Jason asked 5 years ago
Good Afternoon, I am a landlord of a two bedroom property in outer London that desperately needs clearing.
Last year I had numerous complaints from various neighbors living in the same block as the tenant letting out my flat, the complaints were due to a strong stench coming from the flat.
After receiving over five complaints, I visited the flat to find out what was going on.
The tenant allowed me to enter the flat, to my surprise the flat was in an utter state, mountains of rubbish surrounded me and the stench was horrendous, I told the tenant that the flat would have to be cleaned up and that I would be doing routine inspections to make sure he was keeping on top of the mess.
A few months later I received another complaint from a neighbor to say that the stench had become worse.
Due to laws and regulations I could not evict the tenant, I had to go through a long process.
I visited the flat regularly, sometimes getting no answer, sometimes the tenant would not allow me to enter.
I contacted his family and explained the circumstances, they would not help him and knew about his compulsive hoarding problem, the family grew apart from him many years ago.
I began the eviction process and contacted environmental health as I was worried that there may be dead animals somewhere beneath the mountains of clutter.
Environmental health confirmed that there were decaying rodents amongst the clutter and arranged to remove them, this worked in my favor and the eviction was pushed forward.
I got in touch with social services prior to the tenant being evicted to get him the professional help he needed and to find him accommodation.
One year later I am now faced with having the flat cleared ready to totally refurnish and decorate it.
The flat consists of two bedrooms, a kitchen, a lounge, a dining room and a bathroom, and is located in Outer London.
I am looking to have a specialist house clearance company to come in and clear absolutely everything including carpets too.
From what I have seen, the living room is piled to waist height with mountains of rubbish, food waste and magazines, I believe there will be furniture buried underneath it all.
The two bedrooms are the same, covered in bags full of rubbish, piles of laundry and stacks of newspapers.
The kitchen has been heavily used and looks as though it has never seen a sponge, the work tops are thick with grease, and are covered with piles of food packaging, the fridge freezer is filled with moldy food and there are bags of rubbish everywhere.
The dining room is where the tenant has mainly lived, there is a small bed in the corner with a decaying mattress, there are bottles of urine covering a dining table and other large items of furniture including a sideboard.
I can’t express enough how cluttered, hoarded and filthy the flat is.
The dead rodents have been removed as well as surrounding feces, the flat still has a horrendous stench, this is probably due to the decaying food waste.
Details of a specialist house clearance company would be much appreciated.
Thank you, Jason.
Andrew answered 5 years ago
Good Afternoon Jason, Last year I was faced with the same problem, a previous tenant living in one of my flats in Outer London had to move out due to the flat being inhabitable.
I too had received numerous complaints from other tenants living in the block about the stench coming from the flat, this caused a concern straight away.
I visited the tenant a few times to try to get him the help he needed and have the flat cleaned and cleared so that it was no longer hazardous.
The tenant was an elderly man who had no immediate family to help with his compulsive hoarding problem, he couldn’t clean the flat himself as he wasn’t able to move around much, this caused the flat to become cluttered and fairly dirty.
I managed to contact his social worker who helped him get a place at a local residential home so that he could have the proper care he needed.
The tenant had never been a problem before, he lived in the flat for over five years, he explained that the problem began when he hurt his back and could no longer bend down properly to clean or organise things, and he barely left the house, instead he would spend most of his days buying clutter online and ordering takeaways.
There was quite a bit of rubbish in the flat that caused an infestation of mice, I contacted environmental health to remove any dead animals and maggot infested food waste that was lying around.
Thankfully the tenant now has the professional help he needs.
Because the tenant had no immediate family, I decided to help the social worker with removing his belongings for him, and making sure he was getting the proper care.
Once he moved into residential care, me and the social worker agreed for him to pay to have the house cleared and cleaned in order to get it back to a habitable state.
I gathered information and quotes from a few companies and came across The Cluttered House Clearance Company, they specialise in clearing and cleaning these types of hoarded and cluttered properties.
After receiving information on the services they provide, I decided to book an appointment for the following week.
A team of three men in a large van turned up at 9am to clear and clean the three bedroom flat, it took two days to completely clear due to the large amount of clutter throughout.
On the first day, the team cleared the main entryway, the living room, the dining room and the kitchen.
The entryway had been piled to waist height with mountains of rubbish and junk, the rubbish mainly consisted of empty boxes and packaging from things the tenant had bought.
The living room is where the infestations were (this was removed prior to the house clearance team arriving), there was a three seated sofa, a fireside armchair, a nest of tables and a tall cabinet, surrounding the furniture was piles of dirty laundry, stacks of old newspapers, piles of rubbish and general household clutter.
The kitchen hadn’t been used in a while as the tenant mainly ate takeaways, the appliances were old and had to be removed, all the cupboards were full and there were piles of empty food packaging on the floor and bench tops.
The dining room was stacked with boxes of paperwork, newspapers and ornaments, underneath the boxes was a large dining table and four chairs, a sideboard and an armchair.
The team managed to clear all of this and the carpets from these rooms on the first day, they also managed to donate a small amount of crockery, ornaments and books to charities in Outer London.
On the second day the specialists cleared the three bedrooms, the bathroom and cleaned the whole flat afterwards.
The bathroom was not cluttered, though the bath was grimy and the floor was grimy too, the flat hadn’t been cleaned in over two years.
Two of the bedrooms were rammed with furniture and clutter, there were boxes of bric-a-brac lying around, piles of magazines and piles of clothing.
The main bedroom was plain, this is where the tenant spent most of his days, there was a double bed and mattress, a double wardrobe, an armchair and two side tables, the wardrobe and drawers were filled with clothing and there were a small amount of ornaments on the furniture.
Overall I have been provided with an outstanding service, the team were professional, hard-working, dressed in full uniform and were polite.
I can highly recommend The Cluttered House Clearance Company for this type of clearance.
You can find their contact info at http://www.clutteredhouseclearance.com.
Thank you, Andrew
AFTA Staff answered 5 years ago
Hiya, hopefully I can add further assistance.
We have a member that is fully licensed with the UK Environment Agency and also fully insured to undertake the clearance of hoarded and cluttered houses.
They cover all UK areas and list costs and prices on their website.
Check our members page here The Cluttered & Hoarded House Clearance Company
Hoarded house before and after pics | Hoarded house clearance how much? | Hoarded house clearance FAQs
Hope this helps Andy (AFTA Staff)