Probate House Clearance: Guide for Executors

By Sandeep KV, Founder of Kruze

If you are clearing a house after a death, do these things in this order:

1. Do not throw anything away yet. Not even paperwork that looks like junk. Especially not paperwork.
2. Find the will and check whether specific items were left to specific people.
3. Gather the documents you need for probate. Bank statements, share certificates, insurance policies, pension letters, the deeds, utility bills.
4. Get a valuation of the contents if the estate might be near the inheritance tax threshold, or if anyone might dispute it later. The threshold is £325,000, rising to as much as £500,000 where a home passes to children or grandchildren.
5. Let the family take what they want. Give a deadline, because otherwise this stage lasts a year.
6. Sell or donate what has value. Auction house, house clearance dealer, charity.
7. Clear the rest. House clearance from £150.
8. Cancel the utilities, insurance and council tax once the house is empty. Ask the council about the Class F exemption, which covers a property left empty after a death and continues for up to six months after probate is granted.

Most people arrive at this article around step 7 and then find out they should have done steps 1 to 4 first. That is the reason this guide exists. There is no rush on the clearance itself, and there are good reasons to slow down.

Before you clear anything

The most common regret we hear on these jobs is not about furniture. It is about paper.

Documents get binned because they look like clutter. Old bank statements in a shoebox. Letters from a company nobody recognises. A premium bond certificate in a birthday card. Executors need to establish what the estate actually contains, and a lot of that evidence is physical and sitting in a drawer.

So before a single bag leaves the house, go through every drawer, every wardrobe pocket, every tin, every book. Cash gets hidden in books. Jewellery gets hidden in socks. We have found both, and we hand them straight back, but do not rely on us to be the safety net.

Set aside a box for anything with a name, a number or a logo on it. Sort it later, when your head is clearer.

The order of things, and why probate comes first

You generally cannot distribute or sell an estate’s assets until you have the legal authority to do so, which usually means the grant of probate, or letters of administration if there is no will. Gov.uk puts it simply: “You should not make any financial plans or put property on the market until you’ve got probate.”

The order matters, and it runs the opposite way to how most people assume. You value the estate first, and work out whether Inheritance Tax is owed, and then you apply for probate. Two dates are worth writing down. If the estate owes Inheritance Tax you must report its value within one year on form IHT400, and you must pay the Inheritance Tax by the end of the sixth month after the person died or interest starts running. That second one arrives sooner than people expect.

That said, clearing a house of everyday household items is not the same as selling a valuable asset. In practice, families often start sorting personal effects long before the grant arrives. Where you need to be careful is anything with real value, anything specifically gifted in the will, and anything another beneficiary might reasonably ask about later.

On timing, gov.uk states you will “usually get the grant of probate or letters of administration within 12 weeks of submitting your application”, and longer if they come back for more information. Valuing the estate beforehand can itself take months. If the house is empty and insured, that is usually fine. Check the insurance, though. Home policies commonly restrict or withdraw cover once a property has been left unoccupied, the period varies by policy, and you may need to notify the insurer and arrange unoccupied property cover. Ring them and ask rather than assuming.

That is the one deadline that actually bites. Not the clearance.

What to do with items of value

Here is the honest bit, and it is the part that costs us money to write.

If there is genuine value in the contents, do not call a rubbish removal company first. Call an auction house or a probate valuer. We are a licensed waste carrier, and our job is removing and legally disposing of what is left. We are not going to spot that the ugly brown pot in the back bedroom is worth four figures, and we would rather you found out from someone who knows before it is in our van.

There is a duty behind this, not just good sense. Household goods have to go into the estate at open market value at the date of death, which HMRC defines as “the price which the property might reasonably be expected to fetch if sold in the open market at that time”. Not the insurance replacement value, and not a round number. HMRC’s form IHT407 wants any individual item of jewellery worth £1,500 or more listed separately, along with antiques, works of art and collections such as paintings, porcelain, books, stamps, coins and medals, and a copy of any professional valuation you hold enclosed with it. Ordinary furniture and domestic items go in as a single total. A sale at auction after the death is the strongest evidence of what something was actually worth.

A rough guide to who handles what:

Some auction houses will assess the contents at no charge and take away what is saleable. Terms vary a great deal, so ask what they charge, what they take and what they leave behind before you commit to anything. If the contents are worth more than the clearance costs, that is a better route than ours and you should take it.

Where we come in is the far more common situation. The valuables are gone or there were none. What is left is a three bedroom house of everyday things that somebody has to shift, and nobody in the family can face doing it.

Charity, and why the fire label matters

Charities like the British Heart Foundation run a free national collection service for furniture and electrical goods. If the sofa, the table or the working washing machine is in good condition, this is a better outcome than disposal for everyone including you, and it costs nothing.

