Probate Property Clearance: A Solicitor's Checklist
When an estate includes a property, the clearance phase can hold up grant of probate, IHT400 submissions and the eventual sale. This checklist explains exactly what an executor or probate solicitor should expect from a professional clearance team.
1. Document and valuables recovery first
Before anything is removed, the property should be searched for wills, deeds, share certificates, premium bonds, jewellery, cash, photo albums and personal correspondence. A proper probate team logs and photographs everything for the executor.
Items of value (antiques, watches, art) should be flagged for RICS or specialist valuation before disposal — HMRC requires open-market valuations on the IHT400.
2. Full written inventory
Executors are personally liable for the estate's contents. A written, photographic inventory protects everyone — executor, solicitor, beneficiaries — and is the standard ATG provides as part of every probate clearance.
3. Beneficiary distribution
We coordinate with the executor to set aside, pack and (where requested) deliver items to named beneficiaries before the general clearance begins.
4. Charity, resale and licensed disposal
Usable furniture and household goods go to local charities or resale where possible (Furniture Re-use Network partners). Everything else goes through a registered waste carrier with full waste-transfer notes — essential evidence for the estate accounts.
5. Deep clean and sale-ready handover
Once cleared, the property typically needs a full deep clean — kitchen, bathrooms, carpets, windows, garden tidy — so the estate agent can market it immediately. Where the death was unattended, biohazard decontamination must be completed first.
6. Timescales and costs
A standard 3-bed probate clearance + deep clean typically takes 2–4 working days. We provide fixed-price quotes against the inventory, invoiced to the estate or the firm, with VAT receipts suitable for estate accounts.
ATG Cleaning works directly with probate solicitors, executors and estate agents across Kent and Surrey. Call 07711 794 975 or request a fixed-price probate quote.
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