Two fridge freezers in a day is nothing unusual. A tall one out of a kitchen, a small under-counter thing from a garage that is still humming away with nothing in it, a mattress off a back bedroom, and the van out again for a second load by early afternoon. That is a fair picture of what house clearance in Dunmow looks like on an ordinary working day: one team, one day, a load and then a bit more than a load.
Most of the houses we clear round Dunmow were not built for a Luton van. That is the first thing you notice. Great Dunmow's older streets run off the market square with frontages that look narrow from the road and then go back a long way, and the villages either side of the A120. The Rodings, Felsted, Barnston, Little Dunmow — tend to end in a gravel track with a hedge on both sides. We plan for it. If the van cannot get to the door we barrow it, and the day takes a bit longer, and that is factored in before anybody starts.
Probate house clearance in Dunmow
A good half of the house clearance work we do around Dunmow is probate work: a parent's house standing empty since the funeral, a sale going through, and a completion date that will not move for anybody. The instructions usually come through the family and the paperwork through a solicitor, and we are used to dealing with either. We can invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate direct, whichever is simplest at your end, and payment can come out of the estate rather than out of somebody's own pocket. There is no deposit. Nobody is asked for anything before the work is done, and the quote itself is free and carries no obligation.
Probate house clearance in Dunmow very often means an executor who does not live in Essex at all — a son in Yorkshire, a daughter abroad, a cousin who has taken the job on because nobody else would. You do not have to be here. We can collect a key from a neighbour, an agent or a solicitor's office, do the clearance, and send you photographs of the empty rooms the same evening. Anything that looks like it matters — documents, photographs, jewellery, war medals, the tin at the back of the wardrobe — gets set aside and put in your hands rather than in the van. If you would rather see how probate work is handled generally, there is more on our probate house clearance page.
Probate also runs at its own speed, and we do not chase it. Estates take as long as they take.
A flat clearance, and a worry about the parking
Not every job is a house. One clearance we handled a couple of springs back was a flat, and the whole thing turned on two questions: whether the parking outside could be held for the day, and whether one van was going to be enough for the contents.
The customer had booked the parking suspension himself, weeks in advance, and he was not at all confident about it. He wrote: "I just hope there is no problem with someone parking in the parking suspension area." Fair worry. A suspended bay is only a piece of paper. Councils say plainly that they cannot guarantee the space will actually be free — and if a car is sitting in it at nine in the morning, the team is carrying everything a good deal further than anybody planned.
He also could not stay. He said he would be there at nine to open up and then had to be elsewhere for the rest of the day, which is ordinary enough; we work in empty properties more often than we work in front of the owner. In that case the arrangement is always the same. The team photographs every room as it is finished and the pictures go over afterwards, so the person who was not there can see exactly what state the place was left in. That is what he asked for, and when he mislaid the photographs he asked for them again, and we sent them again. No trouble.
The other thing he said, before a thing had been moved, was about the vehicle: "I thought the truck would be bigger but they assured me everything will fit." That is the judgement people find hardest to trust over the phone, and it is the one part of the day that comes down to experience rather than paperwork — how much of a flat actually goes into a load once the wardrobes are apart and the sofa is on its end. The team said it would fit. It is our job to be right about that, because being wrong about it costs the customer a day.
Where a load goes after it leaves
Nothing gets tipped for the sake of it. Furniture that is sound, clothes, books, kitchen kit, tools — we run those past reuse schemes and charity outlets in the area first, because a dresser standing in somebody's front room is better than a dresser in a skip. What genuinely cannot be used goes to a permitted transfer station and is separated there, with a transfer note raised for every load that leaves your address. Our waste carrier registration is CBDU419679 and we will show it to you before we start if you would like to see it.
Essex County Council runs the household recycling centres in this district and they are strict about trade loads. That Is exactly why a firm turning up in an unmarked van offering to take it away with no paperwork is a risk you do not want. Under your duty of care the waste has to go to a registered carrier — if it is fly-tipped and the tipper is never found, the enforcement comes back to you, not to him. Ask anybody for their carrier number. If they cannot produce one, do not let them load.
Sofas, armchairs and other upholstered seating now go down a separate, regulated route because of the flame-retardant chemicals in the foam. That is a legal requirement rather than a preference of ours. Same story with fridges and freezers, which count as hazardous waste and have to have the gas dealt with properly by somebody licensed to do it. There are a few things that cannot simply go in with a mixed household load at all: tins of paint, gas canisters, fire extinguishers, car tyres, asbestos sheeting off a garage roof. Tell us they are there when you ring and we will take them into account. Do not leave them in a cupboard hoping nobody looks.
