Most of our house clearance work in Faversham arrives second-hand — a solicitor's office, an executor two counties away, a son or daughter who hasn't lived in ME13 for thirty years. Very few people ring us about a house they are standing in. One November clearance ran exactly like that, and it is worth setting out because it is the shape of the job far more often than the tidy one-bedroom flat is.
The instruction came from a firm handling an estate rather than from the family, and nobody paying for the work had ever stood inside the property. It was flagged to us before the date as a house that had got badly out of hand — years of contents, not weeks. The team went in expecting a long day and got one. Two full loads went out instead of the one that had been planned for. A small fridge freezer came out with the second, which travels its own regulated route rather than going in with the general load, because the law is specific about sealed gas units and always has been. Two loads and a fridge freezer is the whole of it — a long day rather than a complicated one.
The tail of the job was paperwork rather than furniture, which is normal for estate work. Photographs of the emptied rooms went over the same evening, then the disposal documentation, then a second copy of the disposal documentation, because what came back was:
"Please resend as I cannot open your first attachment."
That is honestly what most of our estate correspondence looks like from this end — attachments, references, somebody in an office a long way off trying to line our paperwork up against a file they inherited from a colleague. It is worth knowing that it can run on for weeks after the van has gone, and that we expect it to.
We cover ME13 from the town centre out to the villages, and the pattern above repeats itself more than you would think.
What comes out of a Faversham house clearance
A standard day starts at nine. The team leader walks the property first with whoever is letting us in, photographs it room by room before anything moves, and agrees what is staying — that conversation is worth five minutes and saves an argument later. Carpets and underlay come up if you want them up. Curtains and rails come down if you want them down. Lofts, garages and sheds are part of the job as long as we know about them in advance, because a loft nobody has been into since the boiler was changed can add hours nobody costed for.
Nothing needs boxing or bagging beforehand. Wardrobes, drawers, kitchen cupboards, the airing cupboard, the space under the stairs — the team empties them. If something obviously personal turns up in a drawer, papers, photographs, medals, a ring at the back of a dressing table, it is set aside rather than loaded, and we will post it on. That happens on maybe one house clearance in three, and it matters much more to the family than the furniture does.
At the end the property is swept through and photographed again empty. Those pictures go to whoever booked it, the same evening where we can. If you never saw the house, they are the only proof you will ever have of what state it was left in, so we treat them as part of the work rather than a courtesy.
Faversham itself — the practical bits
ME13 covers the town and the villages hanging off it: Ospringe, Oare, Davington, Preston, Graveney, Luddenham, Painters Forstal, Selling, Sheldwich, Hernhill, Newnham, Eastling, Doddington and Boughton out towards the Blean. Faversham station sits on the line where the Dover and Ramsgate services split, so it is a short hop to Sittingbourne in one direction and Whitstable and Canterbury in the other. Handy for us when a family member is coming down for the day to hand over keys and meet the team at nine.
Parking is the part people underestimate. Abbey Street and the lanes off the market place are narrow, largely medieval frontages with no drive and no lay-by, and a Luton van cannot simply sit outside for six hours without a plan. Where a suspension is needed, that has to be arranged with the council in advance and most authorities want about ten working days' notice. It isn't something we can put in place on your behalf, though we'll tell you honestly whether we think you need it. The newer estates on the edge of town, and the streets over at the Brents, are far easier — a drive or a bit of kerb and we're away. Down by the creek, loading depends entirely on what's parked where that morning, and a Saturday market day is worth avoiding altogether if the date is yours to choose.
The housing stock varies more here than in most towns this size. Timber-framed and Georgian fronts in the middle, where staircases turn twice and a three-seater sofa often has to come apart before it comes out. Solid Victorian terraces around the old brewery; post-war semis and bungalows on the outskirts; and out in the villages, cottages and the odd farmhouse with outbuildings that turn a one-day job into a two-day one. Tell us which of those we are dealing with and we can usually judge the day correctly from the start.
Getting a figure for a house clearance in Faversham
There is one honest answer to what it will come to, and it is this. Ring the office on 0800 046 5555, or send photographs through the form on this page, and you will be given a figure before anyone sets off. Photographs help far more than descriptions do — people are consistently wrong about how much is in a loft, and nobody has ever over-estimated a garage.
If the day turns out bigger than the pictures suggested, you hear about it while there is still time to decide, from the team leader, on the day. Not afterwards.
Probate house clearance in Faversham
A good share of our Faversham house clearance work is probate, and probate work has its own rhythm. The person instructing us is often a solicitor, an attorney or an executor who lives nowhere near Kent, the keys sit with an agent or a neighbour. The house has been standing empty for months while the grant came through. None of that is a problem for us. We are used to being the only people on site — a key safe code by text, an agent's office, a neighbour two doors down, it makes no difference. There is more on how we handle probate house clearance generally, but the Faversham part of it is what's set out here.
What we ask for on a probate clearance is clarity about what stays. Executors are frequently working from a list drawn up by somebody else, and items promised to a beneficiary or booked for a valuer need to be flagged before the date, not discovered halfway through the morning. Send that list over and it goes to the team leader.
We invoice the solicitor, the attorney or the executor direct where that is how the estate is being run, and payment can come out of the estate rather than out of anyone's own pocket. No deposit is taken; the invoice follows the work.
The other thing probate brings is paperwork, as the job at the top of this page shows. Photographs before and after, and the disposal documentation for every load, are exactly what a solicitor needs on file. And if they ask a second time because an email would not open, we send it a second time.
