A house at Hampers Green, on the north edge of Petworth in GU28, cleared in a single day for an executor who lived over in Hampshire and could not get down for it. One load out: the usual back-of-the-cupboard archaeology, a shoebox of holiday photographs put aside for the family, encyclopaedia volumes A to M, a Sony Trinitron still sitting on its swivel stand. A bag of assorted keys nobody could match to a lock in the house. Nothing had been boxed or bagged beforehand, and nothing needed to be.
The team started at nine, did the ground floor first because the stairs were narrow and the landing narrower, photographed each room once it was empty, emailed the pictures over the same evening. Dropped the keys back where they had collected them. The paperwork went to the executor at her own address rather than to the property. That is what a house clearance in Petworth tends to look like when the family is not local — one day, one van, and somebody two counties away who needs to see with her own eyes that it is done.
That booking is a fair picture of what our days look like across this corner of West Sussex and the Hampshire border, and Petworth sits right in the middle of the patch. We are Abacus House Clearance, working since 2007, and we clear houses, flats, bungalows, lofts, sheds and gardens across GU28 and the villages around it.
Where we go, and how we get to Petworth
Petworth is in the GU postcode area — GU28 for the town itself and the lanes running out to Byworth, Tillington and Fittleworth — and Chichester District Council covers it, with West Sussex County Council behind them for the tips. Midhurst is the obvious neighbour, seven miles west along the A272 in GU29, and we are in and out of there constantly. North of that we take work at Northchapel and Lurgashall; south we run down through Duncton and Graffham towards the Chichester PO postcodes; east it is Fittleworth, Pulborough and Wisborough Green. Hampers Green, River, Balls Cross, Kirdford and Ebernoe all sit inside the same working day, and so do the cottages and estate houses along the wall of Petworth Park.
There has been no train into Petworth since the old station on the Mid-Sussex line stopped taking passengers in the 1950s. The building down at Coultershaw is a hotel now, so the working railheads are Pulborough on the Arun Valley line, about six miles east, and Haslemere, up through Chiddingfold, for anyone coming down from Waterloo. Handy to know if you are travelling in to meet us at a property. Plenty of the clearances we do here are booked by somebody who no longer lives locally and is coming back for the day.
We cover the neighbouring towns as well, and each has its own page rather than a mention in a list. house clearance in Midhurst just over the hill in GU29, house clearance in Chichester down on the coastal plain, which is the bigger of the two and where a good share of the solicitors handling estates around here are based. house clearance in Arundel east along the A27. If your property sits between two of those, ring us with the postcode and we will tell you which team is nearest.
Sofas, pianos and the POP rules
Two things on a clearance list make people nervous before they ring: upholstered furniture and a piano. Neither is a problem, but the sofa is the one with the law attached to it. Upholstered seating falls under the POP rules. Persistent organic pollutants, the flame retardants in the foam — and since the Environment Agency tightened its guidance in January 2023 a sofa, armchair, footstool or sofa bed cannot be tipped or recycled alongside the rest of the furniture. It has to travel separately and go to a permitted plant to be incinerated. Customers sometimes offer to strip the cushions and run them down themselves to save us the bother. Kind, but it does not help — a single cushion is caught by the same rules as the whole three-seater.
Pianos we take as they come. An upright on its own castors, on a level drive, is usually easier than people expect; the same piano over a step, or down a garden path with a turn in it, is a different afternoon's work altogether. Tell us which one you have got and where the door is, and if it is only the instrument you need shifted rather than the whole house, look at piano removal instead.
Waste transfer notes for a job like that come back to us from the transfer station a week or two afterwards, not the same afternoon. We say so at the time rather than leaving people wondering. Executors and anyone selling a property ask for them fairly often, and quite rightly — they are the proof of where the contents actually went.
Narrow lanes and the parking question
Petworth's streets were not built for a Luton van. The lanes off Market Square are tight, the pavements are narrow, and a fair few of the cottages have no frontage at all — you are loading from wherever you can legally stand. We would rather know that before the day than find out at nine in the morning. If there is a spot round the back, a yard, a farm track, a verge that takes a tipper, tell us when you book and the team will plan the walk from the door to the van.
Gardens are the other thing that catches people out. One house and garden clearance took a three-man team a full day in September, and it was the outside that did it. A greenhouse to empty, bricks laid out on the floor of the shed, old window frames stacked along a fence, bags on the patio and more up at the top of the garden behind the shrubs. The family were not local and were working from photographs. When we sent ours through, they could see things still standing on the drive that should have gone, and they said so. We went back and finished it, because it had been quoted as one job and it was not finished. The reply afterwards was short: "My brother went to the property today and has confirmed that it is now cleared. Thank you for resolving this issue."
