Most of our house clearance work in Emsworth arrives in much the same way. A parent's house near the quay, a family living somewhere else along the coast, a completion date already agreed and nobody able to take a fortnight off to empty the place. We cover PO10 and the villages behind the harbour. A house clearance in Emsworth is normally a one-day job: the team comes down the A27, starts at nine, and aims to leave the property empty the same afternoon.
Before the practical part, here is one of ours that did not run to plan. We would rather show you that one than a day where everything went smoothly.
The clearance we had to go back and finish
September 2019. A house and garden clearance, three men, one day booked for it. It was an estate job, organised by the family rather than by anyone living in the house. Is how most of this work reaches us.
The house came out on the day. The garden did not, and that is where we got it wrong. There was a greenhouse to empty, a shed with bricks laid out across the floor, old window frames stacked outside. Rubbish spread from the drive to the top of the garden. The team ran out of daylight, and instead of saying so plainly at the end of the afternoon, they packed up and went. Photographs arrived the next morning, taken from the front garden, the back of the drive. Up the top of the garden on the left, with the items ringed one by one.
The list came from the customer, not from us: "There are 2 bags in the patio area at the back of the house that need removing, as well as the remainder of the rubbish that you can see in the pictures in the driveway, in the back garden, in the greenhouse and the bricks in the shed that have been laid on the ground, and the windows in the garden, all of this was included in the quote but wasn’t removed."
Then a second message, because more had turned up once she walked the garden properly: "Apologies, I was mistaken, the bulbs are still there, these need to go aswell, aswell as the green fabric unit at the back of the garden".
She had also taken the old light tubes away herself by then, which she should never have had to do. We went back and cleared the rest of it. The two bags off the patio, the bricks off the shed floor, the window frames, the green fabric unit at the back, the bulbs — and a relative went round to check it in person rather than take our word for it. Fair enough, too. The verdict came back through her: "My brother went to the property today and has confirmed that it is now cleared."
Two things came out of that job and they are both in how we work now. Gardens get looked at properly before the day, from photographs of the shed and the greenhouse and not just the rooms. A shed with bricks stacked on the floor is a different proposition to a shed with a lawnmower in it. And if a day is going to run short, the team says so at four in the afternoon, on site, while there is still a conversation to be had. Nobody minds a second visit. People mind finding out about it from a photograph.
What leaves the house, and where it actually goes
Everything that comes out is sorted before it is tipped. Furniture and household goods still worth using are offered on for a second life, either to charity or sold on, which keeps the tipping weight down. What is genuinely finished goes to licensed recycling stations, and waste transfer notes are there for the asking. Useful if you are an executor and want a paper trail for the estate file. We carry waste under licence CBDU419679, we are fully insured, and we have been doing this since 2007.
Fridges and freezers are hazardous waste and are handled apart from everything else, as the gas has to be drawn off under controlled conditions. Upholstered furniture goes down the POP route — POPs being persistent organic pollutants, the flame retardants in old sofa and armchair foam. By law have to be burned rather than recycled or tipped. Mattresses are kept separate too, because most tips will not take them mixed in with furniture. Paint tins, gas cylinders, oils and anything clinical are not things we can load in with the ordinary contents of a house: a yellow sharps bin is clinical waste and goes through the council's own clinical collection, not on our van. Say what you have got when you ring and we will tell you straight whether it is coming or staying.
The kinds of house clearance we take on in Emsworth
Probate house clearance in Emsworth
Estate work is the bulk of it. A probate house clearance in Emsworth usually starts with a solicitor or an executor who lives somewhere else entirely. The questions are always the same: can it be done before the grant comes through, can it be done without anybody travelling down, and who ends up paying. We can start once the executor tells us to, and plenty are done before the estate is settled. Nothing has to be boxed or bagged first.
On the question of who pays, the answer is simple, because it is the part people are shy about asking. We invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly. Whoever the grant names — and payment can come out of the estate rather than out of anybody's own pocket. There is no deposit and nothing is asked for up front. The quote is free and puts you under no obligation. If you want the detail on the paperwork side, our probate house clearance page sets out what we send and when.
If you would rather not be there, we will collect a key from a neighbour or an agent and email photographs of the empty rooms afterwards, and if something turns up that matters to the family. Papers, photographs, a ring in the back of a drawer — it is set aside and posted on rather than tipped.
