Two days, four van loads, and nothing bagged up before we got there. That was a full house clearance in Herne Bay, CT6, a few streets back from the front, and it is still one of the bigger ones we have done in the town. The whole property emptied room by room, two loads away on the first day and two more on the second. The paperwork went to the same address we had just cleared, so the person instructing us was dealing with their own house rather than working through a solicitor's file. That happens here more than people expect. We have been doing house clearance in Herne Bay and the towns either side of it since 2007, and most jobs start the same way: a phone call, a few photographs, a date.
Where we go along this coast
Herne Bay is CT6, in the Canterbury district of Kent, and the postcodes either side of it are ones we know by sight. CT5 covers Whitstable, Tankerton, Swalecliffe and Chestfield. CT1 to CT4 are Canterbury and the villages behind it. Further round the coast we cover CT14 at Deal and Walmer, and CT20 at Folkestone. Within Herne Bay itself the work lands in Beltinge, Greenhill, Studd Hill, Hampton, and up the hill in Herne village and Broomfield, out towards Reculver where the two towers stand on the cliff.
If the property is over the boundary rather than in the town itself, we have separate pages for house clearance in Canterbury, house clearance in Whitstable, house clearance in Margate and house clearance in Ramsgate. Same vans, same week, usually the same run down the Thanet Way.
Our vans come off the Thanet Way rather than through the middle of town. If you are giving directions, the landmarks that actually help are the Clock Tower, the pier and Memorial Park. Herne Bay railway station is on the Chatham main line. Faversham one way, Margate and Ramsgate the other, London Victoria and St Pancras from the same platform — and there is a small station at Chestfield and Swalecliffe just short of Whitstable. Plenty of the people who instruct us arrive by train on the morning of a clearance, walk down, hand over a key and go for a coffee while we work.
Why parking decides the day in Herne Bay
Access is the thing that changes the shape of a day here, not the amount of furniture. The seafront terraces have no off-street parking at all, the roads behind Central Parade are narrow with cars both sides, and a Luton van cannot always sit outside the door. Eighty yards with a wardrobe is a very different job from eight. None of that stops the work — it changes the hours, and we would rather say so on the phone than discover it at nine in the morning.
Up in Herne village the lanes are tight and there is nowhere to turn a long wheelbase round if you commit to the wrong one. The interwar bungalows in Beltinge and Greenhill usually have a driveway, which makes them the easiest properties in town to clear. Out towards Reculver you can be on a track with a soft verge, and in wet weather we will park short and barrow it rather than sink a van in front of your neighbours.
If a bay needs suspending, or the property sits behind a barrier on a private road, tell us when you book. Where a permit is genuinely needed it is worth arranging in advance — teams do get ticketed on jobs where nobody checked.
Bungalows, lofts and sheds
A lot of Herne Bay housing was built to be lived in quietly for a long time, and it shows in what comes out of it. Interwar and post-war bungalows in Beltinge and Greenhill, Victorian and Edwardian terraces near the seafront, big old houses chopped into flats, and a fair number of 1960s and 1970s estates behind the town. Bungalows nearly always mean a loft hatch with a ladder that has seen better days, and a shed or greenhouse that has not been opened since the last owner stopped gardening.
A one-bedroom bungalow we cleared was a good example of the type: bedroom, dining room, kitchen, bathroom and an attic, all of it to come out. The owner never came to the property at all. Access was by key safe, and he checked the place himself the evening before, then sent us a note that told the team more than a page of instructions would have: "just did one last check of the house.
All the keys are in the key safe, just pull the door handle slightly as you unlock the front door and it should open OK." He also flagged that the hallway light did not work, so the lads brought their own lamps — a dark hallway with furniture coming down it is how people get hurt. Two small fire extinguishers stayed screwed to the kitchen wall, the cooker and washing machine stayed, the carpets and curtains stayed, and the free-standing fridge went. That kind of list is exactly what we want from you.
Anything you tell us to leave, we leave.
Garage and loft clearance in Herne Bay
Garage and loft clearance is half the volume on a bungalow and people forget to mention it. Tell us on the phone if there is a loft, because a boarded loft full of boxes is a job in itself and it decides whether we bring the extra man. Same with a garage nobody has opened in a decade, a lean-to greenhouse with rotten glazing bars, or a shed with a mower and forty tins in it. Where the loft is unboarded we work off the joists and pass down. We will say no to a hatch that is not safe to work from rather than put someone through a ceiling. Garden waste, a rotary drier, an old boat trailer — say it now, not on the day.
