Most of our house clearance work in Skelmersdale sits in WN8, with the rest spread across L39, L40 and WN6, and it is a town that makes you think about access before you think about anything else. Three-bedroom house, everything still in it, nothing boxed — that is the ordinary shape of a house clearance Skelmersdale families ring us about, and there is usually a solicitor or an executor somewhere in the background. We have been clearing houses since 2007. Waste carrier registration CBDU419679, and we are insured; both can be emailed over before anyone books a date.
A single-load clearance one November, and two mattresses
One of the jobs the lads still bring up when somebody asks what an ordinary day looks like was a November clearance a few years back. It came out in one load — a single van, the team through the house from the top down, and away. Two mattresses came out with it, and mattresses do not travel in with the general waste. They are handled and disposed of on their own, through a licensed facility, and that is a rule about what happens to them rather than anything to do with the paperwork.
The person organising it was not local to the property at all. They lived the best part of a day's drive away and never saw the house empty, so everything went by phone and email — what was going, what was staying, when the keys could be got hold of. The invoice went straight to them once the work was done, and the reply came back the same evening: "Hi - just to confirm I have paid this invoice in full this evening in full via a bank transfer with the invoice number as the reference."
That is more typical than people expect. A good half of the house clearance work we do is settled by somebody who has not stood in the property since the funeral.
Houses of that vintage tend to hold the same things wherever they are, and the WN8 and L39 stock is no exception. A china cabinet with the good dinner service still stood in it, untouched since somebody's christening, and a dressing table with a triple mirror that will not go down the stairs in one piece. Where something has got wear left in it we would rather it went to a reuse project or a charity shop counter than into the back of the van. Round Skelmersdale and Ormskirk there are enough of both to make that worth doing. What genuinely cannot be re-used travels to a permitted transfer station and comes back to you as a waste transfer note, which you can staple to the estate papers if a solicitor is going to want sight of it.
The layout here changes how the day runs
Skelmersdale is a new town and it was laid out on the Radburn pattern, which means an awful lot of houses face a footpath and put their cars round the back in a shared court. Lovely for children. Less lovely for a Luton van with a tail lift. On the Digmoor, Tanhouse and Birch Green estates we have walked settees a hundred feet along a path because there is simply no way to bring a vehicle to the door. The underpasses mean you cannot always cheat by driving round. It is worth two minutes on the phone before the booking: tell us whether the van can get within sight of the door, whether the court has a height barrier, and whether the neighbours park across it. That one conversation is the difference between a day and a half.
Older Skelmersdale — the original village end, and the terraces and semis out towards Up Holland — behaves like anywhere else in Lancashire. Narrow, but you can pull up. The 1970s courtyard housing is the part that catches people out, and if you have only ever cleared a house in Southport you will not have met it.
A flat in February, and what the questions are for
Not every job is a full house. One February we cleared a one-bedroom ground-floor flat — a single load, no carpets, no curtains, and the washing machine, fridge freezer and oven all left where they were because they belonged to the landlord rather than the estate. Before the day, the person organising it went through our booking questions line by line and sent them back in a block. Was anything hazardous or verminous in there? The answer, honestly given, was: "The property is cluttered and dusty but not hazardous." There was one mark on a mattress they were not certain about, so they flagged it rather than let us find it. And there was medical equipment on loan in the front room, cylinders and a machine, being picked up by the supplier the same morning, so we worked round the times.
That is exactly why the questions exist. They are not there to catch anybody out. A team turning up knowing there is a dusty flat, a mattress to bag properly and a delivery van coming at ten is a team that finishes by three. A team turning up blind is a team stood in the car park ringing the office.
Skelmersdale, Ormskirk and the coast
Our patch out of here runs across WN8 and WN6. Skelmersdale itself, Up Holland, Newburgh, Parbold, Appley Bridge, Shevington and Standish — then west into L39 and L40 for Ormskirk, Aughton, Burscough and Rufford, and on to L37 and L38 for Formby and Hightown. North along the coast we cover PR8 and PR9 for Southport and Birkdale, and PR4 out towards the Fylde. It is West Lancashire Borough for the council end of things, Lancashire for the county, and the county's own household waste recycling centre in Skelmersdale is only ever a backstop for us. Trade loads go through a licensed facility, not a public tip.
Ormskirk is the town we are in and out of most, and house clearance in Ormskirk has a page of its own with the market-town streets and the university housing on it. Up the county there is house clearance in Preston, which is the bigger job of the two and where a fair few executors are based. Out on the coast beyond our own districts there is house clearance in Fleetwood for anyone dealing with a property up that way.