Other kinds of house clearance in Faversham
Flat clearance in ME13
Not every job is a whole house. A fair bit of our week is flat clearance — the conversions above the shops in the town centre, the retirement and sheltered schemes, the newer blocks out towards the edge of ME13. Flats are a different day to houses and worth booking as such. There is often no lift, the stairs turn, and everything that comes out of a first- or second-floor flat comes down those stairs on somebody's shoulder rather than out through a front door onto a drive.
The things worth telling us in advance about a flat clearance. Which floor, whether there is a lift and what its internal dimensions are, whether the block has a loading bay or a communal door that needs propping, and whether a scheme manager has to be told we're coming. Sheltered schemes usually want notice and a name, and some of them will only allow loading at set hours. Mattresses and upholstered furniture from a flat go out wrapped and are handled separately from the general load because of the rules on treated foam. End-of-tenancy work is the same shape — landlord or agent hands over keys, we empty, sweep and photograph, and the photographs go back the same evening.
Garage and loft clearance in Faversham
Garage and loft space is where most of the underestimating happens. Half the enquiries we take describe a three-bedroom house and then mention, almost in passing, that there's also a garage. A garage and loft clearance is often as much volume again as the house itself, sometimes more, and if we don't know about it until nine in the morning the day is already wrong.
Faversham garages come in two sorts: attached or on the drive, which is straightforward, and the blocks of lock-ups set back behind the older streets and the post-war estates, which are not. Those need the key found first, and an up-and-over door that hasn't been opened since 2011 usually has to be persuaded. Lofts here are frequently unboarded, with the tank in the way and a hatch a big man cannot get through with a box, so the team works out of it in relay. What comes down is normally a mix of suitcases, Christmas decorations, offcuts of timber, old insulation and a cot that three generations have used. Tins of paint and half-drums of solvent in the garage are the one thing we can't take on an ordinary clearance — flag those and we'll tell you where they go.
Reuse first, tipping last
Anything still serviceable we'd rather see used again, so furniture, kitchenware, books and tools go to charity shops and reuse projects where they'll take them. Metal, timber, electricals and cardboard are separated at the transfer station. We hold a waste carrier registration, CBDU419679, and every load we tip is documented. So if a managing agent or a solicitor ever asks you where the contents of a property went, there's an answer with paperwork behind it. Fly-tipping fines land on the householder, not just the carrier, which is exactly why that matters.
There are things we're not permitted to take on an ordinary clearance: tins of paint, gas cylinders, asbestos sheeting, solvents, car batteries. Tell us before the day and we'll point you to the right disposal route rather than leaving you with a surprise in the shed. Upholstered furniture containing treated foam, and sealed fridges and freezers, are handled separately from the general load because the regulations require it.
End of tenancy clearance in Faversham
Landlords and agents across ME13 book end of tenancy clearance most months, usually with a check-out inspection or a new tenant already in the diary. A tenant has gone and left a bed, a sofa, a washing machine and whatever was in the yard. End of tenancy work is often a half day rather than a full one, and the outside decides that as much as the rooms.
Properties that have got out of hand
Some houses have not been emptied in thirty years. Rooms you can't get the door open on, a loft nobody has been into since the boiler was replaced, a garage packed to the roof. We do plenty of those — hoarder house clearance is a regular part of the week here, not an exception — and there's no commentary from the team. They turn up, they work, they don't make anyone feel judged. If the contents are in a state that needs treatment before anyone can safely work in there, we say so before the date rather than pretending otherwise.
Tell us honestly what is behind the door. A team that arrives expecting a tidy bungalow and finds a hoarded property loses half a day, and you lose it with them.
Coverage around the Swale
From Faversham we run out to house clearance in Sittingbourne and Teynham, Boughton under Blean, Oare and Ospringe, with Newington and Selling on the rural side (ME9 and ME10), Queenborough (ME11) and house clearance in Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey (ME12), Rainham (ME8) and Gillingham (ME7), Strood (ME2) and house clearance in Rochester (ME1). Swale Borough Council handles domestic collections here, but a house clearance is trade waste the moment we load it, which is why it goes through a registered carrier rather than a council skip.
Questions we get asked about house clearance in Faversham
How long does a house clearance in Faversham take? Most properties are cleared in a day, starting at nine. Village properties with outbuildings, and houses that have not been emptied in decades, sometimes run to two.
Do I have to be there? No. Keys from an agent, a neighbour or a key safe are fine. You get photographs of the property before and after by email.
Can you deal with a probate clearance if the executor lives away? Yes, and it is how a large part of our probate work is instructed. We take the instruction, the access arrangements and the list of what stays by email, and send the disposal paperwork afterwards.
Can you invoice the solicitor and be paid from the estate? Yes. We invoice the solicitor, attorney or executor direct, and payment out of the estate is normal on probate work. No deposit — the invoice follows the job.
Do you do flat clearance as well as whole houses? We do. Tell us the floor, whether there's a lift, and whether the block or scheme needs notice before we arrive.
Do carpets and curtains go? They can. Tell us before the day either way, because taking up carpet and underlay through a whole house changes how long the day runs.
What won't you take? Paint, solvents, gas bottles, asbestos and car batteries. Ask us and we'll tell you where they can go.
How do I get a price? Ring 0800 046 5555 or send photographs through the form on this page, and you'll have a figure before anyone is booked in.
Booking one
Ring or email with the address, the number of bedrooms, and whether there's a loft, garage or shed in the mix. Photographs help more than descriptions do. We've been doing this since 2007, across ME13 and the rest of the Swale, and a five-minute phone call at the start usually saves a bad hour on the day.
