Most of the house clearance work we take on in Atherstone starts a long time before anybody books a van. Somebody rings the office, or sends photographs of a room or two, and then it goes quiet for a month. A sale is going through. Probate hasn't come back. The family live nowhere near Warwickshire and are working it out between them by email. That is the ordinary shape of house clearance in Atherstone, and nobody needs to apologise for it.
One of ours ran exactly that way. The first contact was an enquiry with a list of questions attached, so we sent the details back — what time the team arrives, what they will empty, what happens to the contents once they leave — and the reply that came was this: "I will definitely use your firm,but I wish to wait before I book a date." The next line explained why: "I'm not sure of the timings of completion etc.But I will get back to you as soon as I can. Also I will complete the relevant paper work then." So we left it alone. There is no sense putting a clearance in the diary against a completion date that hasn't firmed up — the team turns up to a house that is still somebody else's legal property, and the day is lost for everybody. Months went past. The timings settled, the paperwork was signed as promised, and the clearance was done before the year was out.
We would far rather have that than a date booked in a panic and moved twice. If you are at the stage of gathering information and don't yet know when you'll need us, say so. Nobody from here will chase you.
What we actually do in this part of north Warwickshire is a short list, and it is worth being straight about it. The full clearance of a property, inside and out. A standard clean on top of it where the house is going on the market. A garden cut-back on the same visit. Wallpaper stripping. And the verminous end of the work, when a property has got that far. We don't run single-item collections out this way. Promising anything beyond that list would mean sending a van that isn't kitted for the job it has been asked to do.
Dordon, Polesworth and the villages either side
Atherstone sits with a ring of villages that people forget are separate places until they need a van at one of them. CV9 is a big postcode district for a small town, and it runs a good way past the bypass in every direction.
To the south there is Mancetter, sitting on the old Watling Street line. North of the town the ridge villages — Baddesley Ensor, Grendon, Hurley and Wood End — are all within CV9 and all within a morning's work. Keep going and you reach the Austrey, Newton Regis, Warton, Shuttington and No Man's Heath corner, right up where Warwickshire runs out. East, over towards the Leicestershire boundary, CV9 takes in Witherley, Sheepy Magna, Ratcliffe Culey, Twycross and Orton-on-the-Hill. Those last ones are properly rural: long drives, a lot of outbuildings, and more often than not a shed and a garage that need doing as well as the house.
Dordon and Polesworth are a short run up the hill and we cover both. So are Nuneaton one way and Tamworth the other, with Coleshill beyond that. We won't make grand claims about a corridor; those are simply the places a team can reach from an Atherstone job and still do a proper day's work.
If the property you are dealing with turns out to sit outside CV9 altogether, it will have its own page rather than this one. For house clearance in Tamworth go over the Staffordshire line; for house clearance in Coventry head down towards the A5 and the ring road; and for the smaller places well south of here, start with house clearance in Southam. Same team, same licence, different diary.
North Warwickshire Borough Council is the authority for bins and for the fly-tipping side of things in Atherstone, and the county council runs the household recycling sites. Neither of them clears houses — that is where we come in, and it is worth knowing which body does what before you start ringing round.
Getting a van in
Long Street is the spine of the town and it is not a wide road. Market days, deliveries and the parked cars along it mean a Luton can end up further from the front door than anybody would like, so we walk the route in before we start carrying anything. The older terraces behind the main street, and the properties near the Coventry Canal, have the tightest approaches — narrow entries, a shared passage, sometimes a step down into a yard. The newer estates out towards the Sheepy Road side are easier: driveways, turning space, and somewhere to stand the van without blocking a neighbour in.
Out in the villages the problem reverses. Access is usually fine, but the distance from the tailgate to the front door can be thirty yards of gravel, and there is often an outbuilding at the far end of a garden that has been shut since the nineties.
A flat clearance is a different animal from a house, and the difference is nearly always the stairs. If your property is a first-floor flat with no lift, say so when you book and we'll bring the extra pair of hands rather than discover it at nine in the morning. Flat clearance in CV9 also tends to mean a shared entrance and a communal bin store that we are not going to fill on our way out, so we plan the carry properly and keep the landing clear while we work. Plenty of people come in by train from London Euston, unlock, and leave us to it; Nuneaton and Tamworth are the interchanges if you are coming from further afield or across from Birmingham. A good few of the house clearance jobs we do around Atherstone are organised by relatives who live several counties away and never see the house at all. Keys left with a neighbour, or picked up from the agent, is a normal arrangement here.
Probate and estates
A lot of house clearance in Atherstone is probate work, and probate has its own pace. Executors are usually dealing with a solicitor, a sale, a set of beneficiaries who don't all agree, and a house that has to sit untouched until the grant comes through. We are used to waiting on that, and we would rather wait than push.