Skelmersdale famously has no station of its own. If you are coming in to meet us the nearest platform is Up Holland on the Wigan to Kirkby line, or Ormskirk if you are travelling up from Liverpool Central on Merseyrail and changing there for Preston. the M58 runs along the southern edge of the town, and we come off at the Skelmersdale junctions from either the M6 at Orrell or the M57 side.
Kinds of house clearance we do in Skelmersdale
Probate house clearance in Skelmersdale
Most weeks, the bulk of it is probate work. Probate house clearance in Skelmersdale usually means a house that has stood locked up for a few months, an executor who lives somewhere else entirely, and a solicitor who wants the paperwork to be tidy. We invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate direct — whichever suits you — and payment can come out of the estate rather than anybody's own pocket. There is no deposit. The invoice follows the work, not the other way round, and the quote costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Executors at a distance are the norm rather than the exception on probate jobs, so we photograph each room on arrival and again once it is bare, and those go over by email the same evening. It is a small thing and it saves an argument later. Anything that looks like cash, jewellery, deeds or paperwork gets set aside on the kitchen worktop for whoever is administering the estate, and the team leader points it out before they leave.
Garage and loft clearance in Skelmersdale
If you are asked whether the loft and the garage are included, the usual answer is yes — garage and loft clearance is part of the same day here, not a separate visit. Lofts in the Skelmersdale estates tend to be shallow and full of exactly one thing: Christmas decorations and a paraffin heater. Garages hold everything else. The catch on the Radburn estates is that the garage is often in a block a good way from the house, sometimes with a barrier across the court. Tell us on the phone if the garage sits somewhere other than beside the front door.
Flats, tenancies, single rooms and hoarder house clearance
A hoarder house clearance is ordinary work here rather than a special case, and nobody on the team passes comment on the state of a place. Flat clearance in WN8 and end of tenancy work in L39 come round steadily. A landlord or a managing agent, a flat that has to be back to bare boards by Friday, and a list of what belongs to the landlord and what does not. Same job, smaller. We will also come for one room, or for one heavy thing that two people cannot manage on a staircase.
What we will not put in the van
Some things genuinely cannot ride with the furniture: paint tins, gas cylinders, car batteries, and anything asbestos off a garage roof. Tell us on the phone and we will point you at who does take them locally. Upholstered furniture — settees, armchairs, padded stools. Has to be kept out of general waste under the persistent organic pollutant rules and sent to a plant licensed to handle it, which is why we log it separately when we book the job in.
Houses that have filled up over thirty years are ordinary work for us. Nobody makes a face and nobody says anything to the neighbours.
Every house clearance Skelmersdale job starts the same way. Ring the office on 0800 046 5555 with the postcode and a rough idea of what is in the property. Photographs sent through the form on this page help more than descriptions. And you will have a figure before anyone sets off, worked out properly rather than invented on your step once the van is already blocking the road.
Questions we get asked about house clearance in Skelmersdale
What does a house clearance in Skelmersdale cost?
Ring the office on 0800 046 5555, or send photographs through the form on this page, and you will be given a figure for your property. We do not put numbers on a web page because no two houses hold the same amount, and a figure quoted blind is no use to an executor trying to budget.
Can you invoice the solicitor or the estate?
Yes. On probate work we invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate direct, and payment can come from the estate. There is no deposit, and the invoice goes out after the work is done.
Do you clear the garage and the loft as well?
Yes — garage and loft clearance is included in the same visit as a rule. Just say on the phone if the garage is in a separate block across the court, which on the Skelmersdale estates it often is.
Can the van get to the door on the Radburn estates?
Sometimes, sometimes not. On Digmoor, Tanhouse and Birch Green it is often a walk along a footpath from wherever we can legally stand. It does not stop the job; it just changes how long it takes, which is why we ask about it first.
Which areas around Skelmersdale do you cover?
WN8 and WN6 for Skelmersdale, Up Holland, Newburgh, Parbold, Appley Bridge, Shevington and Standish. L39 and L40 for Ormskirk, Aughton, Burscough and Rufford; L37 and L38 for Formby and Hightown; and PR8, PR9 and PR4 up the coast for Southport, Birkdale and out towards the Fylde.
What happens to what you take away?
Anything with wear left in it goes to a reuse project or a charity shop. The rest goes to a permitted transfer station, and you get the waste transfer note for the estate file. Waste carrier registration CBDU419679, and we are insured.
