Three mattresses went out to the van before half nine. The house sat in PO16, a short walk from Fareham town centre, and the person who instructed us lived over in Gosport — near enough to have been driving up and round the top of the harbour every weekend for a month, far enough to have had a proper bellyful of it. One load, three mattresses, and the front door locked again the same afternoon. Mattresses are the thing people forget when they picture a house clearance. They don't crush, they don't stack, and each one has to come down the stairs on its own. Three of them takes a corner of the van before a single wardrobe is lifted.
That job is a fair sample of what house clearance in Fareham looks like for us most weeks. Nothing dramatic about it. A house lived in for decades, a family who have run out of free Saturdays, and one day's work with a team and a Luton van. We have been doing this since 2007, and the shape of the work around this part of Hampshire has not changed much in that time.
Much of the older stock around the town centre and up towards Wallington is bay-fronted and narrow inside, with a turn on the stairs that decides how the wardrobes come out — in one piece, or in three. Out at Locks Heath and Whiteley the houses are newer and easier to work in, but the parking is residents' bays and shared drives, so the questions we ask on the phone change completely. Neither is a problem. It's just worth knowing before a van's worth of furniture starts coming through the front door.
Wickham, and a house clearance done in March 2020
Wickham shares the PO17 district with Southwick and Boarhunt, up behind Portsdown Hill where the borough thins out into lanes and the odd farm entrance. We cleared a property there in the last week of March 2020, which anyone can date for themselves. One load and a mattress. The person dealing with it was in Suffolk and never set foot in Hampshire that week — we picked up access locally, worked through the house, and emailed the pictures over afterwards. Our team leaders photograph every room on the walk-round and again once it's empty, so somebody two hundred miles away can see exactly what was done and what state the place was left in.
Afterwards they wrote: "Glad you were able to complete the job in the current circumstances."
That was a strange fortnight to be doing anything at all. Half the country was working out what it was still allowed to do, and a house that had to be emptied did not stop having to be emptied. We have done a lot of work around Wickham and Knowle since without it being remotely as complicated.
We don't ask people to sort anything before we come. Cupboards, wardrobes, drawers, the back of the airing cupboard — the team empties all of it, lifts carpet and underlay if that's wanted, and sweeps through at the end. If there are letters or photographs somebody wants keeping, say so on the phone and they get set aside rather than binned. That one instruction, given before nine in the morning, saves more upset than anything else we do.
The kinds of house clearance we take on in Fareham
Probate house clearance in Fareham
Houses being wound up after a death are a good part of what we do here. Probate work has its own rhythm: the grant comes through, the estate agent wants the place on the market, and somebody who lives nowhere near Fareham has to make it all happen by telephone. Probate house clearance in Fareham usually means we are dealing with an executor in another county, or with a solicitor's office acting for the estate, rather than with anybody standing in the hallway.
So, plainly: we invoice the solicitor, the executor or the administrator of the estate directly, and payment can come out of the estate rather than out of somebody's own pocket. There is no deposit and nothing is asked for up front. The invoice follows the work, once the property has been walked through — or once the photographs have been looked at, if you are not local — and you have said you are happy with it. We are used to working to the timetable a sale imposes, and we can send waste transfer notes for the estate file. More on the probate side of it is on our probate house clearance page.
Garage and loft clearance in Fareham
A garage and loft clearance is often the whole job in the newer parts of the borough, where the house itself has been emptied by the family and the two places nobody wanted to tackle are still full. Lofts around here vary wildly — a proper boarded floor and a fixed ladder in some of the Titchfield Common houses, a hatch and a joist to balance on in the older places. We bring our own ladder. Everything comes down by hand, one armful at a time, and anything that has been up there since the seventies usually comes down in a worse state than it went up.
Garages are the same story with heavier contents. Up-and-over doors that have not been lifted for years, a floor covered in tins and offcuts, a mower nobody has started this decade. If the door won't open we work out on the phone whether there's an internal door or a side gate, because that decides how long the day takes. Sheds and greenhouses we'll take too, dismantled if that's what's needed.
Flat clearance and end of tenancy clearance in PO14 and PO16
Flat clearance is a different animal: stair access, a shared entrance somebody else's neighbours use, and often a management company with rules about how long a van can sit on the forecourt. We handle a fair number of these around Fareham town centre and down in PO14 towards Stubbington. End of tenancy clearance tends to come from landlords and letting agents who need a property empty and swept by a fixed date, and that date is usually not negotiable, so we book it and we turn up.
