House clearance in Christchurch is mostly bungalows, retirement flats, and garages that haven't been opened properly in years. We've been doing this work since 2007, we hold a waste carrier licence, and a good half of what we clear in BH23 comes to us from a son, a daughter or an executor sorting out a house after a death or a move into care. If you want a figure for a house clearance in Christchurch, ring the office on 0800 046 5555 or send photographs through the form on this page and we'll come back to you with one.
Three garages, a loft, and an electric fire remembered at the last minute — a house clearance over three days
Last May we took a booking for a two-bedroom bungalow with three garages, a loft, and items to come out of both the front and the back garden. Three days were held for it — the Tuesday, with the Wednesday and Thursday kept free in case it ran on. It was booked as a verminous clearance, which means the place had been shut up long enough that the team went in with full kit and treated everything coming out as contaminated.
The person instructing us wasn't living anywhere near the property and was dealing with two houses at once, which is more common than you'd think. They planned to come over and be there on the day to help, rather than hand the keys across and stay away.
The booking form nearly didn't get filled in at all. The first reply came back as an ordinary email, and then a second one: "my brain didn't realise the email was a form to be completed." Nothing wrong with that — the form is long, and it's long on purpose, because every answer on it changes the number of hands and the size of vehicle we send. Then, a little later, came the message that tells you exactly what state a person is in when they're doing this from a distance:
"I only just remembered that there is a freestanding electric fire in the living room that also needs to be cleared. I hope I have remembered everything correctly. It has been such a big job dealing with two houses and living so far away."
We hear that a lot. Nobody remembers everything. That's why we walk the whole property before anything moves, and why the team rings if what's behind a door turns out to be more than what was described.
What came out was the usual bungalow mixture and then some: a mattress, a small fridge freezer, a television, paint tins, a gas bottle from one of the garages, upholstered furniture, and the electric fire that was remembered at the eleventh hour. Several of those can't just be thrown in with the rest. Fridges and freezers have to have the gas taken out under permit. A gas bottle doesn't go in a general load at all. Paint tins are hazardous waste and go separately. And anything with foam cushioning — sofas, armchairs, some office chairs — falls under the persistent organic pollutants rules that came in for this trade in 2023, so it's kept apart the whole way and destroyed at a permitted site rather than tipped or recycled with the rest. That isn't us being awkward. It's the law, and it applies whether the sofa was expensive or has been sitting in a shed for six years.
The three garages were where the day went long, as garages usually are. Garden tools, timber offcuts, half-empty tins, a freezer running on nothing. We photograph before and after on every clearance and email the set through, because most of the people booking us aren't standing in the room. They're in Christchurch, or Highcliffe, or two hundred miles away, waiting to hear that a house they may never see again is empty.
Where we go
Christchurch sits in the corner of Dorset where the Avon and the Stour run into the harbour, and BH23 covers a good spread of it. We work right across that district — Purewell, Somerford, Stanpit, Mudeford and the quay, Jumpers Common, Burton, Bransgore, Hurn out by the airport, and along the coast to Friars Cliff, Highcliffe and Walkford. Over the water it is Southbourne, Tuckton and Iford, and the middle of town beyond them — if the property is that side of the river see house clearance in Bournemouth. Further round the harbour there's house clearance in Poole. East and north we take work in house clearance in New Milton and Barton on Sea in New Milton, and Ringwood in Ringwood.
All of it is BCP Council territory now, apart from the New Forest side, and the household recycling centres are run to their rules and their opening hours, which is worth knowing if you were planning to shift it yourself. Christchurch railway station is on the main line between Bournemouth and Brockenhurst, with Hinton Admiral the next stop along for the Highcliffe side. We arrive by van rather than train, obviously — but plenty of executors travel down for the day, meet us at nine, hand over the keys and get the afternoon service back. That works fine. We can also collect keys from an agent's office or a key safe and post them back afterwards, which is what happens on most of the probate work.
Access, parking and the summer problem
Anyone local knows what the A35 through Barrack Road is like between June and September. Add the beach traffic heading for Mudeford and it can take twenty minutes to move a mile. So when you book, tell us about the parking. Is there a driveway? A resident bay? A permit needed? Is the road so narrow that a Luton can't get past the parked cars? The older terraces near Wick Lane and the streets running down towards the quay are tight, and a chain of blokes carrying furniture forty metres to a van adds hours to a day that could have been shorter.
