House clearance in Hailsham is most of what we do in this corner of East Sussex. Whole houses, bungalows, flats above the shops, and a fair number of estates being wound up by families who live nowhere near the town. Some of it is probate work, some of it is a landlord turning a property round, and some of it isn't a house at all.
One December clearance was booked for ten in the morning and was, on paper, a small job: one large studio property. It wasn't small. The studio had a mezzanine over it and a separate garage alongside, and both the mezzanine and the garage were being used purely for storage. Which is another way of saying that everything nobody had wanted to decide about for years had gone up the stairs or out the back. The place had stood empty since the April before, and an empty property has a particular feel to it that anyone who does this work will recognise: nothing has moved, but everything has settled.
It was arranged by a relative living a long way off, doing it on behalf of an older member of the family, and he was one of those customers who answers every question before you've asked it. No hazardous waste that he knew of, in the house or the garage. No cleaning wanted, no gardening wanted. He'd be there himself to let the team in. The van could get parked on the road outside, though the building sat slightly back off it. And then the part that decided the whole day, which he wrote to us in advance:
"Since we spoke, I have confirmed with the estate agents that curtains, white goods and indeed the piano(!) are all to be left in the property. I am not quite sure about such carpets as there are but will check in advance."
That exclamation mark is doing some work. A piano staying put is the easiest instruction we get all week. A piano coming out is a job of its own, needing a route planned and the right number of bodies, and we handle those separately under piano removal. The rest of it was the pattern we like: a clear list of what stays, and the whole of the rest going. Fridge and freezer stayed, white goods stayed, curtains stayed. Carpets were a maybe, and a maybe is fine, because the team can be told on the morning. Everything else came out of the studio floor, off the mezzanine and out of the garage.
We work the same way on Hailsham jobs. Tell us what stays, and the rest goes.
Hailsham houses, and what that means for a van
Hailsham sits inland from the coast, in the Wealden district, and it has grown in layers you can read off the map. There's the old core round the High Street and the Common Pond, where the buildings are tight to the pavement and a Luton has to be parked with some thought. Then the post-war estates spreading out towards Hellingly and Upper Horsebridge. Then the newer closes off the western side, where the drives are short and the turning heads are tighter than they look. Bungalows are everywhere in this part of East Sussex. A lot of people retired down here from London and stayed put for forty years, which is exactly how a two-bed bungalow ends up with a loft you can't stand up in and a garage you can only open half of.
Access is usually straightforward compared with what we deal with in Brighton or Eastbourne town centre. No permit zones to wrestle with in most of BN27. Where it does get awkward is the older lanes and the farm properties out towards Herstmonceux, where the van has to reverse a long way in and the lads end up carrying rather than wheeling. If you're not sure whether we'll get a large van near the door, take a photo of the frontage when you ring and we'll tell you straight.
Where we cover round here
Hailsham is the middle of a decent-sized patch for us. Polegate and Pevensey are ten minutes down the road in BN26 and BN24. North of town it's Heathfield in TN21, then Mayfield in TN20, house clearance in Uckfield in TN22, house clearance in Crowborough in TN6, Wadhurst up in TN5, Hartfield in TN7 and Forest Row over in RH18 on the edge of Ashdown Forest. so the patch runs across BN, TN and RH postcodes even though it's all East Sussex. The postcode areas are named after Tunbridge Wells and Redhill, not the county
Crowborough is the bigger of the two north of us and Uckfield the smaller, and both are an easy morning from here. Cross the county line to the west and we also do house clearance in Haywards Heath, though that's a separate run rather than something we'd bolt onto a Hailsham day.
The town lost its own station back in the sixties — the old Cuckoo Line closed and became the Cuckoo Trail, which is now a walking and cycling route running up through the town towards Heathfield. Practically, that means Polegate is the station most people use, a few minutes away on the Eastbourne to Lewes line, with Berwick the next one along. Worth knowing if you're travelling down from London to meet us at a property and going back the same day. We meet at nine in the morning as standard and aim to finish the property that day where the volume allows.
Sorting, charities and the tip
Furniture, white goods, books, tools, garden gear — a fair proportion of what leaves a Hailsham house is still perfectly usable, and it's daft to bury it. Where something has genuine life in it we'd rather it went to a charity shop, a furniture reuse scheme or a house that needs it. Wealden and the surrounding villages have a good number of charity outlets and a strong second-hand trade, so there's usually somewhere sensible for it.
What can't be reused goes to a permitted transfer station, weighed in and recorded, and you get the paperwork for it. Our waste carrier licence number is CBDU419679 and it's registered with the Environment Agency — worth checking on anyone you hire, not just us, because fly-tipped waste traced back to your address is your problem, not the tipper's.
