The paint tins were what held that one up. A terrace in Buckland, PO2, cleared over a day in early February 2023. First load out in the morning, a second the same afternoon. Away with it went a fridge freezer, a mattress, a television and a stack of POP-classified furniture. Under the stairs and out in the back yard there were tins, half of them skinned over and no lids on properly. We don't put those in with the household load, so the team leader rang it through and asked before anything moved. The reply came back the same morning: "Yes, please go ahead with removing the paint. Thank you very much." They went out on their own and were recycled in bulk with everything else of that sort, which is why the paperwork afterwards showed three waste transfer notes rather than one for every trip.
That customer asked two sensible things once the rooms were empty. First: "Is it possible to request a copy of the waste disposal note/s?" Then, when it became plain the clean wasn't going to happen: "Also, even though they won’t be able to do the clean, is it still possible to get photos of the cleared rooms?" Both were fine. The clean didn't get finished: a fuse had blown and there was no power for the machine. No point pretending otherwise, so we said so on the day rather than burying it at the end. Keys went back to the estate agent that evening, pictures of every cleared room were emailed over, and the transfer notes followed about a week later, once the transfer station had issued them. They usually do take that long. Worth knowing if you're an executor sitting on a solicitor's deadline.
That job is a fair portrait of what a house clearance Portsmouth side of the county actually involves. Two loads out of one modest terrace, not because the house was hoarded but because heavy Victorian furniture and white goods fill a Luton van by weight long before they fill it by space. The POP furniture, the fridge freezer, the mattress and the television each had to be split off from the general load and sent down a different route, and the paint went a third way again. Half a day of it is carrying; the rest is sorting so that the right thing ends up at the right licensed gate.
Getting a van onto Portsea Island
Anyone who lives here already knows the shape of the problem. Portsmouth sits on an island, and there are only so many ways on and off it — the M275 down into the city, the Eastern Road along Langstone Harbour, and the A3 coming in at Cosham. When the motorway backs up in the morning, everything else fills too. We build that into the day. The team aims to be at the door for nine, and if the job is down in the city centre we'd rather set off early than sit at Hilsea with a Luton van and three blokes doing nothing.
Then there's the street itself. Portsmouth is built tighter than almost anywhere else in England. Long terraces, no driveways, cars parked nose to tail on both kerbs. A good many roads round Buckland, North End and Stamshaw are one-way whether the satnav thinks so or not. Mid-morning is usually the kindest window; the residents' bays empty out once people have gone to work, and there's generally something within carrying distance. Over in Copnor, Baffins and Anchorage Park the roads are wider and it's rarely a worry at all, but the older parts of PO1 can be genuinely awkward.
If a road looks impossible we'll bring a smaller vehicle and shuttle to the van, or ask about a bay suspension from Portsmouth City Council. Better to sort that a week ahead than argue with a warden at half nine. One practical thing shortens every house clearance we do here. Carrying a divan down a narrow staircase takes longer than driving it to the transfer station. If anyone can bring the light, awkward items down to the ground floor before we arrive, the day runs shorter.
What actually leaves the house, and where it goes
Everything comes out: cupboards, wardrobes, drawers, the loft, the shed, the bit behind the garage nobody's opened since lockdown. Garage and loft clearance is also a booking in its own right here — plenty of people want a house clearance Portsmouth crews can do in the loft and garage alone, with the rooms left untouched. You don't need to bag or box anything. Put aside what you're keeping and we work around it. If something obviously personal turns up — photographs, papers, a wedding ring at the back of a drawer — the team stops and asks rather than deciding for you. On probate clearances that happens more often than you'd think, because the people instructing us have usually never been through the house properly themselves.
Furniture that's still sound gets offered on before it gets tipped. Sideboards, dining chairs, decent white goods — there are reuse schemes and charity depots across Hampshire that will take them, and it costs us nothing but a detour. What can't be reused is weighed in at a permitted transfer station and separated there. Our waste carrier registration is CBDU419679, we're fully insured, and transfer notes come to you on request, as they did on that Buckland job.
