Most of our weeks have some Oldbury in them. A house clearance in Langley on the Tuesday, a loft and a garage over in Warley on the Wednesday, a flat in Tividale that has to be bare before the keys go back. B68 and B69 are ordinary working Black Country postcodes with a lot of older stock in them, and ordinary is what we are set up for. Abacus has been doing house clearance since 2007, we are licensed and insured, and the office number is 0800 046 5555 if you would rather talk than type.
A house clearance booked around a school run
Not every job is a whole house. Back in October 2022 we took a booking from a managing agent turning round two flats side by side — furniture out of both, four mattresses and three sofas among it, straight into a caged tipper. Two of us went. Four mattresses and three sofas is not a one-man carry, and the sofas had to be handled under the upholstered furniture rules, which is slower and more paperwork than tipping them in with everything else.
Our booking form asks about parking restrictions, and the answer that came back is the reason the day ran at all. The road we needed for the van was a school zone: "NO ACCESS 8AM - 9AM AND 3PM - 4.15PM (MONDAY TO FRIDAY)". The collection was wanted between eight in the morning and four in the afternoon, so the restricted hours ate an hour off the front and the best part of an hour and a quarter off the back. That left a real window in the middle, and everything — carry, load, strap, tip — had to sit inside it.
So we planned backwards from the school run instead of forwards from the alarm clock. We rang the day before to confirm times, which we do on every booking anyway. That call became the difference between a job that finished and a van sitting on a closed road with three sofas in it.
I mention it because it costs a customer nothing to write that sentence on a form, and it is worth an hour of anyone's day. Whether it is a school zone, a permit bay, a shared drive or a lane that will not take anything longer than a Transit, tell us at the point of booking rather than on the morning.
Where we work around Oldbury
Oldbury is the seat of Sandwell Council, so half the borough's paperwork ends up being posted a few hundred yards from where our vans park. Our Oldbury house clearance work sits in B68 and B69 and spreads out from there. In B68 that means Warley, Langley, Brandhall, Bristnall Fields, Causeway Green, Whiteheath and Rood End; in B69 the town centre itself, Langley Green, Tividale, Lion Farm and the streets around Bury Hill.
Past the boundary we are out most weeks in the neighbouring towns, and several of them have their own page: house clearance in West Bromwich, house clearance in Smethwick, house clearance in Rowley Regis and house clearance in Tipton. Cradley Heath and Wednesbury are the same working day for us. We are in and out of the Birmingham B postcodes on the far side of the boundary constantly too. Quinton, Bartley Green, Great Barr — because a clearance does not care which side of a street the borough line runs down.
Sandwell and Dudley station is the easy landmark to give a team, and it is genuinely useful. Junction 2 of the M5 sits right there, so a Luton or a caged tipper can be off the motorway and outside a house in Langley or Warley in minutes. Langley Green and Rowley Regis stations serve the other end of it. If a house is closer to Dudley Port we will say so when we book you in, because the run from the motorway is different.
What kind of house clearance Oldbury asks for
Probate house clearance in Oldbury
A good share of what we do here is probate work. A house standing empty, an executor with a list of things to do and no idea which order they come in, and a sale or a tenancy waiting on the property being cleared. Probate clearances are rarely urgent on day one and then suddenly urgent on day forty, so it is worth ringing early even if the date moves later.
We will take instruction from a solicitor's private client department rather than the family where that is simpler, collect keys from an office and hold them until the work is finished, and work to a list of what stays. Executors living in another county — or another country — book us without ever standing in the house; photographs from the estate agent or a neighbour are usually enough for us to be accurate. More on probate house clearance is on our probate clearance page.
Flat clearance and end of tenancy in B68 and B69
Plenty of B69 stock is flats and maisonettes, and a fair bit of it is above the ground floor with no lift. Stairs change the day, not the job. End of tenancy work has its own deadline attached. An inventory, a check-out, a deposit return that will not happen while a sofa is still in the living room — so we work to the date the agent gives us and leave the place swept.
Garage and loft clearance in Oldbury, and the sheds
Half the phone calls we take are not a whole house at all. A garage nobody has opened since a car last fitted in it. A loft full of boxes that came out of a previous house and were never opened in this one. Sheds — one we emptied had been an outside toilet before somebody put a lock and a felt roof on it. If it is just rubbish rather than contents, our rubbish removal service is the same team and the same vans.
What comes out, and where it ends up
Furniture, beds, wardrobes that were built inside the room and have to come apart to leave it, carpets, curtains, garage timber, the two mowers that stopped working years ago and never left. Loft contents that nobody has looked at since the house was bought.
