House clearance: getting it cleared legally, by one firm

Anyone who hands household waste to someone else has a legal duty to make sure that person is allowed to take it. For a house clearance company or skip firm in England, that means checking it on the Environment Agency's public register of waste carriers, where a clearance business should appear as an upper tier carrier. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland keep their own registers, run by Natural Resources Wales, SEPA and NIEA.

The check takes a few minutes and should be done before the van arrives. Note the registration number and the company name exactly as it appears on the register, and keep a copy of the invoice. If your belongings later turn up dumped in a lay-by, that record is what shows you took reasonable care. Without it, the council can issue you a fixed penalty notice, and non-payment or repeat offences can lead to prosecution.

Cash-only offers from someone who found you on social media, with no business name and no paperwork, are exactly the situation the rules are aimed at. A lower price is no saving if the waste ends up in a field.

The price for a clearance depends on the volume, how much of it can be sold or donated, how easy access is, and what share goes for disposal at a permitted site. Stairs without a lift, a long walk from the van, a full loft or cellar, and items that need special handling all add time.

Some firms offset the value of saleable furniture, antiques or metal against the cost. That can be fair, but ask for it to be itemised, and remove anything of sentimental or financial value first. Photographs, documents, keys and jewellery are easy to lose in a full clearance.

• which rooms and outbuildings are included, and whether the loft, cellar and garden are part of it
• what is sold, donated, recycled and disposed of, and any value credited to you
• the firm's waste carrier registration number
• how sofas, armchairs, mattresses, fridges and other electricals are handled
• whether the property is left swept or cleaned, and whether that is an extra
• parking arrangements, the number of loads and the date the work is finished

Old upholstered seating such as sofas, armchairs and sofa beds may contain persistent organic pollutants from flame retardants. In England, once they are waste, the Environment Agency expects them to be managed so that those substances are destroyed, which in practice means incineration rather than landfill. A sofa in good condition that is passed on for reuse is treated differently. Ask the clearance firm how it handles upholstered furniture.

Fridges, freezers, televisions and other electrical items count as waste electrical and electronic equipment and must go to an authorised treatment route. When you buy a new appliance, the retailer may take the old one back like for like. Paint, solvents, gas bottles and chemicals are hazardous and need separate handling; tell the firm about them in advance.

Garages and sheds in older properties sometimes contain asbestos, for example in cement roof sheets, old boards or floor tiles. Do not break it up or bag it yourself. A clearance firm should refuse to handle suspected asbestos without the right arrangements and point you to a specialist.

For a handful of large items, the council's bulky waste collection may be all you need. Most councils collect furniture and white goods for a fee, although what they accept and the charges vary. Your local household waste recycling centre takes many items for free from residents, sometimes with a booking system, van permits or limits on DIY waste.

A clearance firm earns its money on whole-property jobs: a full house after a death or before a sale, a tenant who has left everything behind, a hoarded property, or a business closing its premises. In those cases the time, labour and sorting are where the value lies.

When clearing the home of someone who has died, the executor or administrator decides what happens to the contents. Wait until that person agrees before anything is sold or disposed of, and look for wills, bank documents, pension papers and keys before the clearance begins. Some families take what they want first and then have the rest cleared in one visit.

Landlords clearing belongings left by a former tenant should take advice on the legal position before disposing of anything, because goods left behind can still belong to the former tenant and there may be notice steps to follow first. Commercial clearances bring their own questions, such as confidential records and electrical equipment containing data.

Describe the property, what needs to go, access and your timescale; photos help the firm judge the volume. Confirm your phone by text-message code and your email by link, and the request is offered anonymously to clearance firms that cover your area. Exactly one can buy it. The firm pays Offrano; you do not.

You receive the firm's name, address and phone number from us before it sees your details, so you can look it up on the waste carrier register straight away. Offrano only checks that the buyer is a registered business, not whether its waste ends up where it should. That check is your duty of care, and it is worth doing. There is no guarantee of a quote, and you are free to go elsewhere.