House clearance turned out to be a con 31 December 2009 at 9:30PM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in How much have you saved? 27 replies 9.9K views

Ladywriter1968

So called House Clearance turned out to be a con from they way they put themselves across

It was a bad day, being promised by this lady that the house clearance would come, we drove a long way to get to dads house early in the morning. Waiting 2 hours as well. Then leaving them loads of messages asking where they were. They offered to pay us money for the furniture and I was going to use some of it to get dad some stuff being christmas, as we are poor and I could not afford to get him anything.

I was so upset that I had to in the end leave the stuff there, the wardrobes and tables etc cause I had no choice. I was so upset.

Then I just went to the council gave back the keys and had to arrange with them to clear the house. Cause there was no one else I could turn to, being only child as well and family dont wanna know so everything was down to me.

There was no way I could move out heavy items alone so the house clearance dropped me right in it basically. As if I didnt have enough pressure to cope with. With Husband due for an operation next week as well that there was no time left to try and sell it elsewhere.

Later Husband rang the house clearance to have a go at them and they were very cagy on the phone, pretending it was not them and this lady called Mary now apparently didnt exist.

So maybe they were just con merchants then looking over peoples property pretending to be house clearance maybe, so they can return later to steal stuff once place is empty to see what good stuff they can take, who knows?

All I know is, I was really depressed and upset and it was a really low thing to do to something. I hope those people really get whats coming to them.

At least my dad is now being cared for in the care home properly even though I could not afford to get him anything in the end.

Has anyone else ever been through anything like this or similar?

Am I right in saying it looks like they are a con?
If they was not interested in the end a proper company would have been honest and said we are not interested sorry!

I am correct in my thought am I not?

TubbyFunster_2

If this was today, I think thats your answer. If it had been Monday coming they would have been there in a flash. They probably meant it when they said they would do the job but then had enough beer money in the end. I'm guessing this was an ad out the paper and not a antique dealer.

Its a shame you drove that far and your dad got nothing for his belongings but you got the most important thing out the house and he would probably rather have time with his only child at christmas than a gift anyway.

JMW77

They probably just changed their minds and realised the profit margin was not worth the hassle, my father in law does house clearance and i know often unless there are some interesting items its just not worth it.
They could of rang you with a reason or even an exuse to give you time to arrange someone else.
Happy New Year.

hothothot_3

reminds me of the good old times I had a summer job whilst at uni.....there was a help wanted ad on gumtree for house clearances. However, what was really happening was my boss would look through the death column in the paper to see elderly people having recently passed away. He would trace the family and offer the clearance services at a ridiculously low rate £10 and that we had to survey the quality of the furniture to be removed. This way the family were eager to allow us in the house and get the job done. I was young and new and got told to go in the loft. I once came back down the loft finding nothing and saw the boss full of glee counting some notes in his hand, after he had checked a wardrobe. He gave me £10 and told me to go and tell the family that we could no longer afford to clear the house due to the low quality of the furniture. We left, I got paid £20 a time for this and never did any work unless the furniture was clearly high value, most jobs I just got paid £20 as a cancellation fee that the job wasnt going ahead!. It was pretty strange job and one day I turned up for work and the boss wasnt there, but I went back to uni to concentrate on my studies. Obviously some time later I realised/accepted what was going on, I still wonder sometimes today if I was actually naive or just in need of the cash to the extent I was in denial.

PasturesNew

I arranged a house clearance firm to come and clear a 6-bed house as I'd exchanged/completed with 2 days between the two. I'd used the guy before, he was "sound", I was paying ... and he didn't turn up, no call. Nothing. Eventually got hold of him at lunchtime and he said "oh, van's broken down", I'd have hired him one if he'd said, I just needed it clearing, to deadline. No help at all, he said "can't you just put it all outside and I'll collect it once my van's back on the road?" How ridiculous... no, new people were moving in and wouldn't want the entire contents of a house they'd just bought stacked outside for X days.

Ended up roping in a small pensioner with a small trailer and conning them to "keep going... just a bit more ... please ... keep on, nearly got the lot now ...". If they'd not been available I'd have been right up !!!!!! creek.

Ladywriter1968

Tubbyfunster wrote: »

If this was today, I think thats your answer. If it had been Monday coming they would have been there in a flash. They probably meant it when they said they would do the job but then had enough beer money in the end. I'm guessing this was an ad out the paper and not a antique dealer.

Its a shame you drove that far and your dad got nothing for his belongings but you got the most important thing out the house and he would probably rather have time with his only child at christmas than a gift anyway.

I originally put on ebay about house clearance but just area only, obviously not address or anything and this woman came back called Mary with a phone numbe and said ring me, we do house clearance and pay money for it to.

Ladywriter1968

JMW77 wrote: »

They probably just changed their minds and realised the profit margin was not worth the hassle, my father in law does house clearance and i know often unless there are some interesting items its just not worth it.
They could of rang you with a reason or even an exuse to give you time to arrange someone else.
Happy New Year.

I agree, they could have rang me and told me, rather then wasting my time like that. but when my husband rang them later to complain they pretended it was not them. What sort of a way is that to run a business.

Ladywriter1968

From reading these it looks like I am not the only one that was done up like a kipper then really. Ok I was not conned out of money, but its not the point. It certainly makes you distrust everyone really dont it

salnew

Hi,
Are the council charging you for clearing the House?
Cause when my dad died and i had to give the keys back to the council they said they would clear anything left, they then a few months later charged me £1000.00 for clearing, i am at the moment arguing the case.

Shelldean

salnew wrote: »

Hi,
Are the council charging you for clearing the House?
Cause when my dad died and i had to give the keys back to the council they said they would clear anything left, they then a few months later charged me £1000.00 for clearing, i am at the moment arguing the case.

We had this when nan died, we managed to get rid of most of her stuff, But left amoungst other things, an almost brand new cooker I even left the instructions on top of it) and 3 piece suite and a wardrobe. Council cleared it, and took photos of the items they'd removed. The photos include a copy of the yellow pages we'd left on the stairs for next tenant, and the pile of empty cardboard boxes we'd left by the back door. Funny enough there wasn't one picture of the cooker wonder why??:rolleyes:
The bill came to over £1500:eek::eek: Told them to bog off as I didn't have that kind of money, they then requested it from Nans estate> told them with she died with almost nothing and the little bit she did have, had paid for her funeral. They did call me again about 6 mths later asking again. Told them same and heard nothing since.

HTH

Ladywriter1968

salnew wrote: »

Hi,
Are the council charging you for clearing the House?
Cause when my dad died and i had to give the keys back to the council they said they would clear anything left, they then a few months later charged me £1000.00 for clearing, i am at the moment arguing the case.

They told me there would be no charge cause we aint got the money and dads in a care home, the house clearance let me down and never showed up.