Most house clearance in Southall, old Middlesex, starts with a phone call and a couple of photographs. Somebody asks whether a van will get down the street. Whether a whole house can be emptied in a day. We have been doing this since 2007, out of west London, and Southall. UB1 and UB2, in the London Borough of Ealing — is one of the places the crew gets out to most.
December 2019, a house in UB1. The person dealing with it was not in London and was not going to be there on the day either; it was all arranged from several hours' drive north, by telephone and email. The keys sorted out at this end. That is ordinary for us. A fair share of the house clearance Southall sends our way is booked by somebody who lives nowhere near the property.
That one went out in a single load. Plenty of houses do not — the van fills, goes off to tip and comes back — but this one was measured right on the walk-round and the whole lot went in one go. Two things on it could not simply ride along with the furniture. Those two shaped the day more than the furniture ever does: a gas bottle, and a fridge freezer.
The bottle went for regulated disposal. Canisters travel on their own paperwork and they don't go into a mixed load, empty or not. Nobody at the far end can tell an empty one from a live one by looking at it. The fridge freezer went for regulated recycling — degassed at a site set up to do it, coolant circuit and insulation both. The gas is in the foam as well as the pipes. Neither goes on the van on the assumption that somebody will work it out later. They're booked in before we leave the yard.
That is what our own paperwork says about that house clearance in Southall.
What Southall throws at a van
Southall sits in the London Borough of Ealing, in the western corner of Greater London. The housing here does not clear like the rest of the borough. UB1 and UB2 are dense — long Victorian and Edwardian terraces off the Broadway, then the interwar semis out towards Norwood Green and Dormers Wells. A great many of both have been extended sideways, backwards and up into the roof. That matters to us more than square footage does. A loft conversion means a second staircase, usually a tight one. Everything that has been stored up there for two decades has to come down it by hand.
Parking is the other thing. The streets behind the Broadway were laid out for horses and handcarts, not for a Luton with a tail-lift. Residents' bays fill by eight in the morning. We would far rather know in advance that the road is permit-only or that there's a width restriction than find out with a van blocking a bus route. If a bay suspension is needed through Ealing Council, it's better arranged a week ahead. Councils rarely do these at short notice, and a suspension that arrives late is a wasted day for everyone.
Southall station is on the Elizabeth line now, which changed the traffic pattern around the town centre more than anyone expected. The roads either side of the railway are slower through the middle of the day than they used to be. Hanwell station is the next one east if you're coming out this way by train. We drive it, obviously, but it tells you something about how boxed-in the centre gets.
Where we go from here
The crew that covers Southall also covers house clearance in Northolt and house clearance in Greenford — UB5 and UB6, both a short run up the A312 — along with house clearance in Hayes, Yeading, Norwood Green, Hanwell and the W7 and W5 streets towards house clearance in Ealing and Ealing Broadway. Further out we're regularly in the NW postcodes: Park Royal, Harlesden, Alperton, Brent Park, College Park, Willesden and NW10 generally. East through Ealing Common, Gunnersbury and Acton Green. Between Southall's own UB districts, the W addresses on the Ealing side and the NW ones north of the A40, that's most of a working week without leaving west London.
Part loads, single items and small collections
Not everything is a full house. Some of what we do in UB1 and UB2 is a garage, a shed, one back bedroom, or a single awkward item that two people in a family can't shift between them. A wardrobe that won't come down the stairs in one piece, a chest freezer, a piano. Small businesses along and behind the Broadway ring us for the same reason: a unit fills up with packaging and broken furniture every few weeks whether anyone planned for it or not, and that's house rubbish removal rather than a house clearance.
For a collection like that, walk round with your phone and send us the video. We watch it and tell you what it is, and you get a date. The one thing worth saying up front is access: a collection assumes the items are at ground level. If it's down a basement or up two flights, say so when you send the video. That's a different job with a different crew size. Nobody enjoys a surprise on either side of the door.
Fridges, foam and the things that ride separately
Fridges and freezers are hazardous waste under UK rules, because of the gases in the coolant circuit and the insulation, and they can't just go in with the rest. Which is why the one out of that UB1 house was booked in separately before the crew set off. Sofas, armchairs and padded dining chairs are their own category too: upholstery made before the ban contains fire-retardant chemicals classed as persistent organic pollutants. The foam has to be tipped at a site licensed to burn it rather than mixed into a general load. There's no way round it and no point pretending otherwise; the paperwork follows the sofa, not us.
Paint, solvents, gas cylinders and car batteries are the other exceptions. We can take small quantities as a documented extra. A garage full of decorators' leftovers or camping gas needs planning, not a shrug on the morning. Ealing's own reuse and recycling centre over at Greenford takes household quantities from residents directly. Is sometimes the simpler answer for a handful of tins. Asbestos we don't touch at all — garage roofs and old flue panels turn up more often than people expect. That's a licensed contractor's job, not ours.