We would rather tell you that than pretend every day runs clean. A garden is harder to estimate from a description than a house is, so if there is a shed, a greenhouse or a heap of anything outside, mention it and send a photograph.
What kind of clearances we do in Petworth
Probate house clearance Petworth
A good share of our West Sussex work comes through executors, and quite often through the solicitor handling an estate. Probate clearances have their own rhythm. The house has usually been standing empty for months, one relative has taken what they want and the rest is still where it was left, and completion on a sale is breathing down everybody's neck. We are used to working to a solicitor's timetable and to sending photographs of every emptied room the same evening. There is more on how those jobs run on our probate house clearance page.
Garage and loft clearance Petworth
Not every clearance is a whole house. A great deal of what we do here is a garage and loft clearance and nothing else. The last things left after the furniture has gone, the boxes nobody has opened since the move, the paint tins on the shelf, the bicycle frames, the bags of insulation offcuts. A garage and loft clearance in Petworth is often booked by somebody selling up who has simply run out of weekends. One room, one garage, one loft: all of it is worth a phone call, and none of it is too small a job to quote.
Hoarded and long-closed houses
Houses that have been shut up for years do not bother us, and neither do properties where things have got badly on top of somebody. The team does not pass comment, then or since. Where there is a smell, damp, or a pest problem, we say so plainly at the quoting stage and bring the right kit, cleaning afterwards if that is wanted. See hoarder house clearance for what that day actually involves. If it is only rubbish, not furniture, house rubbish removal is the better fit.
What it costs, and what happens to the contents
On cost the answer is short and always the same: ring the office on 0800 046 5555 or send photographs through the form on this page, and you will get a figure back. The quote is free and it does not commit you to anything. Describing the load down the phone works perfectly well. How many bedrooms, what is staying, whether there is a loft, a shed or a garage in it — but photographs are quicker and they settle the garden question in seconds. If the load turns out bigger on the day than the description suggested, the team leader rings you before anything changes.
Who we invoice is worth saying plainly, because it is the question executors ask first. We invoice the solicitor, the attorney or the executor directly, and the invoice can be settled from the estate rather than out of anybody's own pocket. There is no deposit and nothing to pay before the work: the invoice follows the clearance, not the other way round.
Furniture and household goods still fit for use are offered on to charities and reuse outfits in the area. What cannot be reused goes to a permitted transfer station and is weighed, sorted and recorded, and we can send you the transfer notes on request. We hold a waste carrier licence, registration CBDU419679, and we carry full insurance. Worth checking with anybody you let load a van outside your house, because if the contents end up dumped in a lane off the A283 it is the householder the council chases.
Probate, executors and houses nobody has opened in years
Bagging and boxing beforehand is unnecessary — drawers, wardrobes, cupboards and the back of the loft all get emptied, carpets and underlay lifted if you want them gone, and a sweep through at the end. If the list keeps growing between the quote and the day, that is fine; better a long list than a surprise. Items of sentimental value can be put aside for you and posted on, which is what we did with the shoebox of photographs at Hampers Green.
One thing we cannot take is a sharps bin. Those go back to a pharmacy, and we will tell you so rather than quietly leaving it on the side. The same goes for gas bottles, which have to be returned to a supplier, and for anything obviously hazardous — we will name it at the quote rather than discover it in the van.
Booking a clearance in Petworth
Ring us or email with the postcode, the size of the property, what is staying and what is going, and where a van can stand. You will get a real answer from a real person before anyone sets off. Teams usually start at nine and aim to finish the property that day. If you are coming from a distance we can meet you at the door, collect a key from an agent or a neighbour, or work from a key safe.
Common questions about house clearance in Petworth
How long does a house clearance in Petworth take? Most properties are done in a day, starting at nine. Two days is normal where the garden, a full loft and a garage are all in the job, or where a house has been shut up a long time and needs cleaning afterwards.
Can you invoice the solicitor or the executor? Yes. We invoice solicitors, attorneys and executors directly, and payment can come from the estate. There is no deposit, and the invoice follows the completed work.
Do I need to be there on the day? No. We can collect a key from an agent, a neighbour or a key safe, and we email photographs of every room once it is cleared. Executors living out of the county use that arrangement more often than not.
Will you take a sofa and an armchair? Yes, but they travel separately from everything else and go to a permitted plant for incineration under the POP rules. Mention any upholstered seating when you ring so it is in the plan from the start.
Do you clear just a garage or a loft? Yes. A garage and loft clearance on its own is a perfectly normal booking, as is one room or the last few things left after a family has taken what they want.
Can you send proof of where the contents went? Yes. Waste transfer notes come back to us from the transfer station a week or two after the job, and we forward them on request. Our waste carrier registration is CBDU419679.