Probate house clearance in Herne Bay, and instructing us from a distance
Quite a lot of the house clearance work we do in this town is probate work, and the executor is very often not in Kent. That is fine. We collect a key from an agent, a neighbour or a key safe, we work through the house, and we send photographs of every cleared room at the end if you ask for them. On a probate clearance where the executor lives hundreds of miles away, that set of pictures is often the only thing they ever see of the day. Waste transfer notes go to the solicitor for the file. If you want a written inventory of contents before anything moves, ask before the day rather than after.
Not every clearance we do from a distance is a probate one. One in CT6 8, up on the Beltinge side of Herne Bay, came to us from a couple whose own address was in south-east London. One van load out of the house, the whole thing arranged without them standing in the hall watching. If you would rather be there, be there; if you would rather not, the day works perfectly well without you.
Where the house needs more than clearing, we do probate house clearance alongside heavily filled properties. See hoarder house clearance — and single-run house rubbish removal where the furniture is staying and only the rubbish is going.
Sorting, reuse and the transfer station
Nothing that still has a use in it should be going in a hole in the ground, so the first sort happens at the property. Furniture in decent condition, crockery, books, tools, bikes, unopened bedding. We look for a charity shop, a reuse scheme or a local project that will actually take it, rather than tipping it because tipping is quicker. What is genuinely finished goes to a permitted transfer station and comes back to us as paperwork. Waste transfer notes can take a week or two to reach us from the site, and we send them on when they arrive. Our waste carrier registration with the Environment Agency is CBDU419679, and we are insured for the work and for your property while we are in it.
Some things travel separately from the main load rather than in it. Mattresses go on their own — that is a legal requirement, not a preference. Fridges and freezers are degassed under separate rules. Televisions and monitors go through the electrical stream. A gas bottle came out of one clearance and went off on its own ticket, the same as half-used tins of paint, solvents and garden chemicals do. If there is a sharps bin in the house, tell us before the day, because that goes back through the clinical waste route and we would rather it went the right way than into a van.
Getting a quote for house clearance in Herne Bay
Ring the office on 0800 046 5555 and talk it through, or send photographs through the form on this page. Room-by-room pictures, the loft hatch, the garage, the shed and the front of the house showing where a van could stand are worth more than any description. There is no obligation in asking.
Heavily filled houses do not put us off and we do not make a performance of them. If every room is packed to the ceiling and the doors only open halfway, say so honestly when you ring — it changes the number of loads, not our willingness to turn up. Same with a house that has stood empty and gone musty.
Common questions about house clearance in Herne Bay
How much notice do you need? One or two working days is usually enough for house clearance in Herne Bay, and we start at nine in the morning. Bigger properties that will run to a second day are better booked a week or so out.
Can you invoice a solicitor or the executor on a probate clearance? Yes. On probate work we invoice the solicitor, the attorney or the executor direct, and the invoice can be settled from the estate. We are used to estate timetables and to waiting where the house has to sell first.
Do we have to be there on the day? No. We can collect a key from a neighbour, a key safe or an agent, work through the property and send photographs of every cleared room afterwards.
Do you clear the garage and loft as well as the house? Yes. Garage and loft clearance, sheds, greenhouses and gardens are all part of it, as long as you tell us they exist when you book so we bring the right team.
What will you not take? Asbestos of any kind, clinical or sharps waste, and anything we are not permitted to carry. Fridges, freezers, mattresses and POP-classified upholstery we do take, but they travel under their own rules rather than in the main load.
Do we get waste transfer notes? Yes, once the transfer station sends them through, which can take a week or two. On probate files the solicitor usually wants them, so ask and we will send them straight on.
Booking a clearance in Herne Bay
Tell us the property type, the postcode, whether there is a loft, garage, shed or greenhouse, what is staying, how we get in, and where a van can stand. If there is anything of sentimental value that might turn up in a drawer, say so and we will put it aside and post it on. Ring the office and we will talk it through properly — Herne Bay, Whitstable, Herne, Beltinge, Reculver, Canterbury and the villages between them are all on our regular run through Kent.
