Terms and conditions for a house clearance business

A house clearance business needs terms that answer three questions: who is entitled to dispose of the contents, what happens to valuables found during the clearance, and where the load goes afterwards. Add pricing from photographs and bereaved customers with cancellation rights, and a generic service contract is not sufficient. I draft terms around your clearance business for a fixed fee of £995, delivered in five working days.

Who this is for

House and probate clearance businesses, man and van operators doing full property clears, and firms taking repeat instructions from solicitors, estate agents, councils and landlords. Most of your customers are private individuals, often executors or grieving families, and they are consumers in law. Some are businesses and public bodies. One set of terms can serve both, provided it is drafted with both in mind.

What matters in house clearance terms

Who is instructing you and who owns the contents

Most serious disputes in this trade start with authority. The person booking you may be an executor without a grant, one of four siblings who have not agreed, a landlord dealing with goods a tenant left behind, an attorney whose power ended on death, or a care home manager clearing a room. Your terms should require the customer to confirm in writing that they are entitled to dispose of everything in the property and to cover you if a relative or beneficiary surfaces afterwards. Against a consumer that protection has to be drafted fairly to bind them under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Valuables, paperwork and things found during the clear

Teams find cash inside books, jewellery in wardrobe drawers, medals, share certificates, passports, wills and computers full of family photographs. Terms that say nothing about this leave you facing an accusation you cannot disprove. I draft a found items procedure: what is set aside, how it is recorded, who is told, how long you hold it and what happens to anything unclaimed. The same clause should deal with documents and devices, which contain personal data and need returning or destroying rather than disposing of, given the customer's obligations under the Data Protection Act 2018, and should confirm the customer has removed what they want to keep before you start.

Pricing a property you have only seen in photographs

Most clearances are quoted from a video walk round, a few photographs or a description on the phone. The terms need to record what the quote assumed: the volume, which rooms are included, whether the loft, garage, shed and garden are in scope, access, stairs and parking, and whether tip charges sit inside the price. When the loft turns out to be packed or the garage is full, you need a written right to re-price or withdraw before the van is loaded. For consumer quotes, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 requires the headline price to include every mandatory charge.

Waste carrier registration and where the load goes

You are transporting other people's waste for money, so registration with the Environment Agency under the Control of Pollution (Amendment) Act 1989 and the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 matters, and so does keeping the transfer notes required by the duty of care under section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. The terms should list what you will not remove without a separate agreement: asbestos sheeting from a garage roof, gas bottles, paint and chemicals, fridges and freezers, tyres, and the contents of a property with serious contamination or infestation. They should also control subcontracting, because a fly-tipped load traceable to your customer will be attributed to you.

Bereaved customers and the fourteen day cancellation right

A clearance agreed at the property, or by phone and email, is an off-premises or distance contract, so the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 give the customer fourteen days to cancel. Families usually want the house emptied well before that, and a probate sale will not wait. The answer is to handle it properly rather than ignore it: the customer can ask you in writing to begin early, and if they then cancel they pay a proportionate amount for what you have already done. Where the cancellation information is never given, the period can extend by up to twelve months.

Resale, disposal and limiting what you can be blamed for

If you offset resale value against your fee, or take saleable items in part payment, the terms must say so plainly and say who values them. Otherwise a customer may later assert that an item was more valuable than anyone had said. The terms should confirm that cleared items pass out of your possession for sale, donation or disposal and cannot be recovered, and should cap your liability. Under the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 a cap against a business customer must be reasonable; against a consumer the Consumer Rights Act 2015 does not allow liability for a service to be cut below the price.

What it costs

Customer or supplier terms and conditions, £995. One set of terms, customer-facing or supplier-facing, drafted for your business. Five working days.

Review of your existing terms, £495. You already have terms and want them checked and brought up to date. Returned marked up with my amendments and an explanation of the changes. Three working days.

Buying online forms the engagement on payment. The scope is what the terms and conditions drafting page describes, you accept the Terms of Service at checkout, and I email you within four working hours to get started. If you would rather ask something first, email me.

What you get

• A full set of bespoke terms drafted for your business, reflecting the legal requirements that apply to your business and sector
• A note in plain English explaining the terms I have drafted for you
• Liability, payment, termination and IP provisions that protect your position and are drafted to withstand scrutiny from the other side
• Guidance on how to incorporate the terms properly
• Your questions and comments answered by email or phone
• One round of amendments to finalise the terms ready for use

What is not included

• Negotiating your terms with individual customers (I am happy to quote for this as an additional service if required)
• Sector-specific regulatory compliance beyond the contract terms themselves
• Website privacy notice and cookie compliance, which I quote separately
• Terms governed by the law of another country
• Tax advice

Questions I am often asked

The property is far fuller than I was told. Can I charge more?

Only if your terms allow it. I draft a re-quote clause that applies where the volume, access or contents differ materially from what the customer described, with the revised price agreed in writing before loading continues and a right to walk away if it is not. Without that, you are bound to the original figure and bear the disposal costs.

A landlord wants me to clear a tenant's belongings. What should the terms say?

That instruction carries a real risk that the goods are not the landlord's to give away. The terms should put the landlord on record as confirming the tenancy has ended, that the notice procedure for abandoned goods under the Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977 has been followed, and that they will meet any claim from the former tenant. Photographing the property before clearance is worth building into your process.

Do I need different terms for solicitors and estate agents?

One set will normally do. The commercial sections can apply to everyone, with a separate part covering the rights that only consumers have, and a payment part that claims interest and compensation from business customers under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998. Firms instructing you regularly may also want an account arrangement, which the same document can accommodate.

Related guidance and services

• Terms and conditions drafting, £995, the service this page describes
• Contract review, £495
• Ask Caesar, £495 a month
• Terms and conditions for a removals company
• Terms and conditions for a domestic cleaning business

This page is general guidance for businesses in England and Wales, not advice on your own circumstances. Last reviewed: September 2026. Email geoffrey@caesar.co.uk.