The fridge and the freezer were staying. So were the carpets in the hall, on the stairs and landing. In the bathroom, and every curtain in the house. Everything else in a four-bedroom place up in Sanderstead came out, garage included, on a Thursday morning in March. The booking had originally been for the Friday. Friday was already full, so we held the Thursday instead and the crew met the family at the door at nine. By the time the van pulled off the drive the house was down to bare rooms, minus that short list of things that had to stay put. And that list is why we ask for it in writing before we ever turn up. Somebody says "leave the fridge" on the phone three weeks before the job and nobody remembers it on the day. Written down, it survives.
We had gone through the questions with that family a couple of days beforehand: who would be at the property to let the crew in and point at things, whether there was anything hazardous or vermin-related in there, whether the carpets and curtains were coming out, whether parking on the road would be a problem. None, none, some, and no, in that order. Sanderstead is one of the easier parts of South Croydon for a van. Driveways you can reverse onto, no permit bays on most streets, no red route within a mile. It made a difference. A four-bed with a garage is a full day's work as it is. You do not want to spend two hours of it walking to a van parked round the corner.
That is more or less how our South Croydon work goes. Four-beds off the Limpsfield Road end, semis on the slopes down towards Croham Hurst, flats above the shops on Brighton Road, the odd big Edwardian pile carved into two. Different houses, same problem: somebody has to empty it. It is usually somebody who has a full-time job and a train to catch from South Croydon station.
A house clearance South Croydon booked on two days' notice
The enquiry came in during February 2023 with our own postcode box arguing with whoever was typing into it. The entire message was one line: "Something is wrong with a postcode". So we rang back rather than wrote back, took the district down the way they said it. CR2 — and carried on from there. It happens more often than you would think. If a form will not have your postcode, ring 0800 046 5555 and a person will write it down instead.
What we told them on that call is what we tell everybody who asks how soon somebody can come. One to two working days' notice is normally all we need. If you already have a date in your head. The morning the keys change hands, the one Saturday the family can all be in the same place — say so on the call and we will hold that day there and then rather than ring you back about it. Nothing is paid to book. The invoice follows the work, once the house is empty and you have seen it.
The crew is at the door at nine. A Luton furniture van and three of our team. For a house that has not got out of hand that is the day: walk round first, work down from the top, van away in the afternoon.
A hoarder house clearance, or a part-cluttered one, is a different shape of day and we say so before anything is booked. It is the honest answer rather than the comfortable one. We still finish on the day. It simply takes more than one van-load to do it, so the van runs out to the transfer station and comes back, sometimes twice. The crew keeps going in between. What we will not do is stop when the first load is full and leave you standing in a half-empty house with a second appointment to arrange around your work.
Sheds, lofts and garages only
Not every job is a whole house. In March last year we quoted on a place towards Croham Hurst where the ask was a shed, a loft and a garage, nothing indoors at all. The instruction came from a property firm several counties away, in Cambridgeshire, working off photographs. The occupier due to be out. The loft was reported as mostly empty boxes. It rarely is — lofts have a habit of producing a cot, a dismantled bed frame and forty years of Christmas decorations once someone actually puts their head through the hatch. That one was done inside the day.
Garage and loft clearance is a service in its own right round here, and outbuilding-only work suits a lot of South Croydon plots. The gardens are long and the sheds are old. Rotten shelving, seized mowers, half-bags of sand, bikes nobody has ridden since the children left. If you are selling and the buyer's survey has flagged the garage, that is the job you want, not a full house clearance.
The kinds of house clearance South Croydon asks us for
Flat clearance in CR2
Not everything here is a house with a drive. The flats over the shops, the big Edwardian places carved into two and three, the sheltered schemes off the main roads. A flat clearance in CR2 is a different job from a semi, and it is nearly always decided by the stairs and the front door. One flight or three. A communal hall that cannot be blocked while other people are trying to get past it. A door straight onto a pavement with nowhere legal to stand a Luton van. We ask about all of that on the phone. The answers decide how many of us come and what we bring with us. A wardrobe that will not come round a half-landing gets taken apart on the landing. That is a normal morning, not a disaster.
End of tenancy clearance in South Croydon
Landlords and managing agents ring us for end of tenancy clearance, usually when a let has been handed back with half of it still in place and there is a viewing in the diary. Beds, a sofa nobody wanted to move, a kitchen full of part-used everything. The loft hatch left open with a suitcase still in it. Those jobs run to a deadline more than anything else, so we book them to the date rather than the week. The property is left to bare rooms and swept.
