How we chose
We researched eight firms offering house clearance around Telford, from dedicated clearance rounds to cleaning firms with clearance on the menu. Industry qualifications were sourced from the Environment Agency waste carrier register, each firm's own website and platforms such as MyBuilder [4] [3]. Each business must first meet our basic checks: it is who it says it is, it is trading today and can be reached, and it holds the upper-tier waste carrier registration required for carrying other people's waste [4]. Five firms met all three. We looked first at what customers say, then proof of licensing, then whether the firm has traded two years or more and whether its cover is stated, then pricing clarity and website detail. All evidence is dated early September 2026.
How to hire
Match the firm to the job first. A dedicated clearance round owns full houses, bereavement work and bulky removals end to end, while a cleaning firm that clears suits smaller jobs and tenancy turnarounds where a clean follows the clearance. Hoarder, trauma or contamination-linked clearances belong with a specialist with a disinfection background. When you enquire, say which rooms are full, what the stairs and parking are like, what must stay, and whether anything needs valuing before it goes.
Check the licence before you book. Anyone carrying other people's waste must hold an upper-tier waste carrier registration, so ask for the firm's registration number and check it yourself on the Environment Agency public register by name, number or postcode [4]. The duty sits with you too: householders must only pass waste to an authorised carrier, and you can face a fixed penalty or prosecution if your waste ends up dumped by someone without one [3]. A charity collecting reusable items needs a lower-tier registration instead [3].
For a bereavement or probate clearance, agree the sorting rules before anything moves: which rooms the family clears for keepsakes first, how valuables and paperwork are set aside, what goes to charity or relatives, and whether saleable items reduce the bill. Ask for an inventory of what leaves the property where one matters to the estate. Take a day over the decision if you can; a decent firm holds a date without pressure.
Get two or three itemised quotes on the same written scope, each following a visit or a full set of photos. Every quote should name the volume in van loads, the labour, the disposal charges, extras such as fridges, mattresses and televisions, the VAT position, the dates, the access plan and the payment terms, since firms in this round price bespoke after assessment. Treat a full-house price given sight unseen, or one far below the rest with no breakdown, as a question rather than a bargain [1].
For a few bulky pieces rather than a full house, Telford and Wrekin's bulky collection is the cheaper route: one item costs £35, two to six cost £45, and seven to twelve cost £90, with dismantled sheds collected for £45, all booked through the council [5]. The council will not take asbestos, hazardous waste, rubble, pianos or garden waste, so those need a specialist route [5]. Your nearest household recycling centre takes what you can sensibly carry yourself.
At the end, take the paperwork and keep it. Ask for a receipt showing the business details and its carrier number, and keep a note of the register check you ran, since records prove you met your duty if waste traced back to you is ever fly-tipped [3]. Where the firm offers waste transfer documentation, take a copy and file it with the quote and the invoice. Confirm the property is empty to the agreed scope before you pay the balance.
Access differs street by street, so tell the firm before the visit where the van can wait and what the stairs and carry look like. Parts of the borough sit in conservation areas, including the Severn Gorge and Wellington, where extra controls apply to buildings and trees [7]. Clearing furniture and belongings needs no permission, but agree the parking spot, the hours of work and who meets the crew on the day, since stairs, long carries and tight parking all add labour [1].
Expect the job to run in a fixed order. First contact with photos or a room-by-room list, then a free visit or assessment, then an itemised written quote to compare against one rival. On clearance day the crew sorts as it goes: keepsakes and paperwork aside, reusables to charity or relatives, recyclables separated, and the rest to licensed disposal. Walk every room against the agreed scope before the balance is paid, and take the receipt with the business details and carrier number with you [3].
Put the quote and the paperwork side by side before anyone lifts anything. The quote should carry the carrier number alongside the volume, labour, disposal, extras, VAT position, dates and payment stages, and the end of the job should bring a receipt plus a note of the register check you ran [3] [4]. Remember the firm's van cannot use the borough's tips: the Hortonwood and Halesfield recycling centres take residents only, with proof of address, and refuse trade waste [6]. If you use the council bulky service instead, have items out from the morning, since the crew cannot enter the home [5].
Pricing
As of autumn 2026, national cost guides price clearance by van load rather than by the hour: an extra-small quarter-van clearance starts around £175, a half van around £325, three-quarters around £400, and a full van around £595 [1].
By property, a one-bedroom flat typically falls between £200 and £400, a two-bedroom house between £300 and £600, a three-bedroom house between £500 and £1,200, and a four-bedroom house from £800 upward, with Telford usually sitting below London and South East prices [2].
Volume moves the price most, then access: stairs, long carries and tight parking all add labour, as does sorting, recycling and charity donation on top of removal [1]. Specialist items carry extras of roughly £20 a television, £25 a mattress, £75 a small fridge and £120 a large fridge-freezer, with pianos higher still [1]. Hoarder and deep clearances with cleaning on top sit above the standard bands. Firms in this round all price bespoke after a visit, so treat these bands as orientation rather than quotes.
Ask whether VAT sits inside or on top of the figure, and get the scope in writing: which rooms and loads, which extras, the VAT position, the payment stages, and what changes the price if the load grows. One assessed firm publishes a seventy-pound minimum for one-off jobs while the rest publish no rates at all, so the written quote does the talking.
Full-house clearances with sorting take longer than pure removals, and time on site is what moves those jobs. Agreeing the sorting rules up front, setting keepsakes and paperwork aside first, and letting the firm offset saleable or reusable items where it offers that, all shape the final figure. Where an inventory matters to an estate, ask for one before anything moves, since counting and listing is labour too.
Void and tenancy-end jobs move on whether a clean follows the clearance: one contractor doing both halves can cost less than booking them apart, so compare the bundled quote against two separate ones. Hoarder, trauma or contamination-linked clearances sit above the standard bands for the protective kit, sorting time and disposal paperwork involved. On the council route, upholstered and soft-furnished pieces must sit apart from other items for collection [5].
Red flags
Cannot give you a waste carrier number that you can find yourself on the Environment Agency register [4].
Quotes a full-house clearance sight unseen, without a visit or photos of every room.
Asks for full payment in cash up front, with no written quote or terms.
Will not say where your waste goes, or give a receipt carrying its business details [3].
Offers to take asbestos, gas bottles or chemicals away with the general load [5].
Prices far below every other quote, with no breakdown of volume, labour and disposal [1].
Presses for an on-the-spot decision on a bereavement clearance, with no time to compare.
Gives one fixed price with no note of VAT, extras, or what would change it.
Starts loading before you have agreed in writing which rooms and items are in scope.
Brings no paperwork on the day: no quote copy, no business ID and nothing to sign.
Corrections and business responses
Tell us what needs checking, or ask to claim a listing and reply to an assessment.