Cash paid for house clearance
Some firms will offset what your contents are worth against what the clearance costs, and occasionally hand you the difference. Whether that happens comes down to what is actually in the house — which is rarely what people expect.
How the arithmetic works
A clearance firm is weighing two numbers: what it will cost them to empty the property — labour, van, tip fees, surcharges on anything awkward — against what they can resell from it. Clearing a normally furnished three-bedroom house costs them the best part of £670–£1,075 to deliver.
So a “cash paid” offer means they expect the resale side to clear that. On an ordinary house it rarely does outright, but it often takes a real bite out of the bill. On a house with tools in the garage, gold in a drawer or genuine period furniture, it can go the other way.
What still has value in 2026
Worth something
- Gold, silver and jewellery
- Scrap value alone sets a floor, and it is usually the most valuable thing in an ordinary house.
- Tools and workshop equipment
- Consistently in demand and easy to resell. Often the second most valuable category.
- Vinyl, hi-fi separates and instruments
- A strong second-hand market, and easy for a clearance firm to move.
- Mid-century and designer furniture
- Teak, G Plan, Ercol and similar. The one furniture category that reliably holds value.
- Militaria, coins, stamps and collections
- Small, high-value and easily overlooked in a drawer.
- Antiques and genuine period pieces
- Real antiques still sell. Reproduction and Edwardian-style furniture largely does not.
Worth little or nothing
- Brown furniture
- Dark wood sideboards, dining suites, wardrobes and display cabinets. Often a disposal cost rather than an asset.
- Upholstered furniture without fire labels
- Legally unsellable second-hand, so worth nothing to a clearance firm however good it looks.
- Mass-market flat-pack
- Rarely survives dismantling and has no resale market.
- Bulky electricals
- Fridges and freezers need degassing, which costs money rather than earning it.
- Books, DVDs and ornaments
- Almost never worth the labour of sorting and listing.
The hardest thing to accept is usually the first item on the right-hand list. A mahogany dining suite that cost a great deal in 1985 is, in most of the country, something a firm charges to take away. That is a real change in the market rather than anyone trying it on.
Telling a real offer from a bait offer
A firm that genuinely intends to pay you will want to see the property first, or at least photographs of every room, because they are pricing your contents rather than the job. That viewing is the tell.
The pattern to avoid is an attractive figure agreed sight-unseen, followed by a revision on the day once the van is outside and the property needs emptying by Friday. Get the offer in writing, with what it covers, before anyone starts loading.
Get the valuables looked at first
Whatever you decide, identify anything that might be worth real money before the clearance is booked, not after. Once contents have changed hands you will generally have no claim on them.
This matters more than usual if you are clearing an estate. HMRC values an estate on what the contents were worth on the date of death, and an executor who has already disposed of items has no straightforward way to evidence that figure. Value first, clear second — in that order.
Get a baseline figure before anyone offers you cash for the contents — it is much easier to judge an offer against a number.
Price it and get a quoteCommon questions
- Do house clearance companies pay you?
- Sometimes, and it depends entirely on the contents. A firm nets off what it expects to make from resale against what the clearance costs in labour, transport and tip fees. Where the contents are genuinely valuable the balance can land in your favour. In an ordinary house it usually reduces the bill rather than reversing it.
- How do I know if a 'cash paid' offer is genuine?
- A genuine offer survives a viewing. Firms that mean it will want to see the property or detailed photographs before committing, because they are pricing your contents. Be wary of a firm that offers cash sight-unseen and then discovers problems on the day — by then your options have narrowed and the price has moved.
- Should I sell things myself before the clearance?
- For a handful of genuinely valuable items, yes — you will beat any trade offer. For the contents of a whole house, the labour rarely justifies it. A reasonable middle path is to identify and remove the six or seven things that might be worth real money, then let the clearance firm price the rest.
- What if something valuable is found after the clearance?
- You will normally have no claim to it once the contents have changed hands, which is why anything you suspect is worth money must be identified before the van arrives. This matters especially in probate: HMRC values an estate on what things were worth at the date of death, and an item cleared before it was valued is very hard to account for.