Flat clearance and end of tenancy clearance in PO10
Flats above the shops in the town centre, the retirement schemes, the newer blocks off the Havant road: a flat clearance is a shorter day but a slower carry. Stairs and a shared front door are usually the whole story. End of tenancy clearance in Emsworth is the other regular one. A landlord or a managing agent, a property that has to be empty and swept by a fixed date, and often nobody local with a key.
Garage, loft and shed clearance in Emsworth
Plenty of jobs here never touch the house. Garage and loft clearance in Emsworth is its own thing: loft ladders that were fitted in 1985 and have not been up since, a garage with a workbench and forty years of tins on it, a shed at the bottom of a long garden with no side access. Lofts get emptied down to the insulation, which stays put unless you tell us otherwise. Single items go too, if that is all there is. A wardrobe, a piano, a sofa nobody can get down the stairs.
Hoarder house clearance and houses in a poor state
Some properties have got away from someone. A hoarder house clearance is a different kind of day: more of it is bagged at source, the team goes in with different kit. A house that has stood shut up for a year or two often needs a clean and a garden cut back at the end rather than just emptying. It does not shock anybody on the van and it is not talked about afterwards. Verminous properties are handled the same way, with the right kit and a treatment where one is needed. There is more on our hoarder house clearance page, and if it is only bagged rubbish and no furniture, house rubbish removal is the simpler way round it.
Getting a van in around Emsworth's older streets
The lanes running down towards the mill ponds and the quay were laid out long before anyone owned a car, let alone a Luton van. Parking near the square and along the way to Slipper Mill Pond is tight. If you are in one of those cottages it is worth knowing before the day whether the van can sit outside or whether we will be carrying to the end of the road. Nobody minds carrying. It just changes the timings, and we would rather know at eight in the morning than find out at nine.
The newer estates towards the A27 and out along the Havant road are easier. Driveways, room to swing a tipper round. Emsworth station on the West Coastway line, the next stop along from Warblington and two from Havant, is a useful marker for anyone directing us to a property: half the town is described to us as "the harbour side of the railway" or "the other side of the line".
Where else we go from here
From Emsworth we work across PO10 — the town itself, Westbourne, Southbourne, Prinsted, Nutbourne, Hermitage, Chidham and Hambrook — and out from there. House clearance in Havant is the nearest of the bigger towns and about ten minutes down the road; house clearance in Hayling Island is over the bridge and a regular run for us; house clearance in Waterlooville and Denmead sit up the A3 side; and house clearance in Chichester covers the Witterings and the villages behind the harbour. Rowlands Castle and Warblington are a short run too. Emsworth sits in Hampshire, in Havant borough, with West Sussex beginning almost at the end of the high street. Which matters mostly for whose recycling centre you can use, and not at all to us.
How a day in Emsworth runs
The team leaves early and is on the doorstep at nine. Nothing needs boxing or bagging first: cupboards, wardrobes and drawers are emptied, carpets and underlay come up if they are going. The place is swept through at the end. Most houses here are done in the day. If there is more in the property than one van holds, the van goes out to be emptied and comes back. If a house genuinely needs two days we say so before we start rather than at four in the afternoon — see above for why.
Questions we get asked about house clearance in Emsworth
Can you invoice the solicitor on a probate clearance? Yes. We invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly, and payment can come from the estate. There is no deposit and nothing is required up front.
How much will my house clearance in Emsworth cost? Ring the office on 0800 046 5555 with the postcode and the size of the property, or send a few photographs of each room through the form on this page. You will get a figure before anybody sets off. We do not quote blind and we do not quote from a table.
Do I need to be there on the day? No. We will take a key from a neighbour, an agent or a solicitor's office and email photographs of the empty rooms when the job is finished.
Do you clear gardens, sheds and greenhouses as well as the house? Yes. We would rather see photographs of them at the quoting stage than guess. Bricks, old window frames and greenhouse glass all take room in the van that furniture would otherwise use.
What will you not take away? Paint, oils, gas cylinders, asbestos and clinical waste such as sharps bins. Fridges, freezers and upholstered furniture we do take, but they are handled under their own rules rather than tipped with the rest.
How far do you go from Emsworth? PO10 and the harbour villages are the core of it. Havant, Hayling Island, Waterlooville and Chichester all inside a normal working day.
Talk to somebody who has done the road
Ring 0800 046 5555, or send photographs of each room through the form on this page. You will have a figure and a date. If it is a probate clearance, tell us who is handling the estate and we will deal with them directly from there.
