The lampshades were the last thing anybody expected to be asked about. It was a flat clearance we ran in October 2024. A flat in a small block, the sort of property where the team go in wearing the full kit and the windows stay open. Carpets up, underlay up, curtains down, a fridge freezer out, a mattress out, one POP item. Then a message from the family after we had sent the photos through: could we get rid of the lampshades as well, they had noticed how filthy they were. We could. The person handling it wrote back afterwards: "Many thanks for all the work done by the team and all the help you have given me."
Two other things about that one are worth saying out loud. They come up constantly on house clearance Horley jobs.
First, the paperwork. We had been asked to keep an eye out for a will. For anything to do with accounts, while the rooms were being emptied. That is normal. Our lot go through cupboards, drawers, wardrobes and the backs of shelves anyway. Nothing is expected to be boxed or bagged before we arrive — and anything that looks like a document, a bank letter, a policy or loose money gets put to one side rather than thrown in the load. On a house where nobody has been through the drawers yet, that separation is half the value of the day. We had also been warned there might be sharps in with the rubbish. Changes how a room is stripped: nothing gets grabbed by the handful, everything gets lifted and looked at.
Second, probate. The estate was still waiting on the grant, and the paperwork went through a solicitor with an office in the town rather than through the family. That is a routine arrangement for us, and it is the reason a good half of our probate house clearance work in Horley never involves the relatives handling anything at all.
Another one out of the books, and it started with photographs. The customer emailed pictures over, the collection was to be made out of a garage rather than out of the house, and the booking was put together by return email: the date wanted, a contact name and a telephone number for the team on the day, what was going out. POP items, a fridge, a freezer, mattresses — and whether there was anything about parking outside that would stop a caged tipper standing where it needed to stand. We gave an arrival window of half nine to ten.
Then we managed to get ourselves in a muddle about which Friday that October we had actually offered, and the message that went back was short: "Oops - sorry got my dates completely wrong!" The Friday we meant was still free, so nothing was lost, but it is the sort of thing worth owning up to rather than quietly rewriting an email. Photographs, incidentally, are the fastest way to get a straight answer out of us. Not everything can be seen or assessed from pictures, and we say so, but they beat a description over the phone nine times out of ten.
Where we work from and where we go
Horley sits in Reigate and Banstead borough, Surrey, hard against the West Sussex line, with Gatwick a couple of minutes up the Brighton Main Line and Horley station itself dropping you into Redhill in about seven minutes. The RH6 district covers the town and the edges — Hookwood, Charlwood, Smallfield, Burstow and Horne. We work the whole of that patch and up through RH1 and RH2 into Redhill, Merstham, Nutfield, Bletchingley and Salfords, and on into Reigate, Woodhatch and South Park. Out along KT20 there is Tadworth, Kingswood, Walton-on-the-Hill and Burgh Heath on the Downs; across SM7, Banstead, Nork and Woodmansterne; and up in CR5, Coulsdon, Old Coulsdon and Chipstead. The KT17 and KT18 numbers take us into Ewell, Stoneleigh, Epsom and Tattenham Corner, so an Epsom booking and a house clearance Horley booking often come off the same week's diary.
Four of those neighbours have pages of their own, and they are the ones we pair Horley with most often: house clearance in Redhill on RH1, house clearance in Reigate on RH2, house clearance in Crawley just over the Sussex boundary in RH10, and house clearance in Pulborough further south for the smaller villages. If your property sits on the boundary and you are not sure which of us to ring about, it makes no difference. Same office, same vans, same number.
The kinds of house clearance in Horley we get asked for
Most of the work here falls into five shapes. They overlap, and plenty of jobs are two of them at once, but it is worth naming them because people search for them by name and then wonder whether we do that particular thing. We do.
Probate house clearance in Horley
An estate clearance is the bulk of it. Somebody has died, the house has to be emptied before it can be sold or handed back, and the person organising it is often an executor living a long way off. We will meet an agent or a neighbour for the key, empty the property, and email photographs of every room afterwards so an executor in another county can see the state of it without driving down. Anything that looks like a will, a deed, a share certificate, a policy or a bank letter is set aside rather than binned — on a probate house clearance that habit has turned up documents nobody knew existed. On the invoicing: we bill the solicitor, the executor or the estate direct, the payment can come out of the estate rather than out of anybody's own pocket, and there is no deposit. The work happens first, the photographs go over, the invoice follows.
Flat clearance in RH6
A flat clearance is a different day to a house. Horley has a fair number of small blocks and converted houses, and the questions are always the same: is there a lift, is it working, is the parking allocated, and how far does everything have to travel by hand. A third-floor flat with a working lift is quicker than a ground-floor maisonette with a locked side gate and a shared bin store in the way. Tell us the floor and the lift when you ring and the day gets planned properly.
Hoarder house clearance in Horley
A hoarder house clearance takes more people, more time and a different set of kit. Rooms stacked to the picture rail, a hallway you turn sideways to get through, a kitchen nobody has been able to use for years — we have walked into far worse and said nothing about it then either. It is a day's work to us. What we do need is honesty on the phone, because the difference between a full house and a hoarded one is the difference between one crew and three. Nothing gets grabbed by the handful in a house like that: everything is lifted and looked at, both for what might be underneath it and for what might be worth keeping.
Garage and loft clearance in Horley
Garage and loft clearance is the bit people forget when they are describing a property. The house is one thing; the loft hatch nobody has opened since the nineties, the garage at the end of the garden with a door that has dropped on its hinges, and the shed behind it are another. Some collections are only that — the whole job out of a garage, nothing from the house at all. If you cannot get the garage door open, say so when you ring rather than on the morning, because it changes what the van carries.
