House Clearance firms

jem16

Jude57 said:

jem16 said:

Linton said:

jem16 said:

Linton said:

We used BHF to clear my father's fairly large 4 bedroom house.  They did a superb job quickly removing absolutely everything including a large pile of sticks and a number of demi-johns of dubious liquids. They then hoovered the carpets and brushed out the garage afterwards. IIRC it took about half a day, but there was no stated time limit. 

Thank you. I know it’s probably not something we can compare but do you remember if it was ridiculously cheap like our quote or not?

Also wondering about time slots. I’m told you book the day and then on the day they tell you a slot of around a couple of hours. Is that what happened with you?

Did they provide a written quote or was it just verbal?

The quote I think was about £250 with them taking anything they could use which included a remarkable amount of what I would have thought was pure rubbish.  This was about 10 years ago.

Again from memory they simply gave a day and time when they would turn up and that they expected the work would take half a day.  There was no suggestion that they would walk off the job if it happened to take longer. . The quote was probably verbal.  The impression I got was that everything was managed locally and the people doing the work were volunteers though obviously experienced.  So you may get a very different service depending on where the property is.

Thanks as that’s reassuring. 

I spoke to the manager dealing with it this morning. She explained that it would be two vans and five men, one for recycling stuff and one for donating stuff. She’d spoken to the guy in charge of the vans - been working together for over 9 years - and he’d give me the 8 to 9 slot. They’d be there as long as it took but she’s confident of her timings. Said it’s actually one of the smaller house clearances that they’ve done. 

So feeling rather more reassured now and will probably go ahead. I’m happier that much of the furniture will be donated rather than just destroyed. 

I'm glad to hear that they are going to turn up job handed and with two vans. I'm still not confident they'll be done in an hour but if the furniture can be manoeuvred out easily enough, it might not take much longer and as you're paying for the completed job, not by the hour, it's not that important. Hopefully, with an early slot, you'll be done and dusted quite quickly. Your experience has made me think positively about asking BHF to do any future house clearances I might need.

I hope it all goes well and thank you for the update, I'm sure it will help others.

Thanks. Hopefully it will all be a positive experience. It’s not for a few weeks yet but I’ll come back afterwards and update. 

jem16

Thought I’d come back to this now that it’s all done and dusted. 

Bit of an issue with the time slot despite being promised the 8am to 9am slot. Just before 9am they called to say they’d be with me between 12 and 2. After telling them twice that that was not what had been agreed by the store manager he said he’d be with me with half an hour. Arrived about 10 minutes later but only with one van and not the two that had been promised. Showed him the paperwork which clearly stated 8 to 9 and two vans. I’d even checked with them last Saturday and reiterated the time.

Looked at the two wardrobes that I was a bit worried about getting downstairs and said they wouldn’t without being dismantled. I just said that the store manager had done the assessment so shouldn’t be an issue. 

About 5 minutes later, Ryan appeared with another van. I’d been told before I booked it that he was in charge of the vans and clearance. He apologised for the misunderstanding saying the store manager was on holiday although that really shouldn’t have mattered. 

Anyway they set to work - 4 guys for most of the time. It was all done in just a little over an hour so their timing was spot on I’d say. They worked hard and apart from asking a few times was it all to go they did a good job overall. 

I would recommend them to anyone dealing with a house clearance but perhaps just say to keep checking arrangements. 

Yorkie1

Glad to hear it all went OK in the end 

KxMx

I remember when my grandparents was cleared, I'd set aside a table, some chairs and a bunch of stuff on top not to be cleared which I communicated to the boss. 
Having settled myself in a side room I then had to dash outside down the path 5 mins later, after spotting one of the guys taking my coat to their van 🤣
The boss had not communicated the don't touch pile!
My Nan would have found it very funny too! 

jem16

KxMx said:

I remember when my grandparents was cleared, I'd set aside a table, some chairs and a bunch of stuff on top not to be cleared which I communicated to the boss. 
Having settled myself in a side room I then had to dash outside down the path 5 mins later, after spotting one of the guys taking my coat to their van 🤣
The boss had not communicated the don't touch pile!
My Nan would have found it very funny too! 

I hid one or two items in the under stairs cupboard to make sure they didn’t disappear. 

Murphybear

I’d go with BHF for a different reason.  In the next town there is a massive BHF shop on 3 floors of an old cinema.  It doesn’t have clothes but anything household and lots of furniture.  We have bought some beautiful things there at very reasonable prices.    One day I saw whole set of Royal Doulton China for about £60 and they have lovely leather suites quite often for silly money. 

We lost a good friend recently and BHF were very helpful to him and his wife.