A customer asked us exactly this: did she need to arrange an electrician to be at the property to seal off the supply to an electric oven, or would the team take the oven out and leave the electrician for another day?
It comes up on most clearances that include a kitchen, and the answer differs by appliance.
Electric cookers
A freestanding electric cooker plugged into a standard socket is straightforward — it comes out like any other appliance.
A cooker wired into a cooker point is different. That connection has to be isolated properly. Our crews are not electricians and will not disconnect fixed wiring; what they will do is take the appliance once it is isolated, or leave it and take everything else.
So: you do not need an electrician standing there while we work. You need the supply isolated before or after. Most people have the electrician come separately, we clear the rest of the house, and the cooker goes on a later visit or the electrician removes it. Tell us which way you want it when you book and the day is planned around it.
Gas cookers
A gas appliance must be disconnected by a Gas Safe registered engineer. No exceptions, and no clearance crew should tell you otherwise. Same arrangement as above: get it capped, then we take it.
Fridges and freezers
We take these, but they travel separately. The refrigerant has to be drawn off under permit before the shell can be broken up, so they cannot go in a mixed load and they carry a separate disposal charge.
Defrost it if you can. A freezer that has been off for a week and is standing in its own meltwater is a different job from one emptied the night before.
Washing machines and dishwashers
Plumbed appliances need isolating at the valve. The crew can disconnect a hose from a standard washing-machine valve; anything soldered or seized is a plumber's job, not ours.
The rule underneath all of it
We will do everything short of altering the fabric of the building or its fixed services. Where a trade is legally required, we say so and we do not guess.
Say what is in the kitchen when you ring — cooker and how it is connected, fridge, freezer, washer — and it is planned for from the start instead of becoming a problem at eleven o'clock with the van half loaded.