We have been doing house clearance in Haringey since 2007, which is long enough to know that the hard part in this borough is rarely the furniture. It is the fifty yards between the front door and wherever the van is allowed to stand. What follows is two real house clearance jobs in Haringey, how we work the borough. What we will and will not put on the van.
The house clearance in N10 that was booked from four hundred miles away
February 2019, a house in N10 on the Muswell Hill side of the borough. The instruction came from Edinburgh — an executor sorting out a London property from Scotland, who had not been inside it for some time and was not going to be there on the day. That is more common in Haringey than you might think, and it changes how we work: everything has to be agreed in writing beforehand. There is nobody in the hallway to ask.
We do not need much warning for a job like that. One or two working days is usually enough to get a date in the book. The van was at the door at nine in the morning, a Luton furniture van with three of us on it. The house went out in one full load.
Two fridge freezers came out of that clearance, one full-size and one small. Fridges and freezers cannot ride out with the sofas and the wardrobes: the gases in them have to be drawn off under controlled conditions at a site set up for it. They are handled on their own, always, whether there is one of them or four. Nobody thinks to mention the second one when they ring. It is usually in a utility, a garage or a back porch and has been switched off for years.
Afterwards the executor wrote in with a question we do not get every week: "How do I call up the form for giving (very positive) feedback?"
Parking is the whole problem with house clearance in Haringey
The Harringay Ladder streets in N4 and N8 are long Victorian terraces with permit bays down both sides and no front garden to stage anything in. Crouch End and Stroud Green are much the same. Muswell Hill and the Alexandra Palace side have driveways in places. The hills are steep enough that a loaded barrow is a two-man job. Down in Tottenham, N15 and N17, you get a lot of post-war estates and cul-de-sacs where the entrance road is fine and the far end is not. Small vans get about halfway down before the road narrows, and anything bigger is better left by the gates.
A tipper at the door instead of forty yards up the street means every wardrobe, every bin bag, every drawer of paperwork travels a few steps rather than a few minutes. That is why we ask about the parking before we ask about the furniture.
If you are arranging a bay suspension yourself, give the council plenty of notice. They want at least eight days to change or cancel one, and the yellow warning boards need to go up under the parking signs about a week ahead so residents can move. Book the van first, then the bays, and give both the same date. Controlled parking hours vary street to street across Haringey; the road tells you. It is worth reading the plate rather than guessing.
Flat clearance in N6, and a clean once it was empty
March 2021, a flat clearance in N6, on the Highgate edge of the borough. The instruction came from a firm of solicitors in Bristol who were handling the estate, so nobody connected to the family was in London at all. The keys, the access and the questions all went through the office rather than across a kitchen table.
The flat went out in a single load with a clearance team on it. A small fridge freezer went off separately, as they always do, and one mattress. Mattresses do not go into general waste either; they are bulky, they are wet-weather magnets. The transfer stations take them as their own stream.
Once it was empty we cleaned it through to three-bedroom scale. Is what the solicitors wanted before it went on the market. An empty flat looks worse than a full one for about an hour. Every mark on the carpet and every shadow where a wardrobe stood is suddenly the only thing you can see. Clearing and cleaning on the same visit saves the estate a second set of arrangements. The invoice for both went to the solicitors, not to the family.
The kinds of house clearance people ask us for in Haringey
Probate house clearance in Haringey
Most of our Haringey work is probate work. Probate house clearance is its own job: there is usually a will, usually a solicitor. Usually somebody a long way off trying to make decisions about a house they last saw at Christmas. We are used to working from photographs and a list, sending the waste transfer paperwork back afterwards, and posting on anything that turns up in a drawer and should never have left the building. Keys that belong to a council or a managing agent, photographs, documents, savings books.
On probate jobs we invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly. Payment can come from the estate — it does not have to come out of a relative's own pocket — and there is no deposit: nothing is asked for up front. The invoice follows once the house is done and you have walked it. If you are an executor and you want the paperwork addressed to your solicitor rather than to you, say so when you book and that is how it will be raised. More on how we handle probate house clearance generally.
Flat clearance in Haringey
Flat clearance in this borough usually means a Victorian conversion. A first or second floor with a shared front door, a staircase with a turn in it that a three-seater will not take, and neighbours going to work while you are working. Green Lanes, Crouch End, Hornsey and the blocks around Wood Green and N22 are all like that. Tell us the floor and whether there is a lift, because that single fact decides how many of us come.
Garage and loft clearance in Haringey
Garage and loft clearance is the part that gets discovered rather than booked. Somebody says three-bed house and means three bedrooms; the hatch then turns out to be packed and the garage has not been opened since a boiler was changed. If you want the garage and loft done, say so at the start. With a ladder up and a couple of hours set aside it is straightforward, and it is a nuisance sprung on us at four in the afternoon.
