here is probate house clearance. It usually arrives second-hand: a solicitor, or a son or daughter who lives in another county and has the grant in one hand and an empty diary in the other. We invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly. You do not have to put it through your own account and then claim it back, and payment can come from the estate in the ordinary way. There is no deposit. The invoice follows the work, not the booking. Ask for waste transfer notes at the same time and they go in with it. Estate files tend to want them.
Probate house clearance in Kingston upon Hull also tends to mean sorting before lifting: papers, photographs, anything with a name on it set aside in a box for the family rather than binned. Tell us what you're looking for — a document, a ring, a service medal — and the crew will keep an eye out as they work.
Flat clearance in HU1, HU2 and HU3
Flat clearance in the centre is its own problem. Lifts that need booking with a caretaker, loading bays with a twenty-minute limit. Stairwells that were never meant to have a three-seater carried down them. A one-bed flat is usually half a day. If the block has a service lift, say so — it changes the plan.
Hoarder house clearance in Kingston upon Hull
Houses that have filled up over years are ordinary work for us, not a special request. Hoarder house clearance needs more hands, more protective kit and more disposal routes. Sometimes a route cut through to the back door before anything else can move. The same goes for verminous and mould-affected properties. If there's decaying food, droppings, damp bedding or anything similar, say so when you enquire. It changes the equipment we bring and the way the day is planned, and it is far better dealt with honestly at the start than discovered at nine in the morning.
End of tenancy clearance and landlords
Landlords and managing agents use us for end of tenancy clearance across the whole of Hull, usually at short notice and usually with an inventory to meet. Furniture out, carpets up if they're going, and the property left swept. If the tenant has left white goods behind they go off on the WEEE route rather than in the general load.
Garage and loft clearance in Kingston upon Hull
Plenty of jobs here are not a whole house at all. A garage that hasn't been opened since a bereavement, a loft full of boxes above an otherwise cleared bungalow, a single item that two people can't manage on the stairs. We do single-item collections and part clearances, and we'd rather come for a garage than tell you we only do full houses.
What happens to everything we take out
Furniture and household goods still in usable condition get offered on for reuse. Charity shops and community projects in and around the city take a fair bit of it, and what they can't use goes on to be sorted for recycling. The remainder is tipped at a permitted waste transfer station and paperwork is raised for each load. If you need waste transfer notes for an estate file or for a solicitor, ask and you'll get them. Our carrier registration with the Environment Agency is CBDU419679 and it's there to be checked. We're insured for the work and for being in your property while we do it.
Sofas, armchairs and anything else with upholstery foam are handled apart from the general load. That's not us being awkward — the regulations on persistent organic pollutants have required those items to be kept separate and incinerated rather than mixed in since 2023. Fridges, freezers, mattresses and old cathode-ray televisions are the same story: each has its own route and its own paperwork. None of them can simply be thrown in with the furniture.
There are things we can't put in the van at all. Half-used tins of paint and varnish, gas canisters, engine oil, asbestos sheeting from a garage roof. None of that travels on a household clearance ticket, and none of it goes to a council site either; Hull City Council's own recycling centres or a specialist collection are the right answer. We'll tell you which on the phone rather than pretending otherwise and leaving them in the yard.
Cost, and houses that are more than full
We don't put figures on a web page, because a house is not a standard unit and the honest answer depends on what's in it. Describe the property properly over the phone — how many rooms, whether the loft and garage are in, whether the carpets are going — or send photographs of each room through the form on this page. You'll get a written quote before anyone turns up. It's free and it doesn't commit you to anything.
For estate work the same quote goes to whoever is handling it. As above: we invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly, payment can come from the estate. There is no deposit to find up front.
House clearance in Kingston upon Hull — common questions
Do you cover the whole of Kingston upon Hull?
Yes — every HU district in the city, HU1 through HU9 plus HU11 and HU12 out towards Holderness. The East Riding villages beyond the boundary. If you're not sure whether your postcode is in, ring and ask.
Can you invoice a solicitor or an executor on a probate house clearance?
Yes. We invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly, payment can come from the estate. There's no deposit — the invoice follows the work. Waste transfer notes are issued with it for the estate file.
How long does a house clearance in Kingston upon Hull take?
A one-bed flat is often half a day. A three-bed house is usually one day, sometimes with a second load run to the transfer station and back in the same day. A four-bedroom house with a garage and a loft, like the Victoria Dock one, is two days with a full team.
Do I have to be there on the day?
No. A key safe code, an agent, or a neighbour holding the key is fine. We do a lot of house clearance in Kingston upon Hull for families who live nowhere near it. We'll call you when we start and again when we lock up.
What won't you take?
Paint, chemicals, gas bottles, oils and asbestos. Those need a specialist route and we'll point you at it. Everything else — furniture, white goods, mattresses, upholstered items, garden and garage clutter — goes on its proper stream.
Do you take on a probate clearance before the grant comes through?
Yes. Book a date and move it if the paperwork drags. We would rather shift a day than have somebody panicking in the last week of a sale.
Do you clear hoarded or verminous properties?
Yes, and we quote for them openly. Tell us what's there when you enquire so the crew arrives with the right kit.
If you've a property to empty anywhere in Kingston upon Hull or the East Riding, ring the office on 0800 046 5555 and describe it, or send photographs through the form on this page. We'll tell you what it's likely to take and when we could be there.
