We undertake house clearance in all areas of Calderdale: Park Skircoat Sowerby Bridge Illingworth Mixenden Northowram Shelf Ovenden Warley Brighouse Elland Greetland Stainland Hipperholme Lightcliffe Rastrick Calder Luddendenfoot Ryburn Todmorden.
How Does Northern House Clearance Services Work?
- The first step is to CALL US ON 07966 311 536 for prices/quote.
- We will ask you a few simple questions in order to understand your situation.
- We usually just require 24 hours notice. We like to turn up at 9am on the day of our appointment and stay until the house clearance is complete.
- Once we have removed all of the furniture, junk & rubbish from the house we will issue you with an invoice for your records.
- We ALWAYS keep household items to one side which we know can be either re-used or donated free to charity. Our house clearance charges are fair & we do NOT add 20% VAT on the final price.
A Full List Of Our Calderdale House Clearing Services
House clearances can be potentially stressful & troublesome if you use cowboy companies – Please look at our many House Clearance Recommendations
Environment Agency’s Clampdown
With the Environment Agency’s clampdown on unregulated house clearance companies and recyclers starting next month, House Clearance Calderdale took the opportunity to interview Allan Davis, who is heading up the national campaign.
With his experience and many years in the house clearance industry, Allan is ideally placed to coordinate the planned enforcement. House Clearance Calderdale are keen to see all house clearers and recyclers comply with the regulations. The Agency wants a realistic approach, “We can only regulate if the benefits outweigh the cost. The house clearance is providing an environmental benefit, which can offset environmental negativity. You could say that a disposal (i.e. landfill) site however has no environmental benefit so any pollution there is less tolerable.”
The Agency estimate that there are 1400 unregulated house clearance companies and waste yards in the UK. House Clearance Calderdale says: “It won’t be easy tracing all the illegal operations: we need informal sources to trace the unregulated. I would also like to stress that if such operators own up now and get licensed, things will go much easier for them” Environment Agency officers will start tracing unregulated companies by the end of next month.
House clearance and recycling dvice packs will also be sent out, containing broad advice on the regulations and licensing. “We hope that these will provide house clearance companies with enough information to decide which way to go: either for exemption or licensing.” Ideally, the aim is to have everyone in the system by July: not necessarily licensed by then, but at least with a full application.
Up until now, the Agency has been much criticised for ‘over-regulation’ of licensed and exempt sites and ignoring those who have never bothered to comply with the waste management regulations. Sites that are already licensed or exempt should see the long-awaited level playing field, as the unregulated are identified. “We will also be sending copies of our common standards to all regulated sites. This will enable them to judge their current performance against what the Agency will expect.” Eventually, after the expected licence applications have been processed, the Agency will turn its attention to internal reviews of existing licences. In the meantime, the Agency’s main guidance to its officers will be ‘Don’t over-enforce’.
The Clamp-down commences Although this house clearance scheme is national, different areas have different problems. For example, the clamp-down has already started in the North West as there are so many unregulated sites in that region. The Midlands and the South East will also be focused on. Non-regulated sites will have to work with the Agency. “If they don’t cooperate, we will use other tools, namely prosecution.” If you are not currently in contact with the Environment Agency, you can expect a visit, when you will be given clear advice and expected to act on it. If you receive any letters from the Agency, do not ignore them, hoping they will just go away. To minimise the risk of prosecution, unregulated sites are urged to get in touch with the Environment Agency by the beginning of July. After that date the Agency is likely to take immediate action.
If you are not licensed or registered at the moment, House Clearance Calderdales advice is to start sorting out your planning status, and deciding on which avenue you need to consider: licensing or exemption. If a company’s licence application does not come up to scratch, the Agency can refuse to accept it. If the application looks reasonable, then the Agency will approve it, but they reserve the right to ask for more information. The Agency will then issue one of two types of licence: the applicant will either use their own working plan, or the Agency will apply ‘default’ conditions which will necessarily apply the highest standards. Penalties for non-compliance will be severe.
House Clearance Calderdale understands that many house clearance companies receive poor advice from inexperienced Agency officers, and indeed often encounter dismissive attitudes about the metals recycling industry. House Clearance Calderdale put this to the environment agency, who explained that the Agency has been working hard to ensure a consistent approach is adopted across the country. They have produced a series of handbooks to assign responsibilties on licensing within the Agency itself, as well as a library of licence conditions. The new system of Operator Performance Risk Assessment (OPRA) adopted by the Agency should help achieve consistency, and Agency officials are being trained to that effect.