House clearance help after death

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My dad passed away in June and I am in charge of his estate due to being the eldest child.
I pretty much paid for his whole funeral and all associated costs, but now it’s come down to clearing out his house, it was privately rented and the landlord has been very understanding about the length of time it has taken to clear out as much as I can as we lived in different cities.

They are now putting extreme pressure on me to have the house cleared, which of course I understand as they need to re-let it, however after paying for the funeral and having lost my job I am seriously struggling financially and cannot afford to pay the quote they have got to clear the house which is nearly £2000

So my question is are there any charities or help available for someone in my position to get any help?
It is really starting to stress me out.

We Collect Clothes is a free service, but it's mostly for charity worthy things. I don't know if they take big ticket items. But it would help if you have alot of donatable items, it's free and very quick service.

British heart foundation will collect it for free

I’m sorry to hear you are in this predicament. I assume he had no assets or life insurance?
There may be charitable contributions available, if you go looking. So for example was he ex services? ex civil servant? A free mason? Etc
You can also search for local small charities but you’ll need to do some sleuthing.
I think https://www.turn2us.org.uk could be helpful.

Household furniture that is but not a massive pile of stuff you can’t be bothered to take to the recycling

sorry about your dad

Also look for a local re-use and re-cycle charity. They often collect and clear for free.

Are you his executor? Did he actually leave any money? You should not have to pay for funeral costs yourself. If the estate didn't have money you can apply to the DWP for a grant towards the funeral.

I am not a lawyer but can't see how you can be forced to be liable for a house clearance if you are not the executor.

@btsruleI'm in the process of clearing my mums house and asked british heart foundation to come and see if they wanted anything. They didn't want any "brown furniture" even though its in great condition, anything with soft furnishings, the guest mattresses that hadn't been slept on really and were pristine. Basically unless it's new they aren't interested.

can you put stuff on Marketplace for free to be collected?

Yes I am executor, in most senses of the word.

He left no official will, no life insurance etc and I was refused a DWP funeral grant as I have siblings, even though one is a no contact, one is an alcoholic and the other two are not in a financial position being students.

There is not much donatable items as he was very much a fix build it himself kind of person.

It's there an Emmaus village near you? The one near me does house clearances.

How big is this house, and how much stuff did he have? Clearing my mum's flat didn't cost anywhere near that.

Even if you the executor you are not responsible for the costs relating to the estate, the estate is.

I knew someone would say that, yes I know, I meant "as executor" you might be responsible for making it happen, like you are responsible for ensuring properties are adequately insured and tax is paid. But no, you're not personally liable for anything if you are an executor.

But OP, that's a rough situation. I know you want to do the right thing but could you simply walk away? It is the landlord's problem really.

I mean I could, but are there any legal ramifications to that?

I live 5 hours away, so posting things is great but being able to be there to allow them to take it is really hard for me to do and most items really aren’t worth it.

Take what you want and leave the rest for landlord to sort.

When I cleared my parents’ 4 bedroomed house recently, I used a few different routes.

Emmaus took some things, the local council took some large furniture items (about 3 iirc), Facebook marketplace was useful for white goods which I gave away for free, a scrap dealer took the cars for next to nothing, a local charity took (I say took - I delivered) things like the microwave, toaster, kettle. some neighbours had the lawnmower, strimmer, ladders and garden tools.

Two enormous skips, and the local tip took everything else. I had the 2 enormous skips in the front garden. This attracted people wanting scrap metal, so that was handy.

It was a massive job and I feel for you. But in terms of cost, it was probably less than £500. It helped me to set myself an arbitrary time limit of 6 weeks.

British Heart Foundation were amazing. They will give you a free quote but essential their price was really low. They assessed/estimated what they could get for the donations from the clearance and took that off the bill. I was stressed to bits and they just came and took care of it. They offer this a dedicated service and were so professional.

Do you have a car? If yes, smash up the furniture and take to the trip. Clothes to the supermarket clothes bank.
Olio/Facebook/Gumtree anything people will take then trip everything else.
Or give house back, if your DF has no money they can’t charge the dead.
I’m very sorry for your loss. 💐

Does he live in a city? If I put anything outside here it'll be gone within the hour.

I'd

1. Contact your local Emmaus/BHF/reuse/housing support charity to arrange an appointment for a house clearance.
2. Hopefully they'll take everything but if not, put the rest outside with a big 'free please take' sign. You could put a 'yard sale" (garage giveaway?) event on local Facebook groups/tell all the neighbours. Have a leisurely tea, biscuit, read a book while everything vanishes.
3. Hopefully you'll now have so little that it'll fit in a skip or car for the tip (you may a local council tax bill and some tips don't allow vans).

Do you have access/control of your DFs financial accounts? Or are you waiting on probate/letters of administration?

My DB & I are going through this now. We were NC with my dad - he died in June too, privately rented & was a hoarder.
My DB, DH & I went to the town he lived in (DH & I live 4hrs away, DB is 2hrs away) & stayed in an AirBnb for 5 days & cleared the flat ourselves. Partly to save money & partly to retrieve personal documents etc. We hired a 12ft skip (filled it!) & did multiple trips to the local tip & a few bits dropped at local charity shop - but the majority of stuff wasn’t salvageable sadly.
The costs had to be paid out by us, as like you - no will, plus an inquest has delayed the probate process. We have just got probate (waiting on the letters of administration) before we can access the rest of my dads accounts so we can settle various payments.

I honestly dont know if there are legal ramifications to leaving it. As I understand it from your posts, he doesn't have a proper will so while you are next of kin you are not official executor? However while you are not