House Clearance

BrotherFloyd

Not sure this is the right place, but here goes:

Some years back my mother's house was 'cleared' and it seemed that everything just went in a skip. I now have another house to clear. I want advice about getting the contents sold. It is not as if there are valuable paintings, etc., but there is a lot of good glass and china, a couple of antique clocks, lots of bits and pieces that seem too good for the skip. There used to be an auction place near here that took and sold everything, but they've gone. Any advice, please?

gettingtheresometime

I guess it depends on what you want to achieve.

If it's a case of seeing what you can get for the items then I guess ebay/auction is the way to go.

If it's a case of just clearing the house but not taking the items to the skip then have you thought about charity shops/free cycle ?

paddedjohn

You can eBay any items of value and offer the rest to charity shops or on free to you sites on Facebook. Anything left can be taken to the tip by a local van man with the relevant waste licence.

-taff

Have a search of this forum, someone else asked this questiona while ago and got some really good advice.

Savvy_Sue

-taff wrote: »

Have a search of this forum, someone else asked this questiona while ago and got some really good advice.

You're probably thinking of this thread.

myrnahaz

We called-in a local auctioneer who came and assessed my in-laws' contents (free of charge); they pointed out what items they'd be able to sell in their auction house, which items would NOT sell (e.g., no-one wants to buy brown furniture anymore), which items could NOT be sold and should be dumped (e.g., upholstered furniture without fire-safety labels). They said that things like copper saucepans, crockery sets, kitchenalia etc etc were 'hot' at the moment. We also approached a charity that fits-out homes for low-income families; they were happy to take the old fashioned furniture (wardrobes etc).

Yorkshireman99

myrnahaz wrote: »

We called-in a local auctioneer who came and assessed my in-laws' contents (free of charge); they pointed out what items they'd be able to sell in their auction house, which items would NOT sell (e.g., no-one wants to buy brown furniture anymore), which items could NOT be sold and should be dumped (e.g., upholstered furniture without fire-safety labels). They said that things like copper saucepans, crockery sets, kitchenalia etc etc were 'hot' at the moment. We also approached a charity that fits-out homes for low-income families; they were happy to take the old fashioned furniture (wardrobes etc).

I would question their judgement re "brown furniture". Good quality solid wood furniture does have a value. For example Ercol solid elm bookcases fetch worthwhile amounts of money. Take a look on eBay for examples. A fantastic buy if you want them.

JezR

It is dark brown furniture that is unpopular compared with lighter woods such as elm. With Ercol the difference in resale value between the same item in each type of wood can be enormous. The dark can be barely given away (often people try painting it first!), although the new stuff still has a good price on it somehow.

Yorkshireman99

The basic colour of elm is not a factor. Ercol make their elm products in a number of finishes from pale to dark as well as in different styles. They all fetch a worthwhile price and are certainly worth selling. An executor just sending such items to the tip is failing in their duty to get a reasonable price for estate assets.

eddyinfreehold

I would point out that if you are an executor you have an obligation to have all the contents of the house valued and if not distributed as per the requirements of a will, realised to the maximum possible value. This came to light with me not following the recent death of my father who had his will sorted tidily, but the experience of a friend. Her father left 90% of the value of his estate to his two daughters and 10% to a string of charities in equal proportion. The charities kicked up big time in terms of having every last pin and button valued and sold. The whole thing took ages and cost more than it should have done. So two bits of advice....have the chattels of the estate as well as the property valued professionally by an authorised Auctioneer and Valuer, a member of NAVA or RICS before submitting forms to HMRC and secondly if possible, when writing a will or reviewing an existing will, if you want to leave anything to charity, specify a sum of money or an item, but NEVER a percentage of the value of an estate.

JezR

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

The basic colour of elm is not a factor. Ercol make their elm products in a number of finishes from pale to dark as well as in different styles. They all fetch a worthwhile price and are certainly worth selling. An executor just sending such items to the tip is failing in their duty to get a reasonable price for estate assets.

I stand by my opinion as I know of someone who isn't prepared to sell her dark Ercol for the derisory prices it fetches currently. Of course she has no external pressure to have to do so.