Clearance before selling a house in London & the South East
Most sales complete on vacant possession: the buyer expects an empty, broom-clean house on completion day, and the clearance is the job that makes that legally true. It is scheduling work as much as lifting work.
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Most buyers and conveyancers expect vacant possession. Clearing a week before completion is the usual pattern and leaves room for a final check without the pressure of moving day.
Every firm is checked against the Environment Agency register, insured to at least £2m, and asked for references we actually call. Your job goes to a maximum of three of them.
What a pre-sale clearance includes
- All labour and the vehicle
- Licensed disposal, with a waste transfer note for your records
- Dismantling furniture where it will not fit through the door
- Sweeping through afterwards, left broom-clean
- Resale value on good furniture offset against your price
- Donation to charity of anything usable, receipts on request
Pre-sale clearance prices
| Property | Typical range | Time on site |
|---|---|---|
| 1-bed flat | £375 – £520 | Half a day |
| 2-bed house or flat | £580 – £800 | Half to a full day |
| 3-bed house | £840 – £1,160 | About a day |
| 4-bed house | £1,120 – £1,545 | One to two days |
| 5-bed or larger | £1,450 – £2,000 | Two to three days |
London ranges. Prices outside London typically run 8–14% lower. Your actual price comes from the firms’ written quotes.
Estimate this jobHow a pre-sale clearance runs
Timed backwards from completion day, with a margin for slippage.
- 1Book against exchange, clear before completion
The usual pattern: book once completion is set, clear about a week before, leaving time for a final walk-through without a van on the drive. Tell the firm the date and let them hold it.
- 2Decide what the sale includes
Curtains, carpets, light fittings, the shed: whatever the fixtures and contents form promised stays, and everything else goes. The crew works from that list, not from guesses.
- 3Clear, including the parts viewers never saw
Loft, shed, garage, under the stairs. Completion-day disputes are almost always about the loft nobody opened, so it gets cleared with everything else.
- 4Broom-clean, photographed, keys back
Swept through and photographed as evidence of the state it was left in. If the buyer wants it cleaner than broom-clean, a deep clean slots in after the clearance, quoted together.
What a good firm does on a sale deadline
The completion date is the whole job.
Completions slip. Firms that work with sellers rebook without drama, because they price the job, not the diary chaos around it.
What stays is contractual, not sentimental. A crew that clears the fitted blinds the buyer paid for creates the exact problem the clearance was meant to prevent.
Loft, garage, shed, greenhouse. Vacant possession means all of it, and good firms walk those spaces at quote stage so nothing surfaces on the last day.
Photographs of every room, empty and swept, timestamped before keys are handed back. Cheap insurance against a dispute.
Clearance then clean, same booking, if the sale or your conscience wants it. One handover instead of two.
A completion pulled forward a week is survivable with a firm that keeps capacity for exactly that. Say the chain is wobbly and they plan for it.
Vacant possession means actually empty
On completion day the buyer is entitled to the house as the contract describes it: cleared of everything except what the fixtures and contents form says stays. A garage of paint tins or a loft of boxes is, strictly, a breach, and at minimum it is a bad-tempered phone call between solicitors while you are trying to hand back keys.
The practical rule: clear about a week early, hold back one kettle, and let the last few days be about the walk-through rather than the skip. Sellers who leave the clearance to completion week are betting a legal deadline on nothing going wrong, and clearances, like chains, occasionally wobble.
Three steps, no chasing
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1
Tell us about the property
Postcode, rough size, how full it is and anything awkward about the access. Ninety seconds, and photos help but are not required.
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2
Up to three firms quote
Only firms that cover London & the South East and hold a current licence see it. Fixed prices in writing, usually inside a day.
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3
Pick one and book
Message them through us, agree a date, and pay the firm directly at the price they quoted. ClearSorted costs you nothing.
Pre-sale clearance near you
Every area page carries local prices, council bulky-waste costs and the nearest recycling centres.
London
Berkshire & Buckinghamshire
Essex
Kent
Hertfordshire
Surrey
Common questions
When exactly should the clearance happen?
What if completion slips?
Does broom-clean satisfy the buyer?
How much does pre-sale clearance cost in London?
How quickly can it be done?
Is ClearSorted free to use?
Do you cover the whole of London?
Get pre-sale clearance quotes
Tell us about the property once. Up to three vetted firms reply.