Probate service Just Clear has been featured in The Sunday Times during a discussion on probate and house clearance.
This comes as freelance business writer Catherine Field was faced with a task after her father died last year – leaving her their childhood home in Essex which has been in the Family for 50 years. She said:
“My father never wanted to leave the house. He was adamant. And because it’s quite a big house, there’s never been much incentive to throw anything away. It’s got an attic, cellar and outbuilding. So there was always a temptation to put things out of sight, and it accumulated. I’m one of two surviving children, but my sister lives abroad so I have been dealing with a lot of it. There was an awful lot of stuff. I’ve tried to see it as a step-by-step process, otherwise it’s just too daunting.”
The first step for Field was to get an estate agent who was “accredited with the Royal Insitution of Chartered Surveyors to give a red property valuation”. She added:
“Once probate has been granted, you are then free to sell the contents, which you might do via auction. If you go down the auction route, valuers (who do not have to be the same as those you use for probate) would go through the contents in much more detail, to estimate values and catalogue items for sale.
You might get several people/companies to value items. I used Cheffins for most of the contents because I know them and they run a wide range of auctions (from fine art to general household contents), which makes it convenient.”
The house went on the market in June for £1.75 million and started to remove items from the property. The estate agent suggested that she should hire a skip and she also found a man with a van who removed items from the house. Numerous of items went to charity shops and other sentimental items were to be sold at auctions after the house is sold.
Field stated that she had “fond memories of the house” and she does want to go to the auctions although she would find it “emotional”. The Sunday Times mentioned Just Clear as a “zero waste to landfill” as calling a house clearance company charges to take items away and possibly ends up in landfill.
Responding to the mention, Just Clear stated that they were honoured to feature in the article on all things Probate. They said:
“We are proud of our exceptional house clearance service which is not only anchored on a zero-landfill policy, but on reuse and recycling, which is at the forefront of our culture. With over 11 years in business, we are committed to assisting probate professionals and bereaved families during an extremely difficult time.”
