Most of the house clearance work we take on in Great Yarmouth begins the same way: an email from somebody who is not in Norfolk, about a house that has to be empty by a date somebody else has set. We have been clearing houses since 2007, and this corner of the coast — NR30 in the town and Caister, NR31 down through Gorleston, NR29 out across the Flegg villages — has been on the run for most of that time. What follows is one of ours, told the way it actually went, and then the practical side: where the vans go, what will not fit in them, and what happens to everything after it leaves the door.
Booking a house clearance in Great Yarmouth itself
An enquiry came in for a property in the borough, and the reply we send is deliberately unromantic. We wrote back the same day to say we could take the house on, and then set out the order of the day, because that is what people actually want to know before they commit.
The van and the team arrive at the property at nine in the morning, and in most cases the house is fully cleared by the end of that same day. Nobody needs to spend the weekend beforehand packing things into boxes — the team empties cupboards, wardrobes and drawers themselves, takes up carpets and underlay where they are wanted gone, and sweeps right through the property afterwards if that is asked for. People ring apologising for the state of a kitchen cupboard nobody has opened since the funeral. There is no need. That is the work.
If you would rather not be there — and a lot of people would rather not be — we can pick up the key from an estate agent, a neighbour or a warden. We email you photographs of the cleared property when the team is done. The email also carried a line that matters more to families than anything else in it: "On request we can pick up the items of sentimental value and get them posted to you." A photograph album. A box of letters tied with a ribbon. A wedding ring at the back of a bedside drawer, which happens more often than you would believe. Those are set aside and posted on rather than going out with the rest, and all it takes is a note beforehand saying what to look for.
Where a house turns out to be properly full — every wardrobe packed, the loft boarded and stacked, a garage you can only get the door half open on — we do not turn round and leave. The team keeps going and puts on extra loads, and if it genuinely needs a second day, they come back the next morning and finish it. Overfilled houses are a normal week's work for us and nobody on the team pulls a face.
Two things in that reply were about the law rather than the house. Fridges and freezers are classed as hazardous waste, because of the gas in the coolant circuit, and they have to be handed to a site set up to degas them properly. And where the clearance follows a bereavement and probate is being dealt with, we deal with the solicitor, the attorney or the executors direct. The invoice goes to them, not to one relative. Payment can come from the estate once probate allows it, and no deposit is taken beforehand.
What that email did not contain was a figure, and neither does this page. Every house is a different amount of stuff. Ring the office on 0800 046 5555 and talk it through, or send photographs of the rooms through the form on this page, and you will get a proper answer for your house clearance in Great Yarmouth rather than a range that means nothing.
Working blind, which is half the job on this coast
A fair amount of what we do here is instructed by somebody who never sees the van. Somebody dies or goes into care, the family is spread over four counties, and the nearest relative to the house is two hundred miles away with an estate agent asking when the keys are coming back. So the team photographs the rooms on the walk round when they arrive, and again once the place is bare, and those photographs go back by email the same evening. Executors like that, and they are right to — it is the only record they will ever have of what a room looked like before and after.
Where the vans go around Great Yarmouth
The districts we work from this side of Norfolk start with NR30, the town itself: the rows and terraces behind the market, the seafront blocks, and Caister-on-Sea just up the road. NR31 covers Gorleston-on-Sea, Bradwell, Belton, Hopton-on-Sea, Burgh Castle and Fritton. NR29 takes us out across the Flegg villages and the edge of the Broads: Ormesby St Margaret, Hemsby, Winterton-on-Sea, Martham, Filby, Rollesby, Fleggburgh and Potter Heigham. Those three postcode districts are the whole of our own patch, and a house clearance Great Yarmouth families book is almost always in one of them.
Great Yarmouth Borough Council handles the household waste and recycling collections for the borough itself; Norfolk County Council runs the recycling centres, and their opening arrangements are worth checking before a bank holiday rather than after.
Great Yarmouth railway station sits at the top of town on the Wherry Lines, half an hour or so from Norwich. That is useful if you are coming in from further off just to hand over a key. You can do the whole thing by train and be back the same evening. Parking, not distance, is the real variable here. The terraces behind the seafront are tight, the rows off the market end are tighter still, and through July and August the holiday traffic adds time to every leg of the day. If a big van cannot get within thirty yards of the door, tell us when you book. It changes how the day runs. It does not change whether we will do it.
We work the towns around us as well, and each has its own page. House clearance in Lowestoft is fifteen minutes down the coast road, house clearance in Dereham out in mid-Norfolk. House clearance in Wymondham and house clearance in Attleborough are on the far side of Norwich. If your property is in one of those, start there — the coverage and the access notes are different.
