House Clearance Tiverton, Devon

The keys arrived by Special Delivery before the van did. That January the property was a house in Tiverton, EX16, and the person handling it was working from Somerset — Wiveliscombe way, the far side of Bampton — and could not reasonably drive down just to unlock a door. So the keys came in the post, wrapped and tracked, signed for two days before the booked date. We held the following day in reserve in case they were delayed. They weren't. The clearance went ahead on the Monday, the house was emptied, and the photographs went back the same afternoon so whoever was dealing with the estate could see the empty rooms without making the journey.

There was one extra request that tells you something about how a house clearance in Tiverton actually goes. Could the team read the meters while they were there? It would save a long trip made for nothing else. Of course they could. Both meters were read, written down and emailed over with the pictures. Small thing. But that's a whole day's driving saved for someone already dealing with a bereavement and an estate account, and it takes us nothing but thirty seconds with a torch. The keys went back in the post afterwards, tracked the same way they had come down.

Witheridge, and a two-load day

The other job in our books around here was out at Witheridge, up the B3137 in EX16, in that stretch of hedged lanes between Tiverton and South Molton. Photographs came over first, along with a request for the house to be cleaned once it was empty. Going off those pictures we said it looked like up to two loads. We also said plainly at the time that pictures never show everything — lofts, garages, the back of a wardrobe — and that the team leader would walk the property on arrival and say straight away if that was going to change, so the customer could decide before anyone started carrying.

It did run to two loads on the day. A mattress came out with the rest, and once the rooms were bare the house was cleaned through, three bedrooms' worth. The booking was for the Tuesday, 17 May 2022, and the team met the customer at the property at ten rather than the usual nine, which suits a rural address better when somebody is driving in from elsewhere to open up. Afterwards that customer went and left a Trustpilot review, then wrote to tell us so, in three words: "Trust Pilot review completed." No fuss about it. That is the sort of note we like — somebody who has had a long day and still bothered.

Witheridge is a good example of why we work from photographs rather than a doorstep guess. A rural Devon house with outbuildings can hold twice what its floorplan suggests, and the loft is nearly always worse than the owner remembers. Send pictures of every room, the garage, the shed and the loft hatch if you can reach it, and there are no surprises on the day for either of us.

Where we go around Tiverton

Tiverton sits on the Exe in Mid Devon, county of Devon, in the South West, and the town's own postcode district is EX16. That takes in the town itself and the country round it — Bampton, Sampford Peverell and Willand out towards the M5, Halberton, Witheridge, Cove, Bickleigh, Silverton and Butterleigh. We work the whole of that ring. South to Cullompton and west to Crediton is the same day's work for us, and we take jobs in both. Four of our neighbours have pages of their own, so start there if the property sits nearer one of them: house clearance in Exeter down the Exe, house clearance in Honiton and house clearance in Axminster east along the A30, and house clearance in Bideford over towards the north coast. Closer in we are regularly at Bradninch, Broadclyst, Newton St. Cyres, Whimple, Plymtree and Holcombe Rogus as well.

Tiverton Parkway station, out at Sampford Peverell by junction 27 of the M5, is what most people use to reach the area, and it is also how a fair number of executors arrive — train down from London or Bristol, taxi to the property, meet the team at nine, catch a train back that evening with the house dealt with. If you are coming that way, tell us and we will fit the start around the timetable rather than the other way round. Mid Devon District Council runs household waste locally, but a house clearance is trade waste and does not go through the council tip regardless of who owned the contents.

Housing round here is mixed in a way that matters on the day. There are Victorian terraces on the hill streets in town with no side access at all, so everything comes out through the front door and down a step; there are post-war semis with a driveway and a garage you can back a Luton up to; and there are cottages and farm properties out in the lanes where the van has to stop short and the last thirty yards are done by hand. Tell us which of those we are coming to and we will bring the right vehicle.

What comes out, and where it ends up

Furniture, beds, wardrobes, white goods, garden stuff, shed contents, loft contents, carpets if you want them up. Anything still usable we would rather see used again — the charity shops and reuse projects around Mid Devon take furniture, and there is no reason for a decent dining set to go in a skip because nobody made a phone call. What genuinely cannot be reused is sorted and taken to a permitted transfer station, weighed and recorded, with a transfer note produced for every load. Our waste carrier registration is CBDU419679 and we are fully insured; ask to see either and you will get a copy the same day.

Some things travel separately because the law says so. Upholstered seating — sofas, armchairs, sofa beds, padded dining chairs — contains treated foam classed as POP waste, which has to be kept out of the general load and destroyed in its own regulated stream. Mattresses go their own way too, because transfer stations take them in a stream of their own. Fridges and freezers are degassed at a licensed facility. And there is a short list we simply cannot put in a van at all: paint tins, gas cylinders, oils, asbestos sheeting off an old garage roof. Say so on the phone and we will tell you who does take it — better that than a team arriving and having to leave things behind.

