The basement had no light. That was the first thing we were told about a first-floor conversion flat off Perry Vale, in SE23, a few minutes' walk down from Forest Hill station. The person arranging it was doing so from Bedfordshire and had never been able to spend much time at the property. Their message the evening before was straightforward enough: the electricity only worked in part of the house, the basement in particular had nothing at all. Hoped we would bring something of our own. We do. Battery floodlights live in the van precisely because half the older conversions around this hill have a cellar or a coal store with wiring that nobody has touched since the seventies.
We met at the property at nine on a Wednesday in late March 2025. The flat itself filled a load on its own. A mattress, an upholstered suite that had to be logged and handled under the POP rules, wardrobes that came apart on the landing because they were never going down those stairs whole, boxes of paperwork, kitchenware, the usual weight of a life that had been in one place a long time. Then the dark parts of the building gave up a second load the same day. Nobody had planned for two, but the crew was already there and it was better to finish than to come back. The invoice was settled from the estate account by a probate solicitor. Is how a good share of our Forest Hill work is paid. One customer wrote afterwards: "I was happy with the service, and have written a review."
Two small things about that day are worth saying, because they come up again and again round here. First, the questions were asked and answered in writing beforehand. Full address, the date wanted, who was paying, what was staying — so the van turned up with the right number of blankets, straps and lights and nobody stood about guessing. Second, when a link on our own booking page threw an error and the terms wouldn't open, the customer told us. We sent the wording straight across before the job rather than after it. Small, but it's the difference between a clearance that runs and one that stalls on the doorstep.
A December job in the same postcode district ran a different way. That one came through a relocation and property-management firm based up in Cambridgeshire. Job reference raised in early November, works wanted by the end of the month, actually done on the 19th of December, because arranging access with the people still living there took time. Clearance, clean, disposal through a waste transfer site: that was the instruction. That's what went in the report when the file was closed. Two full loads plus a half load of general rubbish, another mattress, more upholstery for the regulated stream, a small fridge freezer. A gas bottle that had been sat in a cupboard for years. A much bigger day than the paperwork had suggested, over a property that from the pavement looked like an ordinary terrace. They usually do.
Our history in this bit of south-east London goes back further than the house clearances. Through the first months of 2018 we ran a string of small collections billed through a studio business in SE23, right where the district rubs up against East Dulwich. Eight invoices between January and April, most of them builders' leftovers from flat refurbishments. Plasterboard offcuts, ripped-out kitchen units, packaging, a bath. Small, quick, repeat. One of those invoices came back to us with a request we still remember, because it was fair and we had got it wrong: "Hi - this invoice doesn't state what services it's for. Could you amend and resend as I need this for tax purposes. Thank you." We amended it and we changed how we write them. Those months taught us the streets up there better than any map would have: which ones you can turn a Luton in and which ones you reverse out of.
Parking, and what slows a day
Forest Hill is on a hill, which sounds obvious until you're carrying a sofa bed up from a lower ground floor on Wood Vale or trying to park a long wheelbase anywhere near Dartmouth Road at school run time. The Victorian and Edwardian villas along Honor Oak Road and Westwood Park were mostly cut into flats decades ago. The common stairs are narrow, the turns are tight and the front gardens have been paved over for one car, not a van. Around the station and Perry Vale the bays are controlled during the day. If there's nowhere to load we'll tell you before the day whether a suspension from Lewisham is worth arranging or whether we'll just work off a legal spot further along and barrow it. Tell us the floor, the lift situation and where a van can stand when you first ring. It changes how many of us come and how long the day takes.
The tip run, and what avoids it
Furniture, tools, crockery, books, bikes — if there's use left in something, we'd rather it went on to a reuse project or one of the charity shops along the parade than into a load. What can't be passed on gets sorted at the yard and sent through a permitted transfer station. The tickets from that are kept, so if an executor or an agent needs proof of where a house went, it exists on paper. Our waste carrier registration with the Environment Agency is CBDU419679. We carry public liability and goods-in-transit cover; ask for either and you'll get the certificates by email rather than a shrug.
Some things travel differently. Sofas, sofa beds, armchairs, dining chairs, footstools and bean bags fall under the POP regulations, so they go off separately for incineration and can't be mixed with the rest. That's law, not preference, and it's why an upholstered three-piece is logged on its own. Gas bottles like the one out of that December house have to be handled on their own too. Paint tins, solvents, asbestos sheeting off a garage roof, oil drums. None of that rides in a normal van load, but tell us and we'll say who does take it, or arrange it as a separate collection.
The kinds of house clearance Forest Hill asks us for
Not every job is a whole house, and the ones that are rarely arrive in the same shape twice. These are the four we're asked for most on this side of the borough.
Probate house clearance in Forest Hill
Most of the estate work we do here starts with a phone call from someone who isn't in London and has just been given a completion date. A probate house clearance is a different animal from an ordinary one: nothing is thrown away until the family has had the chance to say what matters, papers and photographs are set aside rather than binned. The emptied rooms get photographed the same evening so the person paying doesn't have to travel to see them. We can be instructed by an executor, an attorney under a power of attorney, or a solicitor's office, and we invoice whichever of them is handling it directly — see our probate house clearance page for how that side works. If probate hasn't been granted yet, say so when you book and the paperwork gets set up to wait for the estate account.
