Most house clearance in Penzance is booked by somebody who is not standing in the house. The property is here — TR18 in the town, TR19 out west, TR20 across at Marazion — and the person arranging it is very often a few hundred miles away with a completion date they cannot move. We have been doing this since 2007, and the work on this side of Cornwall is planned around the street as much as the rooms.
Penzance up the hill from the harbour
Penzance is its own kind of job. The town runs from the harbour up a hill, and the housing goes with it. Regency fronts around Chapel Street and the Morrab, granite terraces on the slopes, post-war bungalows out at Heamoor and Gulval. Then the fishermen's cottages down through Newlyn and Mousehole where the lane is narrower than the van and the staircase turns twice on itself. TR18 covers the town. TR19 runs out west through St Just and Sennen towards Land's End, and Marazion, TR17, sits looking across at the Mount. We work all of it, along with Long Rock, Hayle, St Ives and St Erth up the line, and Helston, Camborne and Redruth back towards Truro. Penzance station is the end of the Cornish main line — the sleeper comes in from Paddington and stops there because there's nowhere further to go. That matters more than it sounds: plenty of the people who instruct us arrive that way and have one day on the ground.
What happens to the contents
Where it all ends up: anything still usable, we'd rather see it go on than go in a skip, so decent furniture, crockery, books and tools are offered to charity shops and reuse schemes in the area. Genuine waste goes to a permitted transfer station and is weighed, ticketed and recorded. We're a registered waste carrier, CBDU419679, and that can be checked on the Environment Agency's public register — we've been doing this since 2007 and the paperwork has always mattered as much as the lifting. Fridges and freezers are handled separately because of the gas in them, mattresses have to be kept out of the general load and go for shredding, and televisions and monitors are their own category too. Tins of paint, gas cylinders, solvents and anything similar can't be mixed into a general load; tell us they're there and we'll arrange the right route for them instead of finding out on the day.
Access, and the briefing that helps
Another one, and the whole day turned on a gateway. Photographs came in before the date was even confirmed — the drive first, then the rooms, several of the same room from different angles, which is more use than people think. The note with them read: "It looks a bit overgrown but it is soft new growth that can easily be pushed aside.
The only real limitation is the gateway which is 9 feet wide." That is exactly what we want to hear a week early rather than at eight in the morning, because it decides which van comes out and how far the carry is. Inside: cellars, two ground-floor rooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, a carport and five bedrooms. Three doubles on drawer divan bases, five singles, four of those on divan drawer bases and one on an old-fashioned metal spring base, with a mattress to every one of them. Two washing machines, a dryer that might or might not have gone before we arrived, a gas oven, and the fridges and freezers already listed on the paper form the family had filled in and posted back to us.
The loft, for once, was empty. And one restriction that had nothing to do with lifting: the windows had to stay shut the whole time the team was in there. The sashes were in poor condition and every one of them was wired into the alarm — open one and there was a real chance it wouldn't close properly again, which leaves the alarm impossible to re-set without an engineer out. So the crew worked round it, doors propped, and took the beds down in pieces.
The kinds of house clearance we take on in Penzance
Probate house clearance in Penzance
A good half of what we do in TR18 and TR19 is probate work. A house standing empty after a death, an executor with a completion date to hit, and a lifetime of things nobody in the family can face going through. Probate house clearance in Penzance is rarely as frantic as people fear when they ring. What it is, is fiddly. Papers get looked at before they go anywhere, and photographs, medals, deeds, war records and anything that looks like it might matter to somebody are put aside on the kitchen table rather than binned; if we're unsure, we ring and ask. If probate hasn't been granted yet, that's no reason to put off getting a figure — most executors want to know what the clearance involves well before they commit to a date, and there's nothing to sign to find out.
Garage and loft clearance in Penzance
Not every job is the whole house. Garage and loft clearance in Penzance is a job in its own right, and out at Heamoor, Gulval and Long Rock it's often the only thing wanted. The house itself has been kept straight, and everything that was ever put off has gone into the garage and loft above it. Lofts round here tend to be low, boarded in patches, and reached by a hatch on a landing with no room to turn a wardrobe; we bring our own ladders and we don't stand on the joists and hope. Garages down towards Newlyn are frequently a shared block off the street rather than attached to the house, sometimes not even in the same ownership. That Is worth saying when you ring so we know where the van is actually going to stand.
