House clearance in Rochester covers four postal districts and three quite different sorts of ground. ME1 on the hill behind the High Street, ME2 over the river at Strood and Frindsbury, ME3 out along the Hoo peninsula, and ME99, which is a bulk-mail district rather than anywhere you can drive a van to.
A January job out at Cliffe Woods, up in the ME3 postcodes on the marsh side of Rochester, ran to two days and a stack of extra loads. It was booked in by a property management firm working from a head office the other side of the Thames Estuary, so nobody local was there to open up beyond the key arrangement. The house was graded a verminous clearance, which in our terms means the team goes in kitted for it and the waste is handled separately rather than tipped through the ordinary stream. Out of it came a chest freezer, a small fridge freezer, mattresses, a television, and paint tins that had been sat in an outbuilding long enough to skin over. Same-day second load, then the rest the following day. It didn't all go smoothly either — there was some back-and-forth afterwards about part of the work, and we put the outcome of that in writing rather than argue it down the phone. Not every job goes cleanly.
That one is the biggest we've done in the Medway towns. Most are considerably smaller.
Cuxton, and a two-day house with an attic nobody had opened
Across the water in ME2, a three-bedroom house at Cuxton with a kitchen extension, a loft and a garage took us two days in late October. The family were dealing with the sale and had been in and out of the place for months. Partway through the first day the instructions changed, which is normal. A sister had arranged for a charity to collect some of the furniture directly. The sofas, a double bed, a dresser, two small cabinets, the paintings in the dining room, the drawers in the upstairs cupboard and the TV units in the living room all had to stay put.
We took them off the list. By the second morning what was actually left was the attic and the garage, which is nearly always the case: the rooms people can see get sorted, and the roof space and the garage sit there untouched. The team had a second van set up by then.
Carpets stayed down, curtains stayed up, the upright fridge freezer came with us.
Short, but it's the sort we keep.
A hoarder house clearance where the estimate had to change
Not every clearance is a room at a time. One we took on had been filling up for years, and the visit beforehand read it as six loads and three days to clear the place and clean it. That was an honest read of what could be seen. The trouble with a hoarded house is that what can be seen is only the top of it — under the piles in the property there was a good deal more than anybody could have counted from the doorway.
On the second day the team rang the customer to say there was another day and another load in it, and were told to carry on. Later, when the customer came back to the property, they walked him round what was left and showed him what would make an eighth and last load, and again he told them to take it.
He wasn't thrilled about how the estimate had moved, and he said so plainly: "Maybe it would be better in future to over estimate at the beginning so as to avoid a similar situation."
Fair enough. That one changed how we word things. Where the piles are above waist height and nobody can see a floor, we say at the outset that not everything can be seen and that the read may change. The team rings the office before carrying on rather than after. The photographs from that job went over in several emails afterwards because there were far too many for one, and photographing every room on arrival and again once it's empty is now standard on any hoarder house clearance we run.
Access, parking and stairs on a Rochester house clearance
Access is the thing that changes a Medway clearance more than the size of the house. The Victorian terraces climbing the hill off Rochester High Street, the streets around Delce and Borstal, the older parts of Frindsbury and Wainscott — narrow frontages, permit bays, and often nowhere to sit a Luton without half-blocking the road. Tell us on the phone what the parking looks like and whether there's a permit or a suspension going, and we'll plan the day around it rather than discovering it at nine in the morning.
Out the other way it's a different problem entirely. Cliffe, Cliffe Woods, High Halstow, Hoo and the lanes down to the Isle of Grain are a half-hour drive past the edge of town. A single-load bungalow out there can eat as much of the day in travel as it does in carrying. Cuxton and Halling sit on the valley side with steep drives and, more than once, a garage cut into the bank that you can only reach on foot.
What sort of house clearance Rochester asks us for
Probate house clearance in Rochester
Most of what we do here is probate work. A probate house clearance in Rochester usually reaches us months after the death, once the grant is through and the property is going on the market, and by then it's often an empty house that nobody has been in since Christmas. We work to whatever the executors instruct: everything out, or everything except the items a family member has claimed. Paperwork, photograph albums, medals and jewellery boxes get set aside and pointed out rather than binned. More on how that runs on our probate house clearance page.
Flat clearance in ME1 and ME2
A flat clearance is its own job. Stairwell-only access, a landing you can't turn a wardrobe on, a lift that's out or too small for a three-seater — all of it decides how many people we bring rather than how many vans. Sofas that won't come down a stairwell whole get taken apart on the landing and carried out in pieces, and a chest of drawers doing duty as an entertainment unit usually comes apart with a screwdriver. Sheltered schemes and the blocks around Strood are common enough that the team knows the drill.
