Most house clearance work in Pontefract reaches us at one remove. Somebody has been handed a set of keys and a solicitor's letter, they live three hours away, and a house in WF8 or WF9 has to be emptied without them standing in the hallway watching it happen. We have been doing that since 2007, and a house clearance Pontefract job usually begins with a call from a person who has never seen the property empty and never will.
There is one from this year that shows how much of the work is arranging rather than lifting. It was a repeat customer — we had cleared for them once before, and the first time round the team couldn't get at the garden or the shed, so all of that was still standing where it had been left. The second email came in cold, no photographs with it: "Do you have availability for a collection on Monday 16th after 12pm? Same details as per my previous email below." We had the afternoon of Monday the sixteenth free, booked them in for the PM and said we would confirm a tighter timeframe nearer the day.
Back it came: "Thank you. 2/3pm is ideal." Without pictures there is no honest way to guess at a load, so we said so — we wouldn't invoice until the team had arrived, been shown everything that was to be removed and seen the size of it for themselves. A mid load was our expectation from the description, and weight decides that as much as volume does. The garden and the shed were cleared on that visit, which was the part left over from before.
That is a fair sketch of how a lot of our house clearance work round Pontefract arrives. Somebody inherits or sells a house in WF8, or in Castleford, or out at Knottingley, and they live in Devon or Aberdeen or nowhere near a train that stops at Monkhill. The paperwork goes to a solicitor's office in Wakefield, the keys come from a neighbour, and the only thing the customer ever sees of the day is a set of pictures. So the pictures have to be honest ones. Our team leader photographs every room on the walk-round before a single thing is lifted, and again when the floor is swept, and those go straight over by email.
The day itself, and what stays
We start at nine. The aim is always to finish the house that same day, and on a normal three-bed semi with a loft that's usually how it goes.
There's another one of ours, a three-bed semi, that shows how specific people get about what they want left alone. The owner had driven a fair way to let us in himself, and his instructions were written out: the fridge freezer, the washing machine and the microwave were to stay put for the buyers. Carpets and curtains stayed too. One chest freezer, emptied out, was to come. Everything else went. No cleaning wanted, no garden work, and nothing hazardous in the house. Parking was open road outside, which round the newer estates is not something you can assume.
Nobody needs to bag anything up before we arrive. That gets asked a lot and the answer is no. We empty the wardrobes, the drawers, the cupboards under the stairs and the boxes in the loft ourselves, lift carpets and underlay where you want them gone, and brush through at the end. If there's paperwork or a bit of jewellery you're worried about, tell the team leader in the morning and they'll set anything of that sort aside rather than let it go in the van. We watch for envelopes and documents as a matter of habit.
Where it goes afterwards
Furniture and household bits that somebody could still use are offered on to a charity shop or a reuse project before anything else is considered. The rest is weighed in at a permitted transfer station and there's a ticket for every load, kept on file. Abacus is registered with the Environment Agency as an upper-tier waste carrier, licence number CBDU419679, and the company is insured for the work.
A few things travel separately or not at all. Sofas, armchairs, padded dining chairs and other upholstered seating fall under the persistent organic pollutant rules and have to go down their own route. That is the law, not a preference of ours, and mattresses are handled apart from the general load for the same sort of reason. Fridges and freezers are a different story again, being gas-charged, so they are listed and taken away under the rules that govern them. Half-tins of paint, thinners, camping gas cylinders, asbestos garage sheeting: those we leave. Gas cylinders go back to the supplier and asbestos needs a contractor trained for it; for the paint and thinners, Wakefield Council's tips at Glasshoughton and Denby Dale Road, or we arrange a separate collection.
Pontefract, Castleford and the rest of the WF postcodes
We work the whole Wakefield district, and the WF postcodes that run west into Kirklees. Pontefract itself is WF8, with the three stations — Monkhill, Tanshelf and Baghill — sitting close enough to the middle of town that we've parked at all three at one time or another. Featherstone and Purston are WF7; Hemsworth, South Elmsall, South Kirkby and Upton are WF9. Knottingley is WF11, Castleford WF10, Normanton WF6, Ackworth just up the road from the racecourse. Ossett on the WF5 side, Horbury in WF4, Wakefield itself across WF1 to WF4, Dewsbury and Thornhill in WF12 and WF13, Liversedge in WF15 and Heckmondwike in WF16.
Some of those places have pages of their own. If the house you're ringing about is over the river rather than in Pontefract, read about house clearance in Castleford, house clearance in Wakefield for the district's main town, or house clearance in Dewsbury over on the Kirklees side.
The housing changes a lot in twenty minutes' driving, and it changes how a clearance goes. Terraces off the Baghill end with a shared ginnel and no back access mean everything walks out through the front door. The pit-village stock at Featherstone and Sharlston has small rooms and steep boxed-in stairs, which is what makes a wardrobe or a two-seater sofa the awkward item rather than the heavy one. The old colliery rows around South Elmsall and South Kirkby in WF9 are much the same, though the yards out the back are bigger and there is often a brick outhouse in them. Newer estates towards Ferrybridge and the A1 give us a drive to back onto. And the older stone properties at Ackworth and Darrington often come with an outbuilding or a garage nobody has opened since the eighties — worth telling us about, because that's the part people forget to count.