Whatever is still usable gets offered on — a reuse scheme, a furniture project, sometimes a neighbour who has already asked. On one clearance both fridges disappeared to neighbours before we arrived, which suited everybody. What cannot be re-homed is weighed in and booked out at a permitted site, and the paperwork follows: our waste carrier registration is CBDU419679, and a Waste Transfer Note comes to you afterwards. That can take a fortnight to come back from the recycling centre, so if it has not arrived yet, it is on its way rather than forgotten.
Upholstered chairs and sofas are handled under their own rules now, and mattresses have to be kept separate from mixed waste and sent to a site that will take them. Fridges and freezers are the same — gas has to be drawn off under a permit, so an upright, an under-counter and a chest unit are not the same job. Tell us which you have and we can plan the vehicle properly. The team reports back what actually went on the vehicle, so nothing is guessed at afterwards.
Tins of paint, gas cylinders, solvents, car batteries — those cannot ride in a mixed load. We will point you at Sandwell's household recycling centres, or arrange them separately if there is a lot of it.
Occupied houses, wallpaper and carpet protectors
Not everything we do is an empty house. We strip wallpaper in occupied homes across Oldbury too, and that is a different discipline. New carpets down and protector sheets over them, beds and furniture shuffled into the middle of each room and then out again as we work through, the drive kept clear and the van on the road. Walls only or ceilings as well, one layer of paper or four, painted over or not. Those change the day, and we would rather look at photographs and tell you the easy version is the easy version than price for the worst case and be wrong.
Access, parking and the state of Oldbury's streets
Terraces off the main roads around Oldbury and Langley were not laid out for a Luton van. Plenty of the older stock has a rear entry rather than a drive, which is a blessing for carrying and a nuisance for parking. Newer estates towards Warley and the Wolverhampton Road are easier. Where the canal cuts through, or where a house backs onto the Titford arm, the only sensible route in is sometimes the front door and the stairs, and that is fine. We would just rather know before the morning.
Tell us if there are restrictions, a permit zone, a bus route that needs to stay clear, a shared drive, or a lane too tight for a large vehicle. One booking simply noted that a bus had to get past three times a day, and that was enough for the team to plan around. Work at height, no water, no electric, a garage door that has not opened in a decade — all worth a sentence when you book.
The houses people apologise for
Some properties have decades of belongings in them, floor to ceiling, and the person who has to sort it out is dreading the phone call more than the job. We take hoarder house clearance on the same as any other clearance. No lecture, no faces pulled. Where a place is genuinely verminous — decayed food, animal mess, that kind of thing — it is equipped differently, so say so honestly and the right kit comes on the van. It is not a judgement, it is a different day's work. There is more detail on our hoarder clearance page.
Money, plainly
There is one honest answer to what it costs, and it is this: ring the office on 0800 046 5555, or send photographs through the form on this page, and you will get a figure to look at. Room by room, the loft, the garage, the shed, anything already gone to the tip — that is all we need. The quote is free and it does not commit you to anything, and you get it before anybody drives anywhere rather than on the doorstep after the vans have arrived.
On estate work we invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly, and payment can come out of the estate rather than out of anybody's own pocket. There is no deposit. The invoice goes out once the work is done, and it goes wherever the estate needs it sent. We do not want cash handed to the team on the day — every job settles through the office against an invoice, and that is as much for your protection as ours.
House clearance Oldbury: questions we get asked
Do you clear the whole house, or only certain rooms? Either. Some clearances are every room plus the loft, the garage and the shed; some are one bedroom and a garage. Give us a list of what stays and the team works to it.
Can you invoice our solicitor for a probate clearance? Yes. We invoice solicitors, executors and estates directly, and payment can come from the estate. No deposit is taken, and the invoice follows the work.
How long does a clearance in Oldbury take? Teams start at 9am unless we agree otherwise, and most properties in B68 and B69 are done inside a day. Stairs with no lift, a full loft or a school-run window like the one above can stretch it into a second day, and we will tell you that when we quote rather than on the afternoon.
What can you not take? Paint, solvents, gas cylinders, car batteries and similar cannot travel in a mixed load. Fridges, freezers, mattresses and upholstered furniture we do take, but they are handled under their own rules and go to sites licensed for them.
Do I need to be there? No. We collect keys from an agent or a solicitor's office, work to the list you have given us, and hand the keys back where you ask. Executors at a distance do it this way most weeks.
Will I get proof the waste was disposed of properly? Yes. Our waste carrier registration is CBDU419679 and a Waste Transfer Note follows every job, though it can take a couple of weeks to come back from the recycling centre.
Booking
Phone or email with the address, the size of the property, what is coming out and any parking or access catch, and we will come back with the next dates we have. Teams start at 9am unless we agree otherwise, and we aim to finish the property in a day where a day is enough. Abacus is licensed and insured, has been doing house clearance, Oldbury and the rest of Sandwell included, since 2007, and has cleared most things this borough can produce. The number is 0800 046 5555.