A few things travel separately. Fridges and freezers are classed as hazardous because of the gases, so they're handled on their own. Sofas, armchairs and other upholstered seating now fall under the persistent organic pollutants rules, which means the padded stuff has to be kept apart from general waste and incinerated under a controlled process. That's a legal requirement, not a preference of ours. And there are things a general van simply isn't permitted to carry: half-tins of gloss, gas canisters, oil drums, asbestos sheeting off an old shed roof. Tell us about those on the phone and we'll either arrange them properly or point you at who does.
What a house clearance in Hailsham costs
We don't publish figures, because a house clearance is not a product off a shelf — a three-bed with a full loft and a stacked garage is a different day's work from the same house half emptied by the family already.
So there's one answer here, and it's the same for everybody: ring the office on 0800 046 5555, or send photographs through the form on this page. Photographs are worth more than any description — room by room, the loft hatch, the garage with the door up, the heap on the patio if there is one. From that we give you a figure and a date before anyone sets off, and we'll tell you honestly if we think it's more than a one-day job.
Probate house clearance in Hailsham
A good share of our Hailsham work is probate. The pattern repeats: an executor two or three counties away, a property standing empty through a winter, an estate agent waiting for the keys, and a family who last saw the inside of the house at Christmas some years ago.
We're used to working to a solicitor's timetable and to an executor who can't be present. Someone with keys — a neighbour, an agent, a family member. Lets us in, we work room by room. We keep an eye out for documents, photographs, jewellery, war medals, anything that looks like it matters to somebody, because it turns up inside books and at the back of wardrobes and in tins in the garage. Anything of that sort is put aside and shown to whoever is dealing with the estate, not binned.
On the paperwork side: we invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly, and payment can come out of the estate rather than from an executor's own pocket. There is no deposit — the invoice follows the work, once the property is cleared. If you want the disposal paperwork for the estate file, ask and it's sent with it. More on how we handle estates is on our probate house clearance page.
Small jobs and single loads in Hailsham
Not everything is a whole house.
Garage and loft clearance in Hailsham is a job in its own right, and around here it's often the whole brief. The house is fine, the family have dealt with the rooms, but nobody has been up the loft ladder since the nineties and the garage hasn't had a car in it in twenty years. We'll do a garage and loft on their own, without touching the rest of the property.
End of tenancy clearance is the other one we get regularly, usually from landlords and managing agents in BN27 who need a property emptied and ready for the next tenant on a fixed date. An end of tenancy job is generally straightforward furniture and belongings left behind, sometimes a garden's worth of rubbish with it.
Then there's single-room clearance after a bereavement, one-off furniture collections, and general rubbish removal where there's a pile rather than a houseful. If the whole lot fits in one van, we're not going to make a production of it.
Cluttered houses, and going back if we've missed something
Some properties haven't been emptied in thirty years and the doors only open partway. Those don't bother us and we don't comment on them — we just work through room by room, steadily, and that kind of job is set out properly on our hoarder house clearance page.
And now and then a job isn't right first time. On one estate clearance a few years back the house was done but the family found rubbish still sitting in the driveway, the greenhouse and the top of the back garden. They sent photographs. The team went back the following day and cleared it, and afterwards the family confirmed it: "My brother went to the property today and has confirmed that it is now cleared." That's how it should work. If something's been left, ring us and we'll come back for it.
Questions we get asked about house clearance in Hailsham
Do you handle probate house clearance in Hailsham, and who gets the invoice? Yes — probate is a large part of what we do here. We invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly, payment can come from the estate, and there's no deposit to find up front. The invoice comes after the property is cleared.
How do I find out what it will cost? Ring 0800 046 5555 or send photographs through the form on this page, and you'll get a figure and a date before anyone sets off. Nothing is invented once the van is on your drive.
Will you do the garage and loft as well as the house? Yes, and we'd rather know about them when you ring than find them on the day. A garage and loft can be as much work as the ground floor. We'll also do them on their own if the house itself doesn't need clearing.
Can you do an end of tenancy clearance to a fixed date? That's most of our landlord and agent work in BN27. Tell us the date the property has to be empty by and we'll work back from it.
Does somebody need to be there on the day? Someone has to let us in, but it doesn't have to be you. An agent, a neighbour or a relative with keys is fine, which is how most of our probate jobs run when the executor lives at a distance.
What won't you take? Paint and solvents, gas bottles, oil, chemicals and asbestos. Fridges, freezers and upholstered furniture we do take, but they're handled under separate rules and kept apart from the general load.
What we need from you to book
Ring or email with the postcode, the type of property, and a rough idea of what's still inside — photographs help more than any description. We'll give you a figure and a date, and tell you honestly if we think it's more than a one-day job. We're licensed, insured, and have been doing house clearance across Sussex and Kent since 2007.
Call 0800 046 5555, or send your photographs through the form on this page and we'll come back to you.