End of tenancy and hoarder clearances
End of tenancy clearances we do for landlords and managing agents across N15, N17 and N22, usually against a deadline and usually with a check-out report to satisfy. Houses packed to the ceiling are part of the trade too, not an exception to it: a hoarder house clearance is planned differently — more hands, more loads, a longer day — and the team has seen it before. If it is only a few items rather than a whole property, that is house rubbish removal and we do that as well.
The things people forget to mention
The loft, the shed and the garage account for most of the phone calls our teams make from a doorstep. The shed holds a pressure washer seized solid, coils of hosepipe, a wallpaper pasting table, stepladders with a cracked foot and five watering cans. All of it changes the load. Tell us too what is staying — curtains, the white goods in the kitchen, a rug — because everything else we will treat as going.
Pianos are the other one. An upright is roughly the weight of three washing machines with none of the handholds. It wants two people, straps and a clear route to the door before anyone lifts anything. Say it is there and say which room it stands in; piano removal is a separate arrangement. The same goes for a chest freezer in a cellar, a bath, or a corner unit built for a television that no longer exists and screwed to the wall. Items get remembered late — a dishwasher added by phone on the morning of a clearance is normal. Far better than us finding it.
What we do with what comes out
Anything still fit for use we would rather see used. Furniture in reasonable order, unopened household goods, tools, books. We try the reuse projects and shops around the borough first, because the alternative is burning something a neighbour would have been glad of. Metals and clean timber are separated on the van where there is room to do it.
The rest goes out through a permitted transfer station and is weighed in. The ticket has our details on it. We hold an upper-tier waste carrier registration with the Environment Agency, number CBDU419679. The business is insured for clearance work. Ask any firm for that number before they load a single bag; fly-tipping traced back to your address is your problem, not theirs.
Two categories sit outside a normal load. Fridges and freezers, as above. And upholstery — sofas, armchairs, sofa beds, footstools and upholstered dining chairs fall under the POPs rules. The flame-retardant chemicals in the padding cannot be recycled or landfilled, so those items travel in their own stream and are incinerated. Tins of half-used paint, aerosols, gas canisters and car batteries also need their own arrangement; tell us what is in the shed and we will sort it out. They cannot ride in with the furniture.
What a house clearance in Haringey costs
One answer only, and it is an honest one: ring the office on 0800 046 5555, or send photographs of each room through the form on this page, and you will get a figure back. Photographs of every room, the loft hatch open, the garage open, plus the floor and what the parking is like outside. That is all we need to give you a number and a date. A short video walking through the property works just as well.
The bit of the map we cover
Haringey is one of the north London boroughs of Greater London. For us it means the whole of N4, N6, N8, N10, N11, N15, N17 and N22: Tottenham, Seven Sisters, Bruce Grove, Northumberland Park, West Green, Harringay, Manor House, Hornsey, Crouch End, Stroud Green, Wood Green, Bounds Green, Fortis Green, Muswell Hill and the Highgate side. We are along the Victoria line to Tottenham Hale and Seven Sisters, the Piccadilly to Turnpike Lane, the Great Northern stations at Hornsey and Alexandra Palace. The Overground at Bruce Grove and Harringay Green Lanes.
Over the borders we work the neighbouring boroughs on the same terms — house clearance in Enfield to the north and house clearance in Islington to the south both have their own pages, as do the two parts of this borough that people search for by name: house clearance in Tottenham and house clearance in Hornsey. Hackney, Barnet and Waltham Forest we cover too. All of it sits inside the ULEZ, so the van is compliant and that is our problem rather than yours.
Questions we get asked about house clearance in Haringey
Can you invoice a solicitor or an executor directly?
Yes, and we do it most weeks. We invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly, payment can come from the estate, and there is no deposit. Nothing is due before the work, and the invoice follows once the property is clear.
How much notice do you need for a house clearance in Haringey?
Usually one or two working days. If you have a particular date in mind — a completion, a check-out, a bay suspension already booked — tell us and we will hold it.
What can't you take?
Fridges and freezers and POPs upholstery go in their own streams rather than in with the load. Paint, aerosols, gas canisters, car batteries and anything hazardous need their own arrangement. Tell us before the day and it is all arranged; nobody wants that conversation on the doorstep.
Do you clear just one or two items?
Yes. Single-item collections and small furniture removals are worth a call. A wardrobe out of a second-floor flat in N8 is a job in its own right.
Will you leave things behind if I ask you to?
That is exactly what we want to be told. Write down what stays — carpets, curtains, light fittings, the white goods, a particular chest of drawers — and it stays. Anything not on that list we will treat as going.
What proof do I get that it was disposed of properly?
The waste transfer paperwork, on request, with our carrier number CBDU419679 on it. Executors and managing agents ask for it as a matter of course, and it is sensible.
For a house clearance in Haringey, ring 0800 046 5555 or send photographs through the form on this page. We will come back with a figure and a date.
