House clearance after a death, and what it costs

A property normally has to be emptied before it can be sold or handed back, and executors are usually doing it at a distance and around work. Firms price the job by the volume removed, the access to the property, and how much of the contents can be resold or has to go to landfill.

Do the valuation before the clearance, not after. Once contents have gone there is no way to establish what they were worth, and an estate that has already been cleared cannot evidence the figure it reported.

How a clearance is priced

Quotes vary by what the firm has to remove, how easily it can get to it, and how much of it is worth reselling rather than sending to landfill.

Where this sits in the sequence

Probate house clearance is one step of several, and several of the others are free or can be done without instructing anybody. The order matters more than most people are told: two of these steps cost the estate money if they are taken in the wrong order.

What to do when someone dies sets out all ten in order, with what each one costs.