The kinds of house clearance we do in Pontefract
Probate house clearance in Pontefract
A good half of what we do here is probate work, and it has its own rhythm. The grant comes through, the house has been shut up for months, and whoever is named as executor is trying to get it on the market from another county. On a probate house clearance we take the keys from an agent or a neighbour, do the whole house in a day where we can, photograph it empty and send the pictures the same evening. If there is anything you want kept back — the photograph albums, the medals in the sideboard drawer, a wedding ring in a tin — say so in the morning and it is set aside, boxed and posted on.
End of tenancy clearance in Pontefract
Landlords and managing agents ring us for end of tenancy work across WF7, WF8 and WF9, usually with a date they cannot move because a new tenant is coming in. An end of tenancy clearance is normally a smaller job than a full house. The beds, the sofa, a fridge freezer left behind, the loft the last people used as storage and forgot about — but the deadline is the hard part, so tell us the date first and the contents second.
Garage and loft clearance in Pontefract
Plenty of calls are not for the house at all. Garage and loft clearance is a job in its own right round here. The garage at the side of an Ackworth stone semi with a workbench, forty tins of screws and a lawnmower that hasn't started since the nineties, or a loft over a Featherstone terrace with the boxes still taped from a move. We do garage and loft clearance on its own or as part of a full house clearance in Pontefract, and either way somebody goes up the ladder rather than asking you to pass things down.
Hoarded and heavily loaded houses
Properties packed floor to ceiling are part of the ordinary week here, not an exception. If the front room has a path through it rather than a floor, say so when you ring — it changes the number of loads and the number of men, and it is far better sorted out beforehand than on the doorstep. Nobody comments and nobody makes a face. We've walked into worse than yours. There's more detail on our hoarder house clearance page.
What it costs and how it's worked out
You get a figure over the telephone before anyone is booked in, worked out from the room-by-room description and any photographs you can send through the form on this page. It is free and it doesn't commit you to anything. If you can't describe the loft because you've never been up in it, say that too — we would rather know that the number is a best guess than pretend otherwise.
If the team leader opens a door on the morning and finds a great deal more than the description covered. Which happens, and honestly it usually happens in lofts — you are told the revised position and the options before anybody carries on. Nothing extra is done on the quiet and added at the end.
No deposit is taken. You settle after the house is cleared, by card, transfer or cheque. Where a house is being cleared under probate we invoice the solicitor, the executors or an attorney directly, so it comes out of the estate rather than anyone's own pocket, and we are used to the paperwork that goes with it.
Working with owners who aren't here
Executors at a distance are the normal case in Pontefract, not the awkward one. We can collect the key from an estate agent, a neighbour or a keysafe, do the house, send the pictures and post anything of sentimental value on to you. Where a landline has been cut off or the person organising it is abroad, everything runs on email and a mobile number, and we set the day up a fortnight ahead rather than the night before. That is what makes it straightforward on the morning.
Plenty of our Pontefract house clearance work is done without us ever meeting the person paying. It works because the record is good: photographs before and after, the transfer station tickets on file, and a named team leader you can ring while the van is on the drive. Anything that can't go in the van, you hear about the same day rather than a week later.
Common questions about house clearance in Pontefract
Do we need to empty the cupboards or bag anything up first? No. Leave it as it is. We empty wardrobes, drawers, cupboards and the loft ourselves. Tell the team leader in the morning about anything you want kept and it is put to one side, not carried out.
Can you invoice the solicitor on a probate clearance? Yes. On probate work we invoice the solicitor, the executor or an attorney direct, and the account is settled from the estate rather than by you personally. No deposit is taken beforehand.
Do you clear the garage, the shed and the loft as well? Yes, and it's better if you tell us about them when you ring. A garage nobody has opened since the eighties is the single most common reason a day runs longer than the description suggested.
Can you work to a tenancy end date? Usually. Give us the date when you first call rather than the contents — the date is the part that's fixed, and end of tenancy jobs in WF7, WF8 and WF9 are generally a single day's work.
What won't you take away? Paint, thinners, camping gas cylinders and asbestos sheeting stay where they are. Gas cylinders go back to the supplier, asbestos needs a licensed contractor, and household chemicals go to the council tips at Glasshoughton or Denby Dale Road, or we arrange a separate collection for them.
Do we have to be there on the day? No. Key from an agent, a neighbour or a keysafe is fine. You get photographs of every room before we start and after the floor is swept.
Give the office a ring on 0800 046 5555, or send photographs through the form on this page, and walk us through the rooms in Pontefract or wherever the house is — house, loft, garage, shed, whatever's out the back. We'll tell you what it takes and what day we can do it.
