Not DIY in the conventional sense, but the wealth of experience here may be of help to me.
A close relative is very near to death and I will have the job of disposing of their effects when they've gone, including the house contents, much of which is of reasonable quality. But ICBB to go to the length of sorting it all, auctioning the best and freecycling or ditching the rest. Once probate has been granted, I plan to get a house-clearance firm just to take the lot, but how do they operate? Do they actually take everything, good and bad, or do they cherry-pick only for items that they can re-sell? Do I pay them; do they pay me; does it depend on the value of the goods?
Professional executors will require a proper valuation. IME the local auction house will ignore stuff they can't easily sell which is a good clue what to take out.
House clearance is a chargeable activity (London area) although they might smooth your ruffled feathers by saying the profit goes to charity:-(
Absolutely agreed on that. You may also be throwing away some items that should be preserved, whoever owns them. I agree about getting an auction company, either local or national, to have a look first.
Let us know when and where, and if it's near, I might come on over just to have a look for myself!
We had my MIL's house cleared a couple of years ago. We got the local auction house to look round first and it was borderline whether we'd make any money after the transportation & sellers fees, so we got a clearance chappie in.
You pay them. I didn't see the original posting, but if it's an elderly relative's house full of big brown furniture, there's likely very little value. Our house clearance man jumped up and down on most of the BBF.
Yep. We took everything we wanted out first, before sending for the clearance man.
That'll teach me not to read to the end before replying.
Thanks for the replies. As a matter of course we shall recover personal stuff for memories or stuff that's reasonably new that we can use at home, now or eventually (e.g. microwave, TV and fridge). All the rest is pretty old and almost certainly of low value. The problem of getting a charity in is that they will leave all the rubbish for us to dispose of. I'd prefer it all to go in one foul sweep (as a mate used to say), although I suppose if I'm going to pay a house clearance co. they're not going to be too fussed as to quality as long as they get their money.
When my mother downsized houses she had a lot of good quality (brown) goods that no-one wanted. Fashion changes.
Don't make the mistake that I've seen where people remove items that were an expensive purchase, so it must be worth money, but in reality it's still stored in their garage years later unused/unsold.
Yes because if they don't it's you that's in bother.
When I had to get a house cleared I got a couple of house clearance wallas round. They quoted £300 and £350. I found a local tradesman with a licence for taking a van into the dumpit and a waste carrier's licence and he took the lot for £150.
Many years ago a bloke of my close acquaintance was the highways superintendent for a council. Strangely that meant that 'clearances' were his responsibility. There were two types of clearance. One was a house clearance when an old person had died in the council house and the rellys had just left the house full of stuff, and stinking to high heaven often as not, and handed in the keys. Yes, the scruffy feckless bastards did that. So my friend would obviously go through everything with a fine toothed comb before he let the lads chuck it on the wagon. He had a mate who sold paintings in frames, and so some of the period frames were put to good use. Then there were the appliances, often perfectly good. A second fridge is useful for keeping bait in. A telly for the kids' bedroom? A nice rug, nearly new? Oh, there was no end of good stuff to be had.
The other type of clearance was when a shop had a power cut. They were usually insured so the contents of the freezers would be taken away by the council, for a fee. Of course there was nothing wrong with the food so the lads would detour to the depot and sit in the back of the wagon having a share out. Most of them had big freezers at home just because of this. In those days big freezers were cheaper than small ones because they didn't have purchase tax on them.
I've worked for years in social housing and believe me there's good and bad tenants. There's lots of good honest hardworking people, and there'ssome right scumbags who bully the old folk, lots of druggies, prozzies, twokkers, all the lot. Then there's the mentally ill, who tend to be shoved onto rough estates where they are at once vulnerable and also sometimes a danger.
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