Garage and loft clearance in Rochester
Garage and loft clearance is the half of the property people forget until the week of the sale. The Cuxton job is the pattern: the house was picked over for months, the roof space and the garage were untouched. If there's a loft ladder, say so; if the hatch has been painted shut since the seventies, say that too, and we'll bring the gear.
End of tenancy clearances and rubbish removal
Landlords and managing agents in Rochester tend to want the place empty and swept in one visit between tenancies. Where it's a part load rather than a whole house. A garden's worth of green waste, a bedroom suite, one white good — it's a straightforward house rubbish removal rather than a full clearance, and we'll say so instead of selling you a day you don't need.
Reuse first, tipping last
Furniture and household goods that are still fit to use don't go in the van as waste if we can help it. Medway has a decent spread of charity shops and reuse schemes, and the team will set aside what's worth passing on. Paperwork, photograph albums, jewellery boxes and anything else that looks like it matters to somebody gets put to one side and pointed out to whoever holds the keys — we'd rather stop and ask than guess.
The rest is weighed in at a permitted waste transfer station and we hold the transfer notes. If you want copies, ask and we'll send them. Executors and managing agents often need them for the probate file, and Waste Transfer Notes sometimes take a week or two to come back to us from the site, so it's not always instant. Our waste carrier registration is CBDU419679 and we carry full insurance. We've been doing this since 2007.
A few categories have to be split off. Sofas, armchairs, footstools and anything else with upholstery foam count as POPs — persistent organic pollutants — and legislation requires them to be kept out of general waste and destroyed through their own route. Fridges and freezers have to be degassed. Mattresses are handled apart from the rest. Paint tins, gas cylinders and similar chemical leftovers can't ride in a mixed load, though as on the Cliffe Woods job we can usually arrange for the paint to go off in bulk if you tell us it's there before the day.
Executors, agents, and people doing this from a distance
A lot of the Rochester and Strood work reaches us from someone who doesn't live in Kent — an executor two counties away, a solicitor acting for the estate, a managing agent who has never seen the property. That's ordinary for us and it doesn't slow anything down.
The team leader photographs every room on arrival and again once it's empty, and those pictures get emailed over the same day. We can collect keys from an estate agent, a neighbour or a key safe, and post on anything of sentimental value that turns up. Where probate is involved we invoice the solicitor, the executors or the administrators directly, the work can be paid for out of the estate, and there's no deposit — UK customers settle once the work is done.
There's no need to bag anything up beforehand either. The team empties cupboards, wardrobes and drawers, lifts carpets and underlay where you want them gone, and sweeps through at the end.
Where we go around Rochester
We work the whole of Medway and the countryside behind it: Rochester and Strood, Borstal and Delce, Frindsbury and Wainscott, Cuxton and Halling, Higham, Cliffe and Cliffe Woods, High Halstow, Hoo and the peninsula out to the Isle of Grain. Chatham and Gillingham sit either side of us and have pages of their own — house clearance in Chatham and house clearance in Gillingham — and we carry on east to house clearance in Sittingbourne when the day allows it.
Vans come down the M2 and the A2. If you're travelling in to meet us, Rochester station on the Chatham main line is a few minutes from most of the town, with Strood and Chatham either side of it. The Hoo lanes are signed off the A228 at Strood.
Questions we get asked about house clearance in Rochester
How do I get a quote? Ring the office on 0800 046 5555 and describe the property honestly — rooms, loft, garage, garden, stairs, parking — or send photographs through the form on this page. The quote is free and there's no obligation to book.
Can you invoice a solicitor for a probate house clearance, or does it have to be a family member? Either. We invoice the solicitor, the executors or the administrators of the estate direct, and the work can be paid for out of the estate. No deposit is taken and the invoice follows the work.
How long does a house clearance in Rochester take? Most houses are a day. Two days is normal where there's a loft, a garage and an outbuilding, or where the place has been filling up for years. We book the days for it rather than rushing the second half.
What can't go in the van? Upholstered furniture counts as POPs and goes by its own route; fridges and freezers have to be degassed; mattresses are handled separately. Paint, gas cylinders, oils and similar can't travel in a mixed load — flag them beforehand and we'll arrange it.
Do I need to sort or bag anything first? No. Cupboards, wardrobes, drawers and the loft are ours to empty. If particular things are to stay — carpets down, curtains up, a dresser a relative has claimed — tell the team on arrival and they'll work round them.
Do you clear flats and single rooms as well as whole houses? Yes. A flat clearance, a single room, a garage and loft clearance on its own, or one item that two people can't shift — all of it is worth a phone call.
If you've a house in Rochester that needs emptying, ring the office on 0800 046 5555 and describe it honestly. Packed to the ceiling is fine — we book the days for it and nobody makes a remark about it on the day. We'll give you a quote and a date, and turn up at nine.