Probate house clearance South Croydon
Probate work is the bulk of what we do in CR2. Probate house clearance is a particular kind of day: nobody wants to be rushed, and half the contents matter to somebody. We go slowly through the keepers first, whatever has been set aside. Photographs, papers, a sewing room that stays exactly as it is — and only then start emptying. Where the executor is at the other end of the country. Is most of the time, we photograph room by room and send the pictures over so somebody who cannot be there can still see what state the house was left in. On a probate clearance we invoice the solicitor, the trustee or the executor direct if that is easier than invoicing the family. It is normally settled from the estate. If you would rather talk it through before the grant comes, ring 0800 046 5555 or send photographs through the form on this page.
Where we cover round here
CR2 is South Croydon itself, Sanderstead, Selsdon and Croham. We work the whole ring around it too. CR0 takes in central Croydon — house clearance in Croydon — along with Addiscombe, Shirley and Waddon. CR8 is house clearance in Purley, Riddlesdown and Kenley. CR5 is house clearance in Coulsdon. CR7 is Thornton Heath, SE25 is South Norwood and Woodside, and SW16 covers Norbury and the house clearance in Streatham edge. Most of that is the London Borough of Croydon. The Streatham side crosses into Lambeth — and all of it is Greater London, though plenty of the older paperwork round Sanderstead still says Surrey and nobody minds.
Access is worth a word, because Croydon is not flat. Purley Oaks and Sanderstead stations sit at the bottom of hills with terraces stacked up either side. A good number of those roads are permit-only with a two-hour bay if you are lucky. We check the street before the day, and where there is nowhere legal to stand the van we arrange a bay suspension with the council so the crew is not carrying wardrobes two hundred yards. Up towards Selsdon it is the opposite problem: wide roads, deep drives. A turning circle that a Luton van makes in one go.
What a day costs
You get the figure over the phone, or after we have seen photographs, and that figure is the figure. Nobody arrives, sucks their teeth and revises it upward on the doorstep. The quote is free and commits you to nothing. There is nothing to pay to hold a date. Where the property is being cleared under a grant of probate, the bill can go to the solicitor or the executor and be settled out of the estate. Is what usually happens; solicitors move at their own speed and we have never made that the family's problem.
Two-day jobs get planned as two days from the start. Nobody is watching the clock at four in the afternoon wondering about the last bedroom. If a house turns out bigger than the photographs suggested. And it does happen — we tell you at the time, not afterwards.
Where it all ends up
Furniture, white goods, tools, crockery, anything that still has a use in it goes to a charity shop or a reuse project if one will take it. Croydon has enough of them that this is normally straightforward. Metal is separated for scrap. What genuinely cannot be reused travels to a permitted transfer station and is weighed and ticketed. We keep the paperwork, so there is a record of where your load went. Our waste carrier registration with the Environment Agency is CBDU419679 and you are welcome to check it before you book us. Anyone quoting you cash on the drive without one is a risk you do not need. Fly-tipped waste traces back to whoever it belonged to.
A few categories have to be handled apart from the general household stuff. Sofas, armchairs and other upholstered seating with foam in them fall under the persistent organic pollutant rules and have to go down a separate, regulated route, so those get counted apart. Paint tins, gas cylinders, asbestos sheeting from an old garage roof, car batteries. None of that travels with household waste, and we will tell you straight who does take it locally rather than shrug.
Houses that have got out of hand
Some of what we clear has been building up for years, and people are often embarrassed before we arrive. There is no need to be. Rooms you cannot walk into, a hallway with a path through it, a garage that has not been opened since the nineties. We have done all of it, and the crew turns up, gets on with it and does not comment. What we do ask about beforehand is anything hazardous or verminous in the property. It changes what protective kit and what containers we bring, and it is much better to know on the phone than to find out at nine in the morning.
Questions we get asked about house clearance in South Croydon
How quickly can you clear a property? One to two working days' notice is usually enough. If you want a particular day, say it on the call and we will hold it. The crew is at the door at nine and a house that is not cluttered is normally done that day.
Do I have to be there while you work? No. Plenty of people walk the crew round at nine and then go to work. If you do that, either show the team what stays or stick a note on it. Plans change over a weekend and a scribbled label settles the argument before it starts. We photograph as we go and send the pictures.
Can you invoice a solicitor for a probate house clearance? Yes. Solicitor, trustee or executor direct, and it can be settled from the estate. Nothing is payable up front and the invoice comes after the work.
What does a house clearance South Croydon job cost? Ring with the postcode district and a rough room count, or send photographs through the form on this page. You get a proper figure and a date. It is free, it commits you to nothing, and it does not move on the doorstep.
Will you take the fridge and the sofa? Yes, both, but they travel separately from everything else. Fridges and freezers because of their gas, upholstered seating because of the persistent organic pollutant rules. Tell us how many of each are in the house when you ring. Mention anything you want left behind at the same time.
Ring us on 0800 046 5555 with your postcode and rough room count, or send a few photographs from your phone through the form on this page. We will give you a proper figure and a date. If Friday is full we will say so, and offer you the Thursday.