Hoarded houses, end of tenancy, and single loads
If the property has years of accumulation in it, rooms you can't walk into, a loft nobody has opened since the eighties, that's ordinary work for us and the crew won't make a thing of it. See hoarder house clearance for how those days are run. Same for a garage, a shed or an overgrown greenhouse. End of tenancy is a different rhythm again: usually one load, usually against a check-out date, and usually a landlord or an agent who wants photographs the same afternoon. And if it's genuinely just a pile in the hall and a mattress, that's house rubbish removal rather than a clearance, and we'd rather tell you so than book a whole day.
House clearance beyond Penzance, across west Cornwall
The Penzance van doesn't stop at the edge of TR20. We're up the line to Hayle and St Ives most weeks and across to Camborne and Redruth regularly. The same crew covers house clearance in Helston on the Lizard side and house clearance in Truro in the middle of the county. North coast work — house clearance in Newquay and the villages behind it — runs from the same yard, and if you're not sure which page you want, the county overview for house clearance in Cornwall lists the lot. Two towns in a day is normal down here. Two ends of the county in a day is not, and we'll say so rather than turn up late.
On price
On price the page says one thing only, and deliberately. Ring the office on 0800 046 5555 and describe the place, or send photographs through the form on this page, and you'll get a figure for the work. Photographs help most — the rooms, the stairs, the street outside, the garage if there is one. Where a house is being cleared as part of an estate we invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly, and payment can come out of the estate rather than from anyone's own pocket. There's no deposit for a house clearance in Penzance; the invoice follows once the work is done and the photographs have gone back. Quotes cost nothing and commit you to nothing.
Questions we get asked about house clearance in Penzance
Do you cover all of TR18, TR19 and TR20?
Yes. TR18 is the town itself — Penzance, Newlyn, Mousehole, Heamoor, Gulval and Long Rock. TR19 runs west through St Just, Pendeen, St Buryan and Sennen out to Land's End. TR20 takes in the villages inland and along the bay, Ludgvan, Praa Sands, Crowlas, Goldsithney and Perranuthnoe among them. Narrow lanes and a long carry are normal in all three and don't change how the day is planned.
Can you invoice our solicitor for a probate house clearance?
Yes. We invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly — whichever suits the person settling it — and payment can be made from the estate rather than by a family member personally. No deposit is taken, and the invoice comes after the work, with the waste transfer paperwork and the room-by-room photographs alongside it.
How do we get a figure if nobody can meet you at the house?
Ring 0800 046 5555 and talk it through, or send photographs through the form on this page. Rooms, hallway, loft hatch, garage, and one of the street showing where a van could stand. We'd rather see twelve pictures than read a paragraph, and several of the same room from different angles is genuinely useful, not a nuisance.
Nobody in the family lives in Cornwall. Does someone have to be there on the day?
No. A great many of our clearances here are run for people who are hundreds or thousands of miles away. Keys come by post, from a keysafe, or from a neighbour or agent who'll open up, the team rings when they start. Photographs of every cleared room go back the same day so you can see the house empty without standing in it.
What won't you take?
Paint, solvents, gas bottles, chemicals and anything asbestos-based can't go in a general load — tell us they're there and we'll sort the right route rather than discover them at the back of a shed. Fridges, freezers, mattresses, televisions and POP-classified upholstery all travel and are processed separately by law. None of it stops the job; it just needs saying beforehand.
Can you do just the garage and loft, without the house?
Yes, that's a common booking. Garage and loft clearance in Penzance is often wanted before a sale, or by someone who's staying put and has simply run out of room. Same team, same paperwork, usually a shorter day.
Ring us and describe the place — the street, the stairs, whether the van can get near, and roughly what's in there. Photographs help most of all. We'll give you a figure over the phone that we intend to stand by, and if the crew see something on the day that changes it, you'll hear about it from the doorstep before a single item moves.