The kinds of house clearance in Great Yarmouth people ring about
Probate house clearance in Great Yarmouth
Estate work is the bulk of it along this coast. Bungalows in Gorleston and Bradwell, houses in the town that have been in one family since the fifties, park homes and seafront flats. A probate house clearance is rarely urgent on day one and then extremely urgent three weeks later, when a sale date lands. We can work from a key and instructions by email, and deal with the solicitor or the executors direct. Our probate house clearance page sets out how that side is handled.
Flat clearance in NR30 and along the seafront
A flat clearance is a different animal from a house. Second and third floors with no lift, a communal stair you cannot block, a front door onto a road where a Luton van has nowhere legal to stand. We plan those around the parking rather than the contents, and we bring more hands rather than more van. Tell us the floor and whether there is a lift when you ring, and tell us if the stair is shared — that one detail changes the whole shape of the day.
Garage and loft clearance
Garage and loft clearance is where the surprises live. Lofts in the older town properties are boarded, cold, and full of things put up there in about 1988 by somebody who is no longer able to tell you what they are. Garages down the Gorleston and Bradwell side often hold paint, white spirit, old fuel cans and a gas cylinder or two. Those cannot travel in a household load, and we will tell you on the day which of them needs a household waste site or a proper hazardous collection, rather than quietly leaving them on the floor for the buyer to find.
End of tenancy clearance and rubbish removal
Landlords and managing agents ring us for end of tenancy clearances between lets, usually with a short window and a check-in date already booked. Sometimes it is not a clearance at all, just a pile that has to go — for that see house rubbish removal. We will take a single heavy item as readily as a full house.
Hoarder house clearance
Where a property has been filling up for years the work is slower, dustier and takes more loads, but it is the same team and the same care. Nobody is judged and nobody is lectured. Our hoarder house clearance page explains what we do about vermin, damp and rooms that cannot safely be entered until they are part cleared.
Sorting, reuse and the transfer station
Anything still usable we try to route to a charity shop or a local reuse scheme rather than a tip: furniture, crockery, books, tools, unopened bedding. What is left is weighed in at licensed recycling stations and disposal sites, and we will put waste transfer notes in your hand if you ask for them — executors and managing agents usually do, and they are right to. Our waste carrier licence number is CBDU419679, and the firm is insured for the work.
Upholstered furniture is its own business now. Sofas, armchairs, padded dining chairs and beanbags contain treated foam, and since the POPs rules came in that foam has to be kept apart from ordinary bulky waste and incinerated at a permitted plant. It cannot be donated on, however clean it looks. That is not us being awkward, it is the law, and it is the thing people query most often on the doorstep.
Probate, executors and split families
A lot of the work along this coast is estate work, and much of it is instructed at a distance. When probate is involved we take our instructions from the solicitor or the executors, send the photographs to whoever needs to see them, and keep the family out of a day they would rather not spend in that house. If two relatives want different things done with the same wardrobe, tell us before the morning, not at eleven o'clock with the van half loaded.
Common questions about house clearance in Great Yarmouth
How quickly can you clear a property in Great Yarmouth?
Usually in a single day. The team arrives at nine in the morning and in most cases the property is fully cleared by the end of that day. A very full house may need extra loads or a second morning, and we will say so as soon as the team has walked round.
What does a house clearance in Great Yarmouth cost?
That depends on how much is in the house, so we do not publish a figure. Ring 0800 046 5555 or send photographs of each room through the form on this page and you will get a proper answer for your property.
Do I have to box things up first, or be there on the day?
No to both. The team clears everything from inside cupboards, wardrobes and drawers, and if you would rather not attend we can collect the key from an estate agent, a neighbour or a warden and email you photographs of the cleared property afterwards.
Do you take fridges, freezers and sofas?
Yes, but not in the ordinary load. Fridges and freezers are classed as hazardous waste and go to a site that can degas them; upholstered items go under the POPs rules to a permitted incineration plant. Paint, solvents, fuel and gas cylinders are the ones we cannot take at all.
Can you deal with the solicitor or the executors instead of me?
Yes. Where probate is being handled we take instructions from the solicitor, the attorney or the executors direct, and send them the before-and-after photographs and the waste transfer notes.
Which areas around Great Yarmouth do you cover?
NR30, NR31 and NR29 — the town, Caister-on-Sea, Gorleston-on-Sea, Bradwell, Belton, Hopton-on-Sea, Burgh Castle, Fritton, and the Flegg villages from Ormesby St Margaret and Hemsby through Martham, Filby, Rollesby, Fleggburgh and Winterton-on-Sea.
If you need a house clearance in Great Yarmouth, ring the office on 0800 046 5555, or send photographs of the rooms through the form on this page and we will come back to you with a figure and a date.
