Masks and gloves came off the van before anything else on that DY4 job. Late May, a three-bed on one of the Black Country estates over towards Tipton Green, booked in through a property firm acting on the owners' behalf. The house had stood shut up long enough that we ran it as a verminous house clearance rather than a standard one. One load out in the end. Before that, a full document search: every drawer, every coat pocket, the tin on top of the wardrobe, the pile of post behind the front door.
Paperwork in a house like that is never in a folder marked paperwork. Whatever looked like a document, and whatever looked like it had value, was bagged, listed and driven to the solicitor handling the estate instead of going in the load. The fridge freezer and a mattress went out through their own regulated routes. Then the team cleaned through three bedrooms behind themselves so the place could be handed over the same week.
The photos went back to the office that afternoon, as they always do. Somebody there spent longer than they should have looking at the DVD shelves. The reply we got: "Loved seeing your DVD collecting lol hahahaha". A day or two later, once the invoice was sorted: "Thanks for everything, you're a star!" Not every Tipton job ends that cheerfully, but that one did.
What the crew is actually dealing with round here
Tipton is Sandwell, West Midlands, and it is old industrial ground with more canal running through it than most towns twice the size. That shapes the housing. Long rows of two-up two-downs with an entry between them, interwar semis with a side gate barely wide enough for a wardrobe. Post-war estates where the parking outside is fully taken by half past seven in the morning. A Luton or a caged tipper needs somewhere to sit for the day. On the terraces we usually end up walking things twenty or thirty yards to the van, which is fine. We just want to know beforehand.
The canals matter more than you would think. Half the older streets back onto a towpath or a cut. Means the rear access you can see on a map is a footbridge and a set of steps, no use whatsoever for a fridge freezer. So we plan off the front door. Where the road is too tight for a Luton to stand, we will shuttle to a wider spot rather than block a street for six hours. If the property is in a block or a scheme with a parking bay we ask you to check whether it can be reserved for the morning.
Tipton station sits on the Birmingham New Street to Wolverhampton line. Dudley Port a stop away and Sandwell and Dudley over at Oldbury. Useful to know if you are the executor and you live nowhere near. Plenty of the house clearance work we do in Tipton and the rest of DY4 is instructed by somebody who has come up on the train for a day, met us at nine, and gone home again before the second load has left. You do not have to be there the whole time. A key from a neighbour or a key safe works just as well. We send the before and after pictures either way.
Where the load actually goes
Anything still usable is worth more in a second-hand shop or a community furniture scheme than crushed in the back of a tipper, so that gets pulled out first. Furniture in one-piece condition, tools, unopened household bits, sometimes a whole shed's worth of garden gear. What is genuinely finished goes to a licensed transfer station, gets weighed in. The ticket is kept on file with the job.
We hold a waste carrier licence, number CBDU419679, we are insured for the work. We have been clearing houses since 2007. Sandwell run their own household recycling centres, and they are fine if you are shifting two boot loads yourself. They are not set up for a house full of furniture and they will turn away a commercial van.
A few things cannot ride in with the sofas. Tins of paint, aerosols, gas bottles, car batteries, fluorescent tubes. Those need separate handling and their own paperwork, and they turn up more often than people expect: a half-used tin of emulsion at the back of a cupboard, a camping gas bottle behind the mower. Say what is there when you ring and it gets planned for rather than becoming an argument at four o'clock. Upholstered items are the other one people get caught by. Sofas, armchairs, padded stools and office chairs are POP items now. Each one has to be kept separate and destroyed separately rather than tipped in with the rest. Mattresses are the same story, shredded on their own.
Probate, executors and paperwork
A fair share of what we clear in Tipton and across the wider B, DY and WS districts is probate work. Probate house clearance has its own rhythm: the executor is often two counties away, the keys are with an agent or a neighbour, and the paperwork matters as much as the empty house. Where probate is involved we can invoice the estate, the solicitor or the attorney directly. We do not ask for anything up front from UK customers. Payment happens after the clearance is done, by bank transfer or a card link we email over. Never cash handed to the lads on the doorstep. That has caused confusion in the past and we would rather everything sat on one invoice with a number on it.
Not every job with paperwork behind it is a probate one, mind. One came in as a phone call on a Monday morning in March 2024 and was booked for the Thursday: a two-bedroom house, the loft included. A heap of things out in the garden to come away with the rest. Carpets to be cleared, curtains to stay. Two under-counter fridges to go. Nothing hazardous and nothing verminous in there, nothing to be left behind, nothing needing special handling, and no restriction on where a Luton or a tipper could stand. All of which we ask before a date goes in the diary, along with the COVID question that is still on our booking list. The written confirmation came back the same day: "Can confirm ok to proceed as per your Email of this am, no covid cases in house."