On the paperwork side, a probate clearance is straightforward. We invoice the solicitor, the attorney or the executors of the estate directly, so the person instructing us does not have to settle it out of their own pocket and then claim it back — payment can come from the estate. There is no deposit and nothing is asked for upfront; the invoice follows once the clearance has been done. If the estate needs the bill addressed to a firm of solicitors rather than to an individual, say so when you book and it will go out that way.
For a probate clearance the team leader photographs the property on the walk-round before anything moves, and again once it is empty. That matters most when the executor lives at the other end of the country and will never stand in the hall themselves — there is then a record of what was there and what state the place was left in. Those photographs go straight back by email.
If anything turns up that clearly matters — paperwork, letters, photographs, an album, a box of cine film — it is set aside and flagged before it goes anywhere near the van. On request we will collect items of sentimental value and post them on to whoever is instructing us, which is often the only way something reaches a family spread across three counties. Probate house clearance Atherstone executors ask for is rarely just about emptying rooms; half of it is making sure the right dozen objects don't get emptied by mistake.
There is no need to box or bag anything up beforehand. The team clears inside cupboards, wardrobes and drawers as they go.
The order of the day, and what we can't take
The team meets you at the property at nine in the morning and the aim is to have the house fully cleared that day wherever the contents allow it. Carpets and underlay come up if you want them up, and the place is swept right through at the end. If you don't wish to be there, we'll take the key from an agent or a neighbour and send the photographs afterwards.
A few things have to be handled separately, and it is the law rather than us. Fridges and freezers are hazardous waste and have to be degassed at a licensed facility. Mattresses go for shredding rather than landfill. Sofas, armchairs and padded dining chairs fall under the persistent organic pollutant rules that came in for waste of this kind, which means the padding has to go through a controlled incineration route and cannot be mixed in with general household waste. Tell us what's in the house and none of it is a surprise on the day.
Some things we simply cannot put in with a house load at all: tins of paint and varnish, gas cylinders, oil drums, car batteries, asbestos sheeting off an old garage roof. Let us know before the day and we'll either arrange a separate route for them or point you at where they can legally go locally, which is usually the county recycling centre.
Cluttered houses
Plenty of the properties we clear in this part of Warwickshire haven't been sorted in decades. Rooms you can't walk through. A loft filled to the hatch. A garage where the up-and-over door hasn't shifted in years and has to be persuaded. Hoarder house clearance is normal work for this team, not a problem, and nobody comments on what is inside a house.
Cash, jewellery and documents do turn up in the strangest places — inside a wardrobe lining, taped under a drawer, in a coat pocket, folded into a book. Anything of that kind is set aside for whoever is instructing us. We would rather hand it over at the end of the day than have it end up in a load.
Where it all goes
Furniture and household goods that somebody else could still use are offered to reuse schemes and charity outlets around the borough before anything else happens to them. What is left is separated at a permitted waste site — metals, wood, cardboard, electricals, textiles — and we can supply the transfer documentation for any load if an executor or an agent needs it for the file.
We have been doing this since 2007. We are registered with the Environment Agency as an upper-tier waste carrier under CBDU419679, and we carry public liability cover for work inside your property.
Common questions about house clearance in Atherstone
How much does a house clearance in Atherstone cost?
Ring the office on 0800 046 5555, or send photographs of each room — plus the loft, shed, garage and anything sitting out in the garden — through the form on this page. We'll come back to you with a figure and a date.
Do you cover the villages as well as the town?
Yes. Anywhere in CV9, from Mancetter and Witherley across to Twycross and up to Austrey and No Man's Heath, plus Dordon and Polesworth over the hill.
Can you do a probate clearance if the executor lives at the other end of the country?
That is a large share of our probate work. Keys from an agent or a neighbour, photographs of the property before and after, sentimental items set aside and posted on. You do not have to be in Atherstone on the day.
Do I have to sort or pack anything first?
No. Cupboards, wardrobes and drawers are cleared as they stand. If there are things you want left in place, tell us before the team starts and they'll be left.
What happens to the contents?
Anything reusable is offered to reuse schemes and charity outlets first. The rest is separated at a permitted site, with fridges, mattresses and padded furniture handled by their own legal routes. Waste transfer notes on request.
Can you take up the carpets and clear the garage and loft?
Yes to all three, as long as we know in advance so the right van and the right number of people turn up.
If you have a house in Atherstone, Mancetter, Baddesley Ensor, Grendon, Witherley or anywhere else across CV9 that needs emptying, send us the postcode and a couple of photographs of each room. We'll come back with a firm figure and a date — and if you need a few months to think about it while a sale goes through, that is genuinely not a problem. We have waited longer.