Hoarder house clearance in Fareham
Properties that have got badly overfilled we take on as they come — no lectures, no photographs shown to anybody, just more loads booked in and a longer day. Hoarder house clearance is slower than an ordinary job because everything has to be looked at before it is bagged; documents, cash and jewellery turn up in the middle of what looks like rubbish more often than you would think. If that is the situation, say so on the phone and we plan the day around it. There's a fuller explanation on our hoarder house clearance page.
What leaves the house, and where it goes
Anything still usable gets offered on before it gets tipped — furniture in decent condition, unopened kit, tools, the sort of thing a charity shop or a community project round Fareham or Portchester will actually take. Whatever's left is taken to a permitted transfer station and weighed in properly, and we can send you the transfer notes if you want them on file. We hold waste carrier licence CBDU419679 and we're insured for the work. Loose rubbish on its own, without a full house behind it, comes under house rubbish removal instead.
Some items are treated differently by law, and it isn't us being awkward. Fridges and freezers hold gas and count as hazardous, so they have to be handled and disposed of separately from ordinary furniture. Sofas, armchairs and other upholstered seating are dealt with under the persistent-organic-pollutant rules, which have applied since 2023 and mean those items cannot simply go in with everything else. Tins of paint, gas cylinders, thinners and old chemicals from a garage need a dedicated collection; we'll tell you honestly on the phone whether yours can ride along or not. Hampshire's own household waste centre on Newgate Lane will take some of it directly from a resident, which is occasionally the simpler route for one or two awkward items.
What it costs and how the day runs
There is one honest answer to the cost question and it isn't a number on a web page. Ring the office on 0800 046 5555 and describe the house — number of bedrooms, loft, garage, shed, whether the garden's part of it — or send photographs through the form on this page, and you'll get a figure back. The quote is free and it doesn't commit you to anything.
The team starts at nine unless we've agreed otherwise, and most three-bed houses in PO14, PO15 and PO16 are finished the same day. You don't have to be there. Keys can come from a neighbour or an agent, and the photographs land in your inbox that evening.
How far we run from here
Fareham borough and the districts around it: PO14 through Titchfield, Stubbington and Hill Head, PO15 across Whiteley, Titchfield Common and Funtley, PO16 for Fareham itself and Portchester, PO17 for Wickham, Southwick and Boarhunt, SO31 for Locks Heath, Sarisbury Green and Burridge, plus PO10 at Emsworth. Fareham station is on the line between Southampton and Portsmouth, with Portchester one way and Swanwick the other, and we've worked within ten minutes of all three.
The same vans go out past the borough boundary most weeks. East over Portsdown Hill for house clearance in Portsmouth, west along the M27 for house clearance in Southampton, and up the A27 for house clearance in Havant or house clearance in Waterlooville when the day allows it. Each of those has its own page with its own jobs on it.
Common questions about house clearance in Fareham
How much does a house clearance in Fareham cost?
We don't publish figures, because a three-bed with an empty loft and a three-bed with forty years in the loft are not the same job. Ring 0800 046 5555 and describe it, or send photographs through the form on this page, and you'll have a figure back quickly. It costs nothing to ask and there's no obligation.
Can you invoice a solicitor or an executor?
Yes. We invoice solicitors, executors and administrators directly, and the cost can be paid from the estate rather than by a family member personally. No deposit, and the invoice comes after the work is done.
Do we have to be there on the day?
No. Keys can come from a neighbour, an estate agent or a solicitor's office, and you'll get photographs of every room once the property is empty. A good share of our Fareham house clearance work is instructed by people living well outside Hampshire.
Do we need to empty the cupboards first?
No. The team clears cupboards, wardrobes, drawers and the loft as they go. Tell us on the phone about anything that must be kept — paperwork, photographs, a particular item — and it gets set aside instead of loaded.
Do you take fridges, freezers and sofas?
Yes, but they are handled under separate rules from ordinary furniture and have to be disposed of at sites licensed for them. Mention them when you call so the team brings the right kit and allows the time.
Which parts of Fareham do you cover?
PO14, PO15, PO16 and PO17 — the town itself, Portchester, Titchfield, Stubbington, Hill Head, Whiteley, Funtley, Wickham, Southwick and Boarhunt — and the areas immediately around them.
If you want a figure, ring 0800 046 5555 and describe the house, or send photographs through the form on this page. You'll get a real answer on that call, not a salesman on your doorstep a week later.
