Guide
Void property clearance cost: what actually sets the price
Updated
Almost every void clearance enquiry starts with a bedroom count, and should not. Here is what sets the price, and what a contractor needs to quote firmly.
Volume beats bedrooms
Clearance contractors sell space in a vehicle and hours of labour. A bedroom count tells them almost nothing about either. The sparse three bedroom house takes one load and a morning; the packed one bedroom flat takes three loads and a full day.
If you send nothing else, send photographs of every room, the hallway and the garden. Photographs are the cheapest way to close the gap between the first estimate and the final invoice.
The turnaround clock
For a social landlord the void period is the cost, not the clearance invoice: rent is not being collected while the property sits. That is why clearance is often bought at short notice. Short notice is the one variable that reliably adds money, because a crew is pulled off planned work.
Where the void programme is predictable, a week of notice or a standing arrangement with agreed rates is worth more than negotiating each job.
Getting comparable quotes
- Describe the same property to everyone. Same photographs, same access description, same date. Different descriptions are the usual reason quotes differ.
- State the access honestly. Fourth floor, no lift, permit parking is a real cost and hiding it produces a low quote and an argument.
- Ask what is excluded. Sharps, chemicals, fridges, suspected asbestos, carpets and flooring, garden waste and garages are the usual exclusions.
- Ask how disposal is charged. Included, or per tonne on top, changes the comparison completely once carpets and rubble are involved.
- Ask for the paperwork you will receive. Waste transfer documentation should be a deliverable, not a favour.
Where a void clearance price usually moves
- Weight. Sodden carpet, rubble, plaster and soil are heavy, and disposal is charged by weight at the transfer station.
- A hoarding case discovered on the day. Always flag it in advance; see hoarded property clearance.
- Something that stops the job. Suspected asbestos materials are the most common, and the crew is right to walk away. See asbestos in void properties.
- Cleaning assumed but not quoted. Clearance and cleaning are different products; if you need the property clean for relet, ask for it as a separate priced line.
- Multiple properties. If you have a programme rather than a property, say so, because routing several voids together is where the real saving sits.
Ask for reuse and recycling routes at quote stage if you report on waste diversion. Segregating usable furniture takes time on site, so it needs to be in the scope and in the price rather than requested afterwards.