End of tenancy clearance in Forest Hill
Landlords and managing agents ring us when a tenancy has ended untidily and the check-out report reads like a list of what's been left. An end of tenancy clearance is usually one load and a sweep-through, sometimes with a clean behind it. It wants doing between one set of keys and the next rather than in a fortnight's time. The December job above was booked exactly that way. Tell us what has to stay — some agents want carpets, curtains and light fittings left in place. If that instruction reaches us in writing before the day, nothing goes on the van that shouldn't.
Garage and loft clearance in Forest Hill
Half the calls we take about a garage and loft come from people who have already sold the house and only opened the hatch that week. Lofts up here are boarded badly or not at all, so a loft goes room by room down a ladder with someone at the bottom; garages along the back of the Victorian terraces are often full of a previous owner's things entirely. Paint, tiles, a mower with no petrol in it, a decade of cardboard. We'll do a garage and loft on their own, without the rest of the house. That's a common booking before a sale. If it's really just a pile of rubbish rather than furniture, our house rubbish removal service is the cheaper shape of the same job.
Flat clearance in SE23 and SE4
Conversion flats are the standard housing stock here and they set the pace of the day: a first-floor return with a half landing, a communal front door that has to be propped, no lift. One bay outside that somebody else is usually in. We break furniture down on the landing rather than fight it round a turn. Where a flat has quietly filled up over years, that's normal work for us and there's more about it on the hoarder house clearance page.
Getting a quote
Send a handful of photos — every room, the loft hatch, the cellar, the shed, the garage if you can get the door open — and you'll get a proper figure over the phone before anyone knocks. There's no deposit and the invoice comes after the work, not before it. If the loft turns out to be packed when you thought it was empty, we say so at the time and you decide. Ring 0800 046 5555, or send the photographs through the form on this page.
Executors, agents and people who live somewhere else
Both of the recent Forest Hill jobs were instructed by somebody who wasn't in London. That's normal now. We can collect keys from an agent, meet a neighbour, work with a solicitor's office on billing so nothing comes out of a family member's own pocket. Send photographs of the emptied rooms the same evening so the person paying can see the state of the place without a four-hour round trip. If probate isn't finished, the invoice can wait for the estate account. Say so at the booking stage and it gets set up that way.
Houses that have quietly filled up over thirty years don't bother us either. We've been into rooms where the door only opened eighteen inches and we got on with it without comment. Anything that looks like documents, jewellery, coins or banknotes is set aside in a box for the family rather than binned, because it turns up in the strangest places. Inside a wardrobe lining, under a stair carpet, in a biscuit tin behind the boiler.
The ground we cover
Forest Hill sits in the London Borough of Lewisham, in Greater London. The SE23 work naturally spreads either side of it: SE4 for Brockley and Crofton Park, SE6 for Catford and Bell Green, SE14 for New Cross and New Cross Gate, SE8 for Deptford, SE15 for Peckham and Nunhead, SE16 for Rotherhithe and the Surrey Quays side. Sydenham, Honor Oak Park, East Dulwich and Dulwich are all inside the same run, as are Blackheath and Lee in SE3 and SE12, Eltham in SE9, Greenwich in SE10 and the Bromley and Beckenham edges in BR1 and BR3. The crews come in along the South Circular (A205) or up from the A21 depending on traffic. If you're using the trains yourself, Forest Hill station on the Overground is the easy meeting point, with Honor Oak Park and Catford Bridge doing the same job at the edges. We've loaded within sight of the Horniman more than once.
Neighbouring pages carry the detail for their own streets rather than repeating ours. If your property is nearer the town hall end of the borough, read house clearance in Lewisham; over towards the river and the park, house clearance in Greenwich. West of the hill, past Peckham, we cover house clearance in Camberwell and house clearance in Brixton — both close enough to fall inside the same working day as a Forest Hill booking.
Questions we're asked about house clearance in Forest Hill
Can you invoice a probate solicitor rather than the family?
Yes, and it's what we do on most estate jobs here. We can invoice a solicitor's office, an executor or an attorney directly. Payment can come from the estate account rather than out of a relative's own pocket. If probate hasn't been granted yet, tell us at the booking stage and the paperwork is set up to wait.
Do I need to be there on the day?
No. We'll collect a key from an agent, a neighbour or a key safe. Photograph the emptied rooms the same evening so you can see the state of the property from wherever you are. If there are items of sentimental value to pull out first, list them in writing beforehand and they're set aside rather than loaded.
How long does a house clearance in Forest Hill take?
Most properties are one day. We arrive at nine and work through, and where a second load is needed the van goes off, tips and comes back rather than leaving it to another visit. Very full houses, or ones with a cellar and a loft as well, occasionally run to a second day. If that looks likely from the photographs, we say so before you book, not on the day.
Can you clear just a garage and loft, or a single room?
Yes. Garage and loft only, one room, or a single heavy item are all normal bookings. Plenty of them happen before a sale rather than after a death. The process is the same, there are simply fewer loads.
What can't go on the van?
Paint, solvents, oils, asbestos and gas bottles don't travel in a normal load. Upholstered furniture goes off separately under the POP regulations for incineration. Fridges and freezers are handled as hazardous waste. None of it is a problem — it just needs saying beforehand so the right disposal route is booked.
How do I get a quote?
Photographs of every room, plus the loft hatch, cellar, shed and garage, and a phone call. That's enough for a firm figure without anyone visiting. Ring 0800 046 5555 or use the form on this page.
Single room, a garage full of a previous owner's things, a full four-bedroom house before the sale completes. The size doesn't change the process, only the number of loads. Ring us, or send the photos through the form, and we'll tell you what it takes.