Where the rest of it ends up
Furniture, white goods, kitchenware and clothing that somebody else can genuinely use get offered on to reuse projects and charity shops around west London before anything else happens to them. Not everything qualifies — a wardrobe with a swollen base or a mattress that has been damp is not a donation, it's someone else's disposal problem — but a surprising share of a house does. What can't be reused goes to a licensed transfer station, gets weighed in. Is separated there into wood, metal, WEEE, plasterboard and general. We're registered with the Environment Agency as an upper-tier waste carrier, number CBDU419679. You can look that up yourself on their public register. Waste transfer notes are issued for each visit and normally reach you within a few working days of the last load; executors and solicitors ask for these routinely and they are yours by right, not a favour.
Probate, landlords and heavily filled houses
Probate house clearance in Southall
A fair share of Southall work is probate. The house has been in the family a long time, the person dealing with it lives elsewhere. Another county, sometimes another country — and there's no appetite for six weekends of car boot runs. A probate house clearance is booked by an executor, or by a solicitors' office holding the keys, and we can work from a key safe, photograph the rooms as we go, and set aside anything you've flagged. Documents, photographs, jewellery, letters — for you to collect, rather than us deciding what matters.
On the paperwork side: we invoice the solicitor, the trustee or the executor directly. The clearance can be settled out of the estate rather than out of somebody's own pocket. There is no deposit. The invoice comes after the property is empty and you've seen it. We're used to the wait where a grant hasn't come through yet. If you want the whole picture on that side of it, we have a page on probate house clearance too.
End of tenancy clearance in UB1 and UB2
Landlords and managing agents get the same treatment on an end of tenancy job, where the useful thing is usually a firm date and a van that turns up on it rather than sympathy. Furniture left behind, a fridge nobody defrosted, a shed full of somebody else's belongings. It comes out, the transfer notes are issued, and the property goes back to the agent ready for photographs.
Garage and loft clearance in Southall
Plenty of what we're asked for isn't the house at all. Garage and loft clearance is its own job around here. So many Southall houses have been extended up into the roof and the original loft space ended up as storage nobody has opened since the extension went in. Same with garages: the door hasn't been up in years, the car hasn't been in it since the nineties. The family would like it emptied before the house goes on the market. Tell us if the garage door is seized. It happens, and it's easier to plan for than to discover.
Hoarded and heavily filled houses
Houses that have filled up over decades are ordinary work for us, not an event. The team turns up, sorts, and gets on with it; there's no commentary and no photographs shared anywhere. Where it needs a bigger crew and more than one day, we say so before we start rather than halfway through the afternoon, and there's more detail on hoarder house clearance if that's what you're dealing with.
We're asked about self-storage units too, usually once the monthly bill has outlived the reason for it. We empty those as well, though the site's access hours and its own rules about trolleys and lifts tend to decide which day works.
Getting a price out of us
Send photographs, or a video walking through each room, and we'll come back with a figure and a date. If it's easier, phone 0800 046 5555 and describe it — that's the only number we use. Either way you get a quote that holds unless the job itself changes, an extra load or a locked garage nobody had opened, in which case we tell you before we do the work rather than after. The quote is free and it doesn't commit you to anything. There's no deposit; the form on this page reaches the same office as the phone.
Common questions about house clearance in Southall
Which parts of Southall do you cover? All of UB1 and UB2. The terraces off the Broadway, Norwood Green, Dormers Wells, Old Southall, Southall Green, and the streets running down towards the canal and the railway. If you're on the edge of a neighbouring district we almost certainly cover that too; the same crew works Northolt, Greenford, Hayes and Ealing.
Can you invoice a solicitor for a probate clearance? Yes. We invoice the solicitor, executor or trustee directly, and the work can be paid out of the estate instead of by a family member up front. There's no deposit, and the invoice follows the work rather than the other way round.
What does a house clearance in Southall cost? There's one honest answer to that and it isn't a number printed on a page. No two houses are the same. Ring 0800 046 5555, or send photographs of each room through the form on this page. You'll get a figure and a date back.
Do I need to be there on the day? No. A good many of our Southall clearances are run for somebody who lives a long way off. We work from keys or a key safe, photograph rooms as we go. Put aside anything you've asked us to keep.
What will you not take? Asbestos, and anything else that needs a licensed specialist. Fridges, freezers, upholstered furniture containing persistent organic pollutants, gas canisters, paint and solvents all come out of the house. They travel separately and are booked in before the day rather than loaded on and worried about afterwards.
How much notice do you need? Usually a few days. If a parking bay suspension is needed through Ealing Council, allow longer. A week is more realistic, and a suspension that turns up late costs everybody a day.