The first reply we sent bounced, as it happens. Rejected outright by the server at the other end, nothing to do with us and nothing to do with the customer, so everything after that went to the second email address on the file. The one the people actually paying could open. It is the reason we ask for two contacts where there are two. On the day the team met at the property at nine and the house came out in one load: the two fridges and a mattress through their own regulated routes rather than in the back with the furniture, a television, one upholstered POP item, a tin of paint, the loft emptied, the carpets lifted and gone. Curtains left on the poles, as instructed. The invoice went out the same morning and the transfer came through after it.
Pricing, honestly
There is no figure on this page and there is a reason for it: what a house clearance in Tipton comes to depends entirely on what is in the house. A number typed on a website is a guess dressed up as a fact. Photos are enough for an estimate on most jobs. Send a set of the rooms, the loft hatch, the shed, the garage, and we will put it in writing. Free, and it commits you to nothing. The team leader still walks round at nine before starting. A loft nobody has opened since 1998 does not photograph, and if it changes anything you are told there and then rather than at the end.
Bigger and messier
A house packed to the ceiling does not put us off. Hoarder house clearance in Tipton is simply its own kind of day: more loads, sometimes a second day, and a crew who know to go slowly through the piles rather than shovel them. That is where the wedding rings and the premium bonds turn up. We work a room at a time, we bag rather than barrow wherever there is any chance of paperwork in the heap. Anything that looks like a document or looks like it has value is put aside for whoever is dealing with the estate.
Gardens and sheds are the usual sting. Locked gates and no key to be had locally, a mower that has not run in years, a pond pump nobody knew was there. That is the sort of thing that turns a one-day job into two if it only comes up on the morning. Tell us on the phone and it goes into the plan for the day instead.
Not everything we do is a full house clearance either. A single load, taken on a day the crew are already out that way, is a perfectly ordinary job for us: the shed and the garage done and nothing else, the loft emptied, one heavy item carried down from a back bedroom. Garage and loft clearance, end of tenancy clearance on a rented house in DY4, furniture removal, a small office unit. Same crew, same licence, same tickets on file afterwards.
Where we cover from Tipton
Same crews, same vans, across the rest of Sandwell and the Black Country either side of it: Wednesbury and WS10, Oldbury and Tividale in B69, West Bromwich across B70 and B71, Smethwick out towards B66, Rowley Regis in B65 and Cradley Heath in B64. Dudley, Coseley and Bilston are close enough to be the same day. Darlaston in WS10 is ten minutes up the road. If the house you are dealing with is not in DY4 at all, the neighbouring towns have their own pages — house clearance in West Bromwich, house clearance in Wednesbury, house clearance in Oldbury and house clearance in Dudley are all worked by the same crews out of the same yard.
If you want a price, ring 0800 046 5555 and describe the rooms as you would to a neighbour: how many bedrooms, is the loft full, is there a garage, can a van stand outside. Add photos through the form on this page if you have them. You will have a number the same day, and a date that suits whoever is holding the keys.
Common questions about house clearance in Tipton
How much does a house clearance in Tipton cost?
We do not publish figures, because the honest answer depends on what comes out of the house. Ring us or send photographs of the rooms, the loft, the shed and the garage through the form on this page and you will get an estimate in writing, free and with no obligation attached.
Can you invoice the solicitor or the executor directly?
Yes. On probate house clearance in Tipton we invoice the estate, the solicitor or the attorney direct, and payment can be made from the estate. There is nothing to pay up front, and the invoice follows the clearance rather than the other way round.
Do I have to be at the property on the day?
No. Plenty of DY4 clearances are instructed by an executor who lives a long way off and never sets foot in the house. A key from a neighbour, an agent or a key safe is enough, we photograph every room before and after. The team leader will ring you from the doorstep if anything needs a decision.
What can you not take away in the van?
Paint tins, aerosols, gas bottles, car batteries, fluorescent tubes and anything else classed as hazardous travel separately. Fridges, freezers, mattresses and upholstered POP furniture go through their own regulated routes. None of it is a problem — we just need to know it is there when you book so the right vehicle turns up.
Do you clear a loft, garage or shed on its own?
We do. Part clearances are normal work: a loft, a garage, a shed, a single room, or one awkward item down a narrow stair. It is booked the same way as a full house clearance in Tipton. The waste is handled under the same carrier licence, CBDU419679.
