How Much to Charge for a House Clearance Job in 2026

What a house clearance quote needs to include

A text saying "should be a couple of hundred quid, we'll see when we get there" leaves the customer with no way to budget and you with no protection if the loft turns out to be full. Cover these ten things and there's nothing left to guess at:

1. 1Your waste carrier registration number, stated on the quote itself — the clearest proof you're operating legally, and most competitors don't bother.
2. 2The address and any access notes that affect the job — stairs, no lift, a narrow lane, restricted parking, or a shared driveway.
3. 3Exactly what's being cleared — whole house, specific rooms, or garage/shed/loft/garden separately, since these are often priced and scheduled differently.
4. 4Your pricing basis stated up front — per van load or weight banding, not "we'll see what it comes to on the day".
5. 5Named surcharges for the items that always cost more — fridges, freezers, mattresses, sofas, pianos and other WEEE (electrical) waste.
6. 6A plain note on what happens to the items — a rough split between recycled, donated and landfilled — which matters more than people expect, especially when clearing a relative's home.
7. 7What's excluded — hazardous waste such as asbestos, gas bottles, paint tins and chemicals, which need specialist disposal, not a standard clearance.
8. 8The date and how many operatives are coming, so the customer can plan access and be present if needed.
9. 9Payment terms and a deposit — standard for anything booked more than a few days out.
10. 10A waste transfer note issued after the job — proof, in writing, that the waste was disposed of correctly.

Not every clearance job is priced the same way

Clearance is priced differently from most trades, because the bill isn't just for your time — it's for what it costs to legally take the waste away and dispose of it properly.

Price by van load or weight, not by room

Most UK house clearance firms price by van load or weight rather than a flat "per room" figure, because two three-bed houses can hold wildly different amounts of stuff — one is half-empty after a downsize, the other still has forty years of a family's belongings in it. As a working guide for 2026: a quarter van load (around 250kg) starts from about £175, a half van (500kg) from £325, three-quarters (750kg) from £400, and a full van (1,000kg) from £595. On top of that, price named items separately rather than folding them into the general rate — a large fridge freezer around £120, a small one around £75, mattresses around £25 each, TVs and monitors around £20, and something like an upright piano closer to £140, since these items either take genuine extra handling or cost more at the tip. A single cluttered room clears for well under £200; a full family house with a loft, garage and shed regularly runs to two or three full van loads before a single named extra is added — which is exactly why an accurate on-site or video survey beats a phone guess every time.

The legal line that separates a clearance company from "a bloke with a van"

House clearance sits in a different legal category from most trades, because you're not just doing work at someone's house — you're taking their waste away and becoming responsible for what happens to it next. Anyone who transports, buys, sells or arranges the disposal of someone else's waste for money must register as an upper-tier waste carrier with the Environment Agency (or the equivalent regulator in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland) — registering to carry your own waste doesn't cover taking a customer's. It costs £191.02 to register initially, £130.25 to renew every three years, and operating without registering carries an unlimited fine.

The obligation doesn't stop with the carrier, either. Under the waste Duty of Care (Environmental Protection Act 1990, section 34), whoever hands over the waste has a legal duty to check the person taking it is authorised to do so — which means a homeowner who books an unregistered clearance firm, and whose waste later turns up fly-tipped, can find themselves being asked questions by the council too, not just the person who dumped it. That's not a reason to frighten a customer on your quote — it's a reason to put your registration number on it. Stating it plainly, alongside a waste transfer note issued after the job, is one of the cheapest, most credible things a clearance company can do to win the booking over an unlicensed competitor.

A worked example

A full house clearance following a downsize, priced by van load with named extras itemised separately:

Waste carrier registration number displayed above; a waste transfer note is issued within 48 hours of collection as proof of correct disposal. Based on a walk-through survey rather than a phone description, and subject to revision if the loft or garage turn out to hold materially more than shown on the day. Around 60% of items are recycled or donated to a local reuse charity where suitable; the remainder is landfilled or sent for energy recovery. 30% deposit to secure the date, balance on completion. To accept, tap Accept on the quote.

Five details that get house clearance quotes accepted faster

• Put your waste carrier registration number on the quote itself. It's the single fastest way to look like the safer, legitimate choice next to an unregistered "man with a van" — and it directly answers the question a cautious customer is already asking themselves.
• Survey before you price a full house. A ten-minute video call or in-person visit catches the loft, the garage and the piano nobody thought to mention on the phone — the difference between a quote that holds and one that turns into an argument on the day.
• Show the recycling and donation split, not just the price. Families clearing a relative's home in particular care where things end up — a plain line saying most items are recycled or donated, not landfilled, is a genuine, low-cost trust signal.
• Price named items separately from the general clearance. A fridge, a piano or a stack of mattresses cost real money to dispose of properly — naming them up front means the final bill matches the quote, instead of a surprise add-on once the van's already half full.
• Issue a waste transfer note without being asked. It's the paperwork that proves the job was done legally, and handing it over unprompted does more for your reputation than any amount of talking about it.

The fastest way to do all of this

House clearance is one of the easiest jobs to underquote, because the size of it only becomes obvious once you're standing in the house — and one of the easiest to lose to an unlicensed competitor if your quote doesn't make clear you're the properly registered choice.

This is what QuoteRocket is for. Describe the job in plain English — "3-bed semi clearance, 2 van loads, integrated fridge freezer, 2 mattresses, upright piano, garden shed" — and it turns that into a branded, itemised PDF quote in under a minute, with your waste carrier registration number and payment terms included every time, not just when you remember. Your customer accepts it with one tap on their phone, and an accepted quote becomes an invoice in one click — so the job that actually got cleared is the only thing you're chasing payment for.

Whichever way you produce the quote, the principles hold: price by van load or weight rather than a room-count guess, name the items that cost extra, state your registration and disposal process plainly, and make saying yes effortless.

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