How house clearance works
A team arrives with a van, empties the property, and takes the contents somewhere you never see. What that costs, and what can go wrong, depends on the week before they arrive and the piece of paper they leave behind.
Researched and edited by Taro Schenker · Updated · Prices verified August 2026 · How we calculate
What you are buying
Two different services share the name. Removal: you have been through the house, bagged and stacked what is going, and the team hauls it. Full clearance: the house is as it was lived in, and the team opens every drawer, decides what goes where, and clears the lot. A three-bedroom house outside London is £670–£1,075 for the first and £910–£1,690 for the second. Most of the confusion about clearance prices is firms quoting one and customers hearing the other. Price both for your property.
The week before
- Get the quote in writing, with the service named
- "Full clearance" or "removal of sorted items". A quote that does not say which is not a quote.
- Take out what is being kept
- One locked room, or off the premises. Anything still in the house on the day is, to the team, contents.
- Find the paperwork
- Deeds, policies, certificates, passports, the address book. They are in the bureau, the kitchen drawer and the bedside table, and they are the first things bagged.
- Sort out parking
- A Luton van outside the door for a day. On a permit street the firm will need a suspension or a dispensation, and will charge you for it.
- Photograph the rooms
- Two minutes with a phone. It settles every later question about what was there and what condition it was in.
On the day
Walk-through
The lead confirms what stays, what is fragile, where the keep room is, and whether anything found should be set aside. Ten minutes that prevent the worst outcomes.
Sorting
Full service only. Every cupboard, drawer and bag opened. Saleable to one pile, charity to another, recycling, then general waste. This is most of the labour on the bill.
Loading
Largest items first, from the furthest room. Stairs and distance to the van are what make a three-hour job a six-hour one.
Sweep and hand-back
Rooms swept, not cleaned. A clean is a separate trade. You or the agent inspect before the team leaves.
Paperwork
A receipt and, if you ask, a waste transfer note naming the carrier. Keep both.
How many people, how long
Removal of a normally furnished property, from MyJobQuote’s published table. Full-service sorting adds to these.
| Property | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1-bed flat | 2 people | 3–6 hours |
| 2-bed | 2–3 people | 6–8 hours |
| 3-bed house | 3 people | 8–12 hours |
| 4+ bed house | 3–4 people | 1–2 days |
Where it all goes, and why you should care
Saleable items go to auction, a dealer or the firm’s own shop. Usable furniture that cannot be sold goes to charity, if it has a fire label. Metal, wood, cardboard and electricals go to recycling. The rest goes to a licensed transfer station, where the firm pays by the tonne, which is why Landfill Tax going up every April moves clearance prices with it.
The part that is your problem: under Environmental Protection Act 1990, section 34, a householder has a duty of care to hand waste only to an authorised carrier. If your contents are found fly-tipped and traced back to you, the fixed penalty is yours. So before the van leaves, check the firm’s registration on the Environment Agency register and keep the waste transfer note. It is the only evidence you did.
What goes wrong
- Something sentimental is cleared. The commonest complaint in the trade, and never recoverable. It happens when the keep pile is a corner of a room rather than a locked one.
- The price grows on the day. A quote by the load, with more loads than estimated. Ask whether the figure is fixed for the property or per van before you accept it.
- The “free” or “cash paid” offer becomes a bill. Real when the contents are worth more than the disposal; otherwise a way of getting a van to your door. How to tell.
- The property was hoarded and nobody said. The team arrives for a day and finds three. Hoarded properties are quoted differently, and should be.
Decide which of the two services you need, then get a figure for your property before you call anyone.
Price it and get a quoteCommon questions
- How long does a house clearance take?
- A one-bedroom flat is half a day for two people. A normally furnished three-bedroom house is a full day for three. Four bedrooms or more, or anything upstairs without a lift, runs into a second day. Those times are for removal of a property you have sorted; if the firm is sorting it too, add most of a day for a three-bed.
- Do I need to be there?
- For the walk-through at the start and the inspection at the end, yes. In between, most people leave. Give the lead a phone number, because the team will find something in a drawer that you need to make a decision on.
- What does the firm do with everything?
- A reputable firm routes it four ways: resale (auction, their own shop, or a dealer), charity, recycling, and general waste to a licensed transfer station. The order matters to them because disposal costs money and resale earns it. Ask what share of the bill, if any, reflects the resale value of your contents.
- Do house clearance firms clean afterwards?
- They sweep. A clean is a separate trade with its own price, and a firm that offers both will quote them separately. If the property is going to a tenant or a sale, budget for the clean on top.