The catch is the fire safety label. The BHF’s rule is that “All upholstered items must also have a fire safety label attached”, and it counts sofas, mattresses and padded dining chairs as upholstered. No label means the crew cannot take it, sometimes on the doorstep after a wait. They also turn down upholstered items with rips or tears that expose the inner material, anything heavily scratched or marked, and anything stained, particularly mattresses. Check the labels before you book, not after.

If there is a lot of usable furniture, book the charity first and us second, and you will pay us less. That is not a trick. It is just the order that costs you least.

What a probate clearance actually looks like on the day

People find this stage harder than they expect, so it helps to know what happens.

We turn up in a van, usually two of us. You walk us round and tell us what stays and what goes. If in doubt, it stays. We would much rather come back for something than take a thing that turns out to have mattered.

Then we work room by room. Everything is carried out by hand, so there is no dragging things over the carpet and no dropping wardrobes down the stairs. Cellars and top floors are included in the price.

You do not have to be there. Plenty of executors leave a key with a neighbour or an agent. If you do want to be there, you can stop us at any point, and people do. Something turns up in a drawer and the day pauses for twenty minutes. That is normal and nobody is standing there tapping a watch.

Anything personal or valuable gets set aside for you rather than loaded. Photographs, documents, letters, jewellery, medals, cash. We put it on the kitchen table and tell you.

At the end you get the house swept and a waste transfer note, your legal proof that the estate’s waste was disposed of properly. Kruze holds Waste Carrier Licence CBDU597687. Check it on the Environment Agency’s public register on gov.uk, and as an executor check anyone you hire, because the duty of care for that waste sits with whoever arranged it.

A typical two or three bedroom house takes most of a day. A larger house, or one where everything comes down two flights, can run to two days.

What it costs

Prices for our clearance work come from the same sheet as everything else we do. No probate surcharge, no bereavement premium.

Full details are on our probate house clearance page. The final figure depends on volume and access, and we quote it before we start. Not after. A house on a hill in Halifax with no parking and everything on the second floor costs more than a bungalow with a driveway. We will tell you which one you have got before you commit.

Timescales, honestly

There is no legal deadline forcing you to clear the house by a particular date. The pressures are practical ones.

• Insurance. Unoccupied property cover is the real clock. Ask the insurer what their limit is.
• Council tax. The Class F exemption covers a property left empty after the death of the person liable, and it continues for up to six months after probate or letters of administration are granted, as long as the property stays empty and has not been sold or transferred. After that the estate pays, and an empty property premium may apply. Tell the council early.
• A sale. If the house is going on the market, it shows better empty, and completion dates are fixed.
• Family. The most underrated one. Some families need it done in a week. Some need six months. Both are fine.

If nobody is pressing you, take your time. If a completion date is, we can usually clear a house within a few days of the call.

FAQs

How much does a probate house clearance cost?

Full house clearance starts from £150 with Kruze. A single room or garage load starts from £50, and a few individual items start from £24.99. The final price depends on how much there is and how hard it is to carry out. We quote before we start.

Can I clear the house before probate is granted?

Everyday household items are often sorted before the grant arrives, but anything of value, anything specifically left to someone in the will, or anything that affects the estate’s valuation should wait. Gov.uk advises that you should not make financial plans or put the property on the market until you have probate, and the estate has to be valued before you apply. Take advice from the estate’s solicitor first.

What should I never throw away when clearing a house after a death?

Documents, above everything else. Bank and building society statements, share certificates, premium bonds, insurance policies, pension letters, deeds, and any correspondence you do not recognise. Also check inside books, tins, coat pockets and drawers for cash and jewellery before anything is loaded onto a van.

What happens to items of value found during the clearance?

They are set aside and given to you, not loaded. Photographs, documents, letters, jewellery, medals and cash come out and go on the kitchen table. If the contents may hold real value, get an auction house or probate valuer in before any clearance company.

Can charities take the furniture instead?

Often yes, and it costs nothing. Charities such as the British Heart Foundation collect reusable furniture free, but their rule is that every upholstered item, sofas and mattresses included, must have a fire safety label attached, with no rips or tears exposing the inner material and no staining. Book the charity first, then us for the remainder, and you pay us less.

How long does clearing a house take?

A typical two or three bedroom house takes most of a day. Larger houses, poor access or multiple floors can take two days. The sorting beforehand is the part that takes families weeks, and there is usually no need to rush it.

Why does the waste carrier licence matter for an executor?

Because the duty of care for the estate’s waste sits with whoever arranges the removal. If an unlicensed collector fly-tips it, that can come back to you. Check any company on the Environment Agency register on gov.uk. Kruze is CBDU597687.

If it would help to talk it through before you decide anything, call or WhatsApp Kruze on 07436 120271. We cover Leeds, Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield, Wakefield, Harrogate and Barnsley. There is no obligation and we are not going to chase you.