End of tenancy clearance in Horley
Landlords and managing agents are a steady part of what we do around Horley and Redhill: a tenant has gone, left half the furniture and a mattress behind, and the property has to be ready for the next one. Work orders from a maintenance desk are no trouble, and the photographs of the emptied rooms are usually what the agent actually needs for their file.
Access, parking and how the day runs
Access in Horley varies more than people expect. On the flat job above, parking was allocated per flat and the family confirmed we could use a neighbouring bay if the nearest one was taken — that one detail probably saved an hour of carrying. Elsewhere in RH6 you get the post-war closes and cul-de-sacs where a Luton can sit right outside the door, and then you get the narrow terraces near the high street where it cannot. If the van has to sit a hundred yards off and everything walks out by hand, the day takes longer, and we would rather say so on the phone than surprise you at four o'clock.
We meet you at the property at 9am and aim to have it emptied the same day wherever it is possible. If you would rather not be there, we will collect a key from a neighbour, an agent or a key safe. Email you photographs of every cleared room afterwards. Anything sentimental that turns up can be set aside and posted on. The team leader walks the property with a camera before a single item moves and again once the last room is empty. There is a record of what the place looked like at both ends of the day. That has settled more than one question about a cooker or a boiler that was supposed to stay put.
On that same flat we were asked mid-job whether the cooker could go or whether it would need capping off first. The answer depends on the appliance: a plumbed-in gas cooker needs isolating properly first, while an electric one on an isolator switch comes straight out with the rest. Fitted kitchens, boilers and cookers are often on the list of things to leave standing. We work to whatever you write down.
What goes where
Furniture, white goods and household bits that somebody could still use get offered on to reuse projects and charity shops in the borough before they are written off. Genuinely finished material goes to a permitted transfer station and is weighed in against our carrier registration — Abacus is a registered upper-tier waste carrier, CBDU419679, and every load has a ticket behind it. Fridges and freezers go off for degassing under the F-gas rules, which is why they are counted and handled on their own rather than tipped in with the sofa.
Sofas, armchairs, padded dining chairs and mattresses are the ones people query. Upholstered furniture containing foam has to be kept out of the mixed load entirely and sent for incineration under the persistent organic pollutant rules. The flame retardants in the padding are the reason — so those items are counted and handled separately. Not us being awkward. It is the law and the transfer stations enforce it.
There are a few things a house-clearance van simply cannot carry away with the wardrobes: part-used tins of paint and thinners, a gas bottle left in the shed, asbestos sheeting off an old garage roof, car batteries. Tell us before the day and we will point you at the right route for each. Usually the county's recycling centre at Earlswood, or a specialist collection where even that will not take it.
Cost, and the awkward houses
There is one honest answer to what a clearance comes to, and it is not a number printed on a web page. Ring the office on 0800 046 5555 and describe the property, or send photographs through the form on this page, and you will get a figure back. The quote is free and it commits you to nothing. We would sooner ask you a dozen questions first — how many bedrooms, is the loft full, is there a shed, is there a garage you cannot open the door of, is anything staying — than have a driver work it out on your own doorstep with the van already blocking the road. Knowing the real size of the job is also what makes the van turn up carrying the right kit, with enough of the day set aside.
Overfilled houses are not a problem and never a conversation. Bring it up when you ring so we can send enough people, and that is the end of it.
House clearance in Horley: the questions we get asked
Can you invoice a solicitor or an executor for a probate house clearance?
Yes. We invoice the solicitor, the executor, the attorney or the estate direct, and the payment can come out of the estate rather than out of a family member's own money. There is no deposit — the clearance is done first, the photographs of the emptied rooms are emailed over, and the invoice follows. If probate has not been granted yet, that is normal and it does not stop the work being booked.
What does a house clearance in Horley cost?
Ring 0800 046 5555 or send photographs through the form on this page and we will give you a figure for your property. We will not print one here, because a three-bed with a full loft in RH6 and a one-bed flat with a lift are not the same day's work and pretending otherwise helps nobody.
Do I have to be at the property?
No. We will take a key from a neighbour, an agent or a key safe, work through the day, and email you photographs of every room once it is empty. Executors handling a Horley property from another county do it this way most of the time.
What will you not take?
Paint and thinners, gas bottles, asbestos sheeting, car batteries and similar. Fridges and freezers we do take, but they go for degassing under the F-gas rules; upholstered furniture with foam goes for incineration under the POPs rules. Tell us what is there beforehand and nothing gets left standing in the drive.
Do you clear hoarded properties?
Yes, and a hoarder house clearance is booked differently: more people, more time, and a walk-through before anything moves. Say what the house is really like when you ring. Nobody on the team will comment on it, and we would far rather know in advance than send two men to a job that needs five.
Which areas around Horley do you cover?
RH6 for Horley, Hookwood, Charlwood, Smallfield, Burstow and Horne; RH1 and RH2 for Redhill, Merstham, Nutfield, Bletchingley, Salfords, Reigate and Woodhatch; KT20 for Tadworth, Kingswood and Walton-on-the-Hill; SM7 for Banstead, Nork and Woodmansterne; CR5 for Coulsdon and Chipstead; KT17 and KT18 for Ewell, Stoneleigh and Epsom.
If you have a clearance coming up in Horley, Salfords, Smallfield, Redhill, Reigate, Tadworth or Banstead, ring 0800 046 5555 and describe the place honestly, including the bits you are embarrassed by. We will tell you where you stand, when we can get there. What will still be standing in the kitchen when we leave.