Garage and loft clearance, and flat clearance in Tiverton

A flat clearance is its own sort of day — a shared stair, a lift that may not take a wardrobe, and a spot outside that is not ours to hold all morning. Half the volume of a Mid Devon property is usually nowhere near the living rooms. Garage and loft clearance is the part people underestimate every single time, and it is the part that decides whether a house clearance in Tiverton finishes in a day or spills into a second. Lofts here are often boarded and full — suitcases, Christmas boxes, tins of screws, a cot somebody's children slept in forty years ago. Garages hold the mower, the workbench, the bicycles and a freezer that has not been switched on since the last owner used it.

We bring our own ladder and we go up ourselves; nobody expects a relative in their seventies to be handing boxes down through a hatch. If the loft hatch is small, or the ladder is the folding aluminium sort that has seen better days, say so beforehand. Same with a garage roof: if it is corrugated asbestos we will still clear what is inside, but the sheeting itself stays where it is and we will point you at somebody licensed to take it. Sheds, greenhouses and the general contents of a Devon garden — pots, canes, a rusting rotavator — come out on the same visit if you tell us they are there.

Who we invoice, and when it is paid

For probate and estate work we invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly. You do not have to pay it yourself and claim it back; it is settled from the estate, and firms handling probate in Devon are used to receiving a clearance invoice that way. If you would rather it came to you personally, that is fine too. There is no deposit. Nothing is asked for up front — the work is done first and the invoice follows it, with the photographs and the waste transfer notes attached. The quote itself is free and puts you under no obligation whatsoever.

As for what a clearance will come to, that is not a thing anybody can honestly print on a webpage, because it depends on what is in the rooms. Ring the office on 0800 046 5555 and talk it through, or send photographs through the form on this page, and you will get a figure for your property rather than somebody else's.

Probate work, and houses nobody has faced yet

A lot of what we do in this part of Devon follows a death. The house has been shut up for months, the heating off, and the family is scattered across the country. Probate house clearance is the bulk of our week here, and most of it is arranged by people who are nowhere near Tiverton. We can hold the keys, meet an estate agent, read meters, photograph rooms, and get everything to the point where the property can be handed over or put on the market. You do not need to be there. You do not need to empty drawers or bag anything first — the team goes through cupboards, wardrobes and chests themselves and sets aside anything that looks like paperwork, photographs or jewellery for you to look through.

Executors at a distance are the normal case, not the awkward one. We have done probate clearances for families in Australia and for solicitors who never saw the house at all. What they get instead of a visit is a set of photographs of every emptied room the same afternoon, the meter readings if they ask for them, and the transfer notes for the waste. That is usually enough for the estate file.

Properties that have got badly on top of somebody are part of the ordinary week too, and we say nothing about them. Hoarder house clearance takes longer, needs more protective kit and sometimes two days rather than one, and it gets the same flat, unbothered treatment as any other job. There is no lecture and no raised eyebrow. The team turns up, works room by room, and by the evening you have your floor back. If there is anything valuable buried in it, it gets put to one side rather than carried out to the van. That happens more often than you would think, and it is why we never rush a room.

What we need to work it out

Ring or email with the address and some photographs of each room, the garage and the garden, and you will get a proper answer to work with — worked out from what we can see, not from what somebody guesses standing in your porch. Tell us anything awkward while we are talking: no water or power, a track a Luton van cannot get down, a lane that needs a smaller vehicle, an item to be left behind, carpets to stay. All of it changes what we load and what we bring, and it is far easier to know in advance than to find out at nine in the morning.

We arrive at nine as standard and aim to have the property finished that day wherever the volume allows. If it needs two days, we will say so before you commit, not halfway through the afternoon.

Common questions about house clearance in Tiverton

Can you invoice the solicitor or the executor?

Yes. We invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly, and it is settled from the estate. There is no deposit and nothing is due before the work is done.

Do you clear the garage and the loft as well as the house?

Yes, and it is worth saying so when you book. Garage and loft clearance is included in the same visit; we bring our own ladder and clear the hatch ourselves. Sheds, greenhouses and garden contents are the same — just tell us they are there.

How long does a house clearance in Tiverton take?

Most properties are done in a day. The team starts at nine unless a rural address makes a later start more sensible, and if the volume means two days we say so before you commit, not on the afternoon of the first.

Do I have to be at the property?

No. We hold keys, we take them by post when the executor is at a distance, and we send photographs of the empty rooms the same afternoon. Meter readings too, if you ask.

What can you not take away?

Paint, oils, gas cylinders and asbestos sheeting cannot go in the van. Fridges, mattresses and upholstered furniture can, but they travel in their own regulated streams. Tell us on the phone and nothing gets left standing in an empty hall.