Hoarder house clearance

Which level is it?

Councils, fire services and Hoarding UK assess with the Clutter Image Rating: nine photographs of the same room, from 1 (clear) to 9 (unusable). If someone has already been assessed, they will have a number. Our three upper tiers map onto it roughly like this.

Very full · CIR 3–4

Cupboards and loft packed, surfaces covered, but every room is usable and the floor is clear.

Hoarded · CIR 5–6

Rooms are hard to walk through. Goat-paths between piles, at least one room no longer used for its purpose.

Severe · CIR 7–9

Floors not visible, doors that will not open, contents at or above waist height. Often a fridge with food in it and a bathroom that has not been used as one.

Where the multiple comes from

Three things stack. None of them is a “hoarder premium” — they are the same rates as any other clearance applied to a lot more of everything.

1. 1. Volume

   Our model puts a hoarded property at about 1.9x the volume of the same property normally furnished, and a severe one at 2.6x. A three-bedroom house that would fill one and a half Luton vans fills three or four. Disposal is priced per cubic yard, so this alone roughly doubles the bill.

2. 2. Sorting labour

   In a normal house most of the contents are obviously keep, donate or tip. In a hoarded one every bag has to be opened, because the passport, the jewellery and the unopened post are in there somewhere. We price a hoarded property at two and a half times the sorting hours per cubic yard of a normal one, at £25–£40 per person-hour. Firms that quote a hoarded house cheaply are usually quoting removal — bagging everything unsorted — and you should ask.

3. 3. Weight and hazardous waste

   Operator loads carry a weight cap of around a tonne per 20 cubic yards. A house full of paper hits it before the van is full, and the job flips to being billed by the tonne. On top of that, anything a general load cannot take — fridges with food in them, soiled mattresses, chemicals, animal waste, needles — is surcharged per item, and the published guides disagree by a factor of ten on what a hazardous item costs (£30–£80 against £300–£1,000). We have not resolved that contradiction and say so on the method page. Get hazardous items itemised on the quote.

What the quote should say

• Whether it is priced on volume or weight, and what happens if the weight cap is reached.
• Whether sorting is included, and what the firm does with money, documents and photographs it finds.
• An itemised line for hazardous or biohazard waste, or a written statement that there is none.
• Whether a clean after clearance is included. A deep clean of a severe property is a separate trade with its own price.
• The firm’s waste carrier registration number. Hoarded loads are exactly what ends up fly-tipped, and the fine follows the householder.

Help that is not a van

If the person is alive and living there, the clearance is the last step, not the first. Hoarding disorder is a recognised condition and a house cleared without the occupier’s agreement usually fills up again. These are the places to start; none of them clears houses.

• NHS: hoarding disorder — What the condition is and how to get a GP referral.
• Hoarding UK — Charity. Support groups, the Clutter Image Rating, guidance for families.
• Mind: useful contacts for hoarding — Directory of support lines and local services.

In England, a council can assess under the Care Act 2014 — self-neglect, which the statutory guidance says includes hoarding, is grounds for an adult social care needs assessment. Separately, under Public Health Act 1936, section 83, it can require filthy or verminous premises to be cleansed and, if the notice is ignored, do the work and recover the cost from the occupier. Neither route is fast, and neither is free help in the sense people searching for it mean.

Common questions

How much does a hoarder house clearance cost in the UK?

For a three-bedroom house outside London, our model gives £2,415–£4,960 where rooms are hard to walk through and £4,085–£8,785 where floors are not visible, against £910–£1,690 for the same house normally furnished. The spread is wide because nobody can see how much is there until it starts coming out.

Is there free hoarding clean-up on the NHS?

No. The NHS recognises hoarding disorder and can treat it, usually through a GP referral to talking therapy, but it does not fund clearances. Adult social care can assess someone whose hoarding amounts to self-neglect, and a council can in the last resort clear filthy or verminous premises itself and bill the occupier. Neither is free help with a van. Hoarding UK and Mind list the support that does exist.

Can you clear a hoarder's house without their consent?

Not if they are alive, have capacity and live there. It is their property and their possessions, and most reputable firms will not clear an occupied hoarded home unless the occupier is present and has agreed. Clearing behind someone's back is also the surest way to a relapse. After a death, the executor can clear once the contents have been valued for probate.

Why do firms charge by weight for hoarded houses?

Because paper is heavy. Operator price lists carry a weight limit per load as well as a volume limit — a 20-cubic-yard load is capped at around a tonne. A normal house never reaches it. A house full of newspapers, magazines and post does, so the job is billed on tonnes rather than cubic yards, and the bill goes up before the van looks full.