A Landlord’s House Clearance Guide

Posted on 28/10/2020

House Clearance for Landlords

If you are a landlord or are considering becoming a landlord, then it is highly likely that at some point you will need to do a house clearance. This can often be a time consuming and costly affair, if you do not carefully plan the best way to tackle the clearance.

Why would I need to clear a house?

If you are buying your property at auction then you may find it is full of the previous owners belongings, you will have to completely empty the house of all the personal items and furniture etc. before you can start cleaning it and preparing it for a tenant.

You may have some difficult tenants, who have fallen behind in their rent and do not keep the house in a clean or tidy state. If these tenants decide to leave, they may not tidy the house before they go, instead they may leave with the essentials that they arrived with, leaving all their clutter and mess behind. In order to get new tenants into the property it will need a thorough clean out and clean up.

Can I do a house clearance myself?

Yes, you will need the time and some resources available to you in order to complete the task, but you can clear the house yourself. Here is a simple process to follow:

• De-clutter the home room by room, removing every item from the house and placing it into one of the following separate boxes: keep, store, sell, donate, recycle, throw away. Continue this throughout the house until it is completely empty and everything is separated.

• The rubbish will need to be disposed of at a waste disposal centre or somewhere that is licenced to take rubbish, alternatively you could hire a skip. The rubbish should be minimal, most of what you class as rubbish may actually be recycling so be careful what you throw away. You will most likely have to pay to use a waste disposal centre.

• The recycling will need to be further sorted into the relevant categories, i.e. paper, metal, plastic etc, and any specialised items that need to be recycled in a specific way should be identified. Source a local recycling centre that should be able to take most, if not all of your recycling.

• Anything you wish to donate can be taken to a local charity shop or placed in a donations bin that can be found at places like supermarkets.

• Things that are going to be sold need to be considered, if there are expensive items that are good quality and in good condition, you may wish to try to sell these privately, however, most of the things are probably more suited to a car boot sale.

• Anything you wish to keep can be placed back into the property and anything you wish to can now be placed into storage.

• Before you let out the property it will need a thorough and deep clean.

Can I outsource my house clearance?

Yes, there are a number of reputable, experienced and well established clearance companies available, who are designed to help to take the stress and minimise the time it takes to complete a house clearance. There are benefits to using such a company:

• They can do everything for you, making it much easier and less stressful. They will empty the house, sort the belongings and recycle or dispose of your waste.

• The house clearance is usually completed much quicker as companies are experienced and have the man-power and the tools to make the job much easier.

• The company will have liability insurance, which covers you, your property and your belongings throughout the house clearance process.

There are rogue companies out there that you should stay away from, these will usually be much cheaper, owing to the fact that they fly tip your waste instead of paying to dispose of it properly which could result in you facing prosecution and paying a fine.