‘I had to clear out 40 years’ worth of a stranger’s life from my new house’

Buyers get more than they bargained for in their efforts to sweeten a deal

When vying with another buyer for her dream home in Exeter, Tracy Andrews came up with a way to get the edge: by channelling Location, Location, Location. 
“I saw a few times that Kirstie [Allsopp] had suggested it was a bit of a sweetener to a deal to offer to clear the house,” says Andrews, 41. So, knowing that the former owner had died, she gave it a go – and Allsopp’s tip came up trumps. 
“There was definitely a sense that [the woman’s daughter] was really happy about it,” the marketing consultant recalls. “However, I didn’t appreciate how much stuff was going to be in the house. I thought it would be just a lot of furniture… There was quite a lot more than that.”
Over the past two months, Andrews and her husband have sorted through more than four decades of glassware, armchairs, wellies, cake stands and step-ladders left by the couple who had lived there since 1982. Every drawer they opened was full to the brim.
But while the scale of the job has been bigger than expected, the clear-out has been worth it. “We love things that are made well,” she says. “We hate throwing things away that could be useful for us or others, and very much believe that things aren’t made like they used to be.
“To be honest there are quite a few things we won’t be getting rid of,” she adds, including vintage Le Creuset cast iron pans and silver cutlery. Of the rest, some pieces have gone to charity shops, other items to friends; they’ll take any stragglers to a car boot sale. 
“Removing 40 years of a stranger’s things has brought us closer to the house and its previous owners – even though we didn’t know them,” says Andrews. 
They found a photo of the former owner, Mary, underneath a cabinet, as they became proprietors of her world. 
“We would highly recommend others doing the same thing as there are treasures to be found.”
Most sellers are contractually obliged to hand over their property in ‘vacant possession’ – where all personal items are removed. But buyers willing to take on the removals can be appealing, particularly when a house has been in probate for a long period, and there’s a relative (who perhaps doesn’t live nearby) looking to move on quickly. 
With the average cost to hire a 12-yard skip (equivalent to approximately 120 bin bags) starting at around £220 a week and rising to £570 if you’re in London, plus labour costs, garden waste removal and permits required on some streets, costs can quickly rack up.
Matt Thompson, of Chestertons, says that while clearout discounts typically don’t feature in most purchases, it is possible for the buyer to negotiate and agree to take over some items in the property. “This could, for example, include white goods or other furniture items that the buyer would want as part of their new home.” 
For buyers who propose their own DIY removals, however, it is less a matter of wanting white goods, more a way to make sure their bid wins out.
That was the case for Niki Woods, who bought her cottage in Leeds last year. It had been in probate for some time; the widower had since moved country, and “he didn’t want to come back and deal with it”. 
So in their negotiations, when she was asked to up her offer or take on responsibility for the clear-up, “I thought that it would be probably cheaper for me to do the clearance than to get an amount of money agreed upwards. You take some of it to a tip, get some charity shops round.”
Woods has done the job in stages alongside renovating the house. She warns that those who do take on removal jobs hoping that charities will take away bulky items like mattresses or armchairs should check they have fire hazard labels attached, as that’s non-negotiable for collection. Otherwise, someone “might not end up saving loads of money because they’d have to get rid of it themselves”.
Parting with most of the items has been easy – but there have been some unexpected moments of reflection, says Woods, a menopause educator and coach. 
The former owner had died unexpectedly during the pandemic, leaving behind running t-shirts and medals, of which Woods has many herself; some of their toiletries were identical. “It just makes you aware of your own mortality in a way – that person’s got the same stuff as you, so it could be you.”
The job of clearing things out is still ongoing, but she has kept one thing: the kitchen table. She assumed it was the former owner’s, but has since seen photos showing that it belonged to the person before, meaning it has been in situ for a quarter of a century. 
She is still mulling whether she’d go through the process again. “As long as I knew what I was getting into, [and] it made financial sense, time sense, and I wasn’t going to uncover anything bonkers,” she would sign up for the same – but the decision was purely financial, she adds. “If I had loads more money, I would have made the opposite decision.”
Likewise, Andrews doesn’t hesitate to say she would go through it all a second time over. “We think [it] has been an incredible start to our life here,” she says. She urged others “not to be frightened” of taking on the task. All of their friends have picked an item to keep, and now have a piece of the house – and Mary – with them. 
“It’s not a legacy because I didn’t know Mary, but it’s something,” she says of “sympathetically” clearing out the house. “I just hope that she thinks we’ve done a really good job.”
The couple spent another three days last week sorting through the house, but they aren’t hurrying to finish. “There’s still lots more to do, but everything that has got a use or can be treasured will go to the right people.”