Getting to you
Dunmow has not had a railway station since the old Bishop's Stortford to Braintree line shut, so nearly everyone here drives, and so do we. Stansted Mountfitchet station is the usual one people use for London, with Audley End a bit further north serving Saffron Walden. We come in off the M11 at junction 8 or down the A120 depending on where in CM6 you are. That Means Thaxted, Great Easton, Little Easton, Stebbing, High Roding, Felsted and the villages around Stansted Mountfitchet are all a short run for a team already out this way.
We work right across this block of postcodes. CM6 for Great Dunmow itself, CM22 and CM24 towards Stansted, CM23 at Bishop's Stortford on the Hertfordshire boundary, CM17 down at Harlow, CM1 and CM3 around Chelmsford, CM7 and CM77 towards Braintree. CB10, CB11 and CB21 up through Saffron Walden and the Cambridgeshire border villages. SG8 at Royston is on our patch too. Uttlesford is a wide district with not much in the middle of it, so we tend to book two or three jobs in the same direction on the same day.
If you are just outside this area, the nearest pages of ours are house clearance in Saffron Walden for the north of Uttlesford, house clearance in Haverhill over the Suffolk line, house clearance in Ely and, smaller again, house clearance in Chippenham. Ring the office either way — the team out on the Dunmow run may well be the nearest one to you.
How we arrive at a figure
Ring the office on 0800 046 5555 and we will give you a figure over the phone, or send photographs of the rooms through the form on this page and we will give you one from those. That is the whole of it. There is no visit you have to sit through and no obligation once you have the number.
The team arrives at nine and aims to have the property empty by the end of the day wherever that is achievable. There is no need to bag anything up beforehand — cupboards, wardrobes, drawers, the loft hatch, the shed at the bottom of the garden, all of it gets emptied, and carpets and underlay come up too if you want them gone. If you would rather not be there, we collect the key and email you photographs of the empty rooms afterwards. Anything of sentimental value that turns up gets set aside and posted on to you.
Full houses, and the ones that take longer
Not every house comes out in one go. We did a clearance in this postcode area where the property had thirty years of living in it and the garage and loft had been used as overflow for most of them. The garage and loft clearance was very nearly a day's work on its own. Out of the garden and garage alone came a folding picnic table, a croquet set with two of its hoops missing, a greenhouse heater, and canes tied in bundles going back further than anyone could remember. There was an exercise bike being used as a clothes horse on the landing. There usually is.
That one took a long while to wind up afterwards for reasons at nobody's door, and we kept in touch and otherwise left her alone about it. When it was finally settled she wrote: "I will definitely be leaving a review as you've all been absolutely fantastic and incredibly kind." That is the part worth keeping.
Houses that have got badly on top of somebody are ordinary work for this team. Nobody comments, nobody photographs anything except the standard before-and-after walk round the team leader does for quality records, and nobody mentions it in the van afterwards. If there is decayed food waste or vermin involved we come kitted for it and treat it as a specialist job, which is a practical matter and not a moral judgement — see hoarder house clearance if that is what you are dealing with. If it is only a few bulky items rather than a whole property, house rubbish removal is the page you want.
What we need from you to book
Ring or email with the address and postcode, roughly what size the property is, whether there is a loft, garage, shed or garden involved, whether carpets and curtains are coming out, any fridges, freezers or mattresses, and whether a van can park outside. From that we can give you a real answer over the phone rather than sending somebody round to talk you into something. If you would rather send photographs of the rooms, that works just as well.
Questions people ask before booking a house clearance in Dunmow
How do I get a quote for house clearance in Dunmow?
Ring 0800 046 5555 or send photographs of each room through the form on this page. The quote is free and nothing is owed for asking.
Can you invoice a solicitor or an executor?
Yes. We invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate direct, payment can come from the estate, and there is no deposit at any stage.
Do you clear the garage and loft as well as the house?
Yes — garage and loft clearance in Dunmow is part of a full house clearance, along with sheds, outbuildings and anything left in the garden. Tell us what is up there when you ring so the day is planned around it.
Do I have to be at the property on the day?
No. We can take a key from a neighbour, an agent or a solicitor, and you get photographs of the empty rooms afterwards.
What can you not take away?
Paint, gas canisters, fire extinguishers, tyres and asbestos cannot go in a mixed household load. Fridges, freezers, mattresses and upholstered furniture can, but they travel by a separate regulated route.
How much notice do you need?
Usually a few days, sometimes less if a team is already booked out towards Dunmow that week. Sale completions and probate deadlines get priority where we can manage it.
We are fully insured, we have been doing this since 2007, and everything that leaves your house in Dunmow leaves it documented.