Flats we handle regularly too. Lift or no lift, top floor or ground — say which, and the team turns up with the right number of hands and the right size of vehicle rather than finding out at nine in the morning. The housing round here shapes the work as well. A lot of what we clear in this town is a two-bed bungalow or a purpose-built retirement flat, forty or fifty years of one household in it, with a garage at the side that hasn't been opened properly since the car stopped fitting. Those garages are where the day gets long: garden tools, paint, sheds' worth of timber offcuts, an old chest freezer running on nothing. Loft hatches are the other one — narrow, boarded badly, and full. Neither is a problem so long as we know beforehand, because both change how the day is planned.
The kinds of house clearance we do in Christchurch
Probate house clearance in Christchurch
Most of our week is probate work. A probate house clearance in Christchurch usually starts with a phone call from someone who has already had a month of paperwork and has now been handed a set of keys they don't want. We can meet you there, or take the keys from the solicitor or the agent and do the whole thing while you're at work or at home two counties away. Photographs before and after come as standard. If the estate hasn't been settled yet, that's normal and it doesn't hold anything up — see probate house clearance for how the rest of it works. Where a house has been let go badly, hoarder house clearance is the same team and the same kit.
Flat clearance in BH23
Flat clearance is its own animal, and BH23 has plenty of them: retirement schemes, warden-controlled blocks, seafront conversions at Friars Cliff. Lift or stairs, communal bin store or none, a scheme manager who needs telling before a van blocks the turning circle. Tell us the floor and whether there's a lift when you ring, and mention if the block has a booking system for the service lift. Some of the schemes here do.
Garage and loft clearance in Christchurch
Garage and loft clearance is the part people underestimate, every time. A garage in a Christchurch bungalow can hold more than the house does, and the loft above a 1960s semi is often boarded just enough to have been filled and not enough to walk on safely. We do both, and we'd rather be told about them at the quoting stage than find them on the morning. If it's only the garage or only a single item going, that's fine as well — house rubbish removal covers the smaller jobs.
What we won't put in a van, and who the invoice goes to
Some things need a specialist and we'll say so plainly. Gas cylinders, drums of solvent, and any asbestos sheeting off an old garage roof aren't going in an ordinary load — that's a separate licensed job. Paint tins and televisions we can take. Furniture and household goods still fit for use don't go to the tip if we can help it; we run them to a reuse project or a charity depot locally, and the crew keep an eye out for photographs, documents and cash tucked into drawers and books, which turn up more often than you'd think. Everything else is weighed in at a permitted transfer station and the tickets are kept. We hold waste carrier licence CBDU419679 with the Environment Agency, and we're insured for the work and for your property while we're in it.
On the paperwork side: where the clearance follows a death, we invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly, and it can be settled out of the estate rather than out of somebody's own pocket. There's no deposit and nothing to pay before the work. Just say so when you book and we'll set the invoice up that way from the start, with the solicitor's postal and email address on file, which saves a tangle later.
Houses that have been let go — rooms you can only get halfway into, hallways stacked to shoulder height — are ordinary work for us, not a special case. There's no lecture and no faces pulled. Ring the office, describe the place honestly, and we'll tell you what it takes.
Common questions about house clearance in Christchurch
What does a house clearance in Christchurch cost, and how do I get a figure?
Ring the office on 0800 046 5555 and describe the property, or send photographs through the form on this page. Either way you'll get a figure back. Photographs are usually the more accurate of the two, because you can't hide a full garage from a camera.
Can you invoice our solicitor or the executor?
Yes. We invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly, and payment can come out of the estate. No deposit is taken and nothing is due before the work. Give us the firm's postal and email address when you book and the invoice is raised that way from the start.
Do you do flat clearance in retirement and warden-controlled schemes?
We do, and often. Tell us the floor, whether there's a lift, and whether the scheme manager needs notice about the van. Most of the blocks in BH23 want a heads-up rather than a surprise.
Can you take a fridge freezer, a mattress and an old sofa?
Yes, all three, but they travel separately from the general load. Fridges and freezers are degassed under permit, mattresses are handled on their own, and upholstered furniture goes under the persistent organic pollutants rules to a permitted site.
Do I have to be there on the day?
No. Plenty of our probate clearances in Christchurch are done with the owner's family somewhere else entirely. We collect keys from an agent or a key safe, send photographs before and after, and post the keys back when we're finished.