A few things carry their own charge because the law treats them separately. Fridges and freezers are hazardous waste — the gas has to be drawn off by a licensed processor, so an under-counter one is handled differently from a tall upright or a chest freezer. Mattresses are dealt with on their own too, since the springs and the filling get split apart rather than crushed. POP items are persistent organic pollutants: in practice most sofas, armchairs, padded dining chairs and office seating made before the rules changed. They have to be incinerated rather than landfilled, and each one is accounted for individually. Paint, as above, goes off in bulk to a recycler. Gas bottles and asbestos we won't touch at all; that needs a specialist and we'll tell you who to ring.
Carpets, underlay and gripper rods come up as well if you want them gone. Rods only where they've been nailed to floorboards, mind — if someone's fixed them over tiles, pulling them lifts the tiles with them, and we'll leave them rather than wreck the floor for you.
Handovers, empty houses and jobs run from a distance
A fair share of our Portsmouth work is booked by somebody who isn't in Portsmouth. The house belongs to a parent or an aunt, the family has scattered, and the person holding the paperwork is two or three hours up the country. That's the ordinary shape of a probate clearance: the estate is half settled, the sale is moving, and the last thing standing between the executor and exchange is a full house nobody can face driving down for.
We're set up for it. Keys can come from an estate agent, a neighbour or a relative, and go back to whichever of them you say. Team leaders photograph the rooms on arrival as well as at the end, so there is a record of the state we found the place in. That is useful if a probate valuation is in the file, or if a beneficiary who wasn't there wants to see. You get the pictures the same day, as that Buckland customer did, and the waste transfer notes when the station releases them. If something goes wrong mid-job, a dead socket, a jammed loft hatch, a wardrobe that will not come down the stairs in one piece, you hear about it while the team is still in the house.
Where a property is being handed to an agent the day after, tell us and we'll work backwards from that. Where the grant hasn't come through yet, that's fine too — see below.
The cost, plainly
There is a legal weight ceiling on what a van can carry, so a house full of books and tools fills up faster than a house full of wardrobes. That is why the walk-round matters more than the room count.
On a probate house clearance we invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly, and payment can come out of the estate once probate allows it. There is no deposit and nothing is asked for in advance: you settle once you have walked the property and you are happy with it. The estimate is free and commits you to nothing.
Hoarder house clearance in Portsmouth
Cluttered and badly overfilled properties are ordinary work for us, not a reason to raise an eyebrow. A hoarder house clearance takes longer, needs more hands and more than one load, and it needs sorting rather than shovelling, because the papers and the valuables are in there somewhere. We'll give you an honest estimate of loads and days after the walk round, and if it changes as rooms open up you hear about it before we carry on, not on the invoice.
Where we work around the city
We cover the Portsmouth districts across the island and up to the mainland edge. PO1 for the city centre, Portsea and Landport. PO2 through Buckland, North End, Stamshaw and Hilsea. PO3 out towards Copnor, Baffins and Anchorage Park, and PO6 for Cosham, Drayton, Farlington and Portchester. Off the island the same round takes in house clearance in Havant along the coast, house clearance in Waterlooville up the A3, and house clearance in Fareham to the west. A second property in one of those can usually be tacked onto the same week.
Fratton and Portsmouth & Southsea stations are both a short walk from a good many of the houses we clear. That is handy if you're coming down from London for the day and going straight back. Ring 0800 046 5555 or email with the postcode, the size of the property and a rough idea of what's in it, and you'll get a figure and a date without anyone turning up to sell at you first.
Common questions
How much notice do you need? One or two working days is usually enough for a house clearance in Portsmouth. If you have a date in mind we pencil it in now, so you get the day you want. The team arrives at nine and, in most houses, finishes that day.
Can you clear before probate is granted? The grant governs when the estate can be distributed, not when a house can be emptied, so plenty of our probate work happens beforehand on the executor's instruction. If you'd rather wait, we'll hold the date and invoice once probate comes through. Either way, say which at the booking stage so nobody is chasing the wrong person for paperwork.
Do I have to be there on the day? No. We've done a great deal of Portsmouth work for people who never saw the van. Keys from an agent or a neighbour, photographs of every room at the end, notes emailed after.
Will you provide waste transfer notes? Yes, on request. Be aware they can take a week or so to reach us from the transfer station, and one note may cover several categories of load rather than one note per trip.
What won't you take? Gas bottles and anything containing asbestos. Gripper rods laid over tiles stay put, because removing them damages the floor. Everything else in an ordinary house clearance — furniture, white goods, carpets, loft and shed contents, garden waste — comes out with us.
