British Heart Foundation (BHF) house clearance
The British Heart Foundation runs two services with similar names. One is free and takes only what it can sell. The other empties the whole house and starts from £400. Most people searching for the first end up needing the second, and the second is a commercial clearance to be priced like any other.
Researched and edited by Taro Schenker · Updated · Prices verified August 2026 · How we calculate
BHF furniture collection vs house clearance
Read from BHF’s own pages in August 2026. Both are nationwide.
| Furniture & electrical collection | House clearance | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | From £400, quoted after a visit |
| Takes | Sofas, bedroom furniture, dining tables and chairs, TVs, washing machines, fridges, home audio, appliances, phones, tablets, PCs and laptops, books. Bags and boxes of smaller items too, but only alongside furniture or electricals. | Clears a whole property including sheds and garages, household waste included — not just re-saleable donations. |
| Refuses | Anything not in good, re-saleable condition, and any upholstered item without an intact fire label. | Oil, chemicals and medical waste, explosives, ammunition and weapons, petrol, fuel and petrol machinery, asbestos, gas and compressed bottles, building materials, garden waste, and anything infested with insects or vermin. |
| Fire label | Required — must be visible, intact and legible | Not required — waste is taken as waste |
| Booking | Nationwide. Book online or on 0300 330 3322. | Enter a postcode, they visit and assess, then quote by email and take payment in advance to hold the date. No weekend clearances. |
Sources: bhf.org.uk/what-to-donate · bhf.org.uk/house-clearance
Why the free collection rarely empties a house
The free service is genuinely free and genuinely useful. The limit is not BHF’s generosity, it is what a charity shop can legally and profitably sell. Everything has to be in re-saleable condition, and under the 1988 fire safety regulations every sofa, armchair, bed and mattress needs its permanent fire label. A house someone has lived in since the 1970s is mostly furniture that predates the label, so the van leaves with the dining table and the fridge and the rest is still yours.
That is why the searches for “BHF house clearance” and “free house clearance” are the same people. What they want is the whole house gone. What the free service does is take the best twenty per cent of it. What the Salvation Army takes is similar.
BHF’s clearance against a commercial firm
BHF’s from £400 is a floor, not a price for a house. For comparison, this is what our model gives for a normally furnished property outside London, ground floor, including VAT. Prices verified August 2026.
| Property | You sorted it | They sort it |
|---|---|---|
| 1-bed flat | £285–£430 | £380–£700 |
| 2-bed house | £455–£805 | £635–£1,265 |
| 3-bed house | £670–£1,075 | £910–£1,690 |
| 4-bed house | £940–£1,480 | £1,275–£2,325 |
BHF is the better call when
- You want the margin to go to a charity rather than a firm, and are content to pay for that.
- The house is normally furnished with a fair amount of saleable stock.
- A weekday date some way off is fine and nobody is waiting on the keys.
- There is nothing on their refusal list in the property.
A commercial firm is the better call when
- There is garden waste, building material, or anything infested. BHF refuses all three, so you would be paying two contractors.
- The property is hoarded.
- It has to be done at a weekend, or this week.
- The contents have real value and you want it set against the bill rather than donated.
How the booking works
Enter a postcode, they visit and assess, then quote by email and take payment in advance to hold the date. No weekend clearances. There is no price until the visit has happened, which means you cannot compare BHF against a firm until you have had both out. Do that: get BHF’s emailed quote and one itemised commercial quote for the same property, and compare them for what is included, not just the total.
Price the whole house first, then decide whether the free collection is worth a separate visit for the part of it a charity can sell.
Price it and get a quoteCommon questions
- Is BHF house clearance free?
- No. The British Heart Foundation's house clearance is a paid service starting from £400. What is free is their furniture and electrical collection, which takes individual re-saleable items and nothing else. The two are booked through different pages and are easy to confuse.
- How much does British Heart Foundation house clearance cost?
- From £400, and the rest is a quote. BHF visits the property, assesses it, then emails a price and takes payment in advance to hold the date. They do not publish a rate per room or per load, so there is no way to know what a three-bedroom house costs until they have seen it. A commercial firm quoting the same house sight-unseen is working from a rate card; ask BHF whether saleable contents reduce the quote.
- What will BHF not take in a house clearance?
- Oil, chemicals and medical waste, explosives, ammunition and weapons, petrol, fuel and petrol machinery, asbestos, gas and compressed bottles, building materials, garden waste, and anything infested with insects or vermin. If the property has any of these in quantity, you will need a second contractor anyway, and it is usually cheaper to have one firm take the lot.
- Does BHF do weekend house clearances?
- No. BHF's own page states no weekend clearances. If the property has to be handed back on a Monday, or the only day family can attend is a Saturday, a commercial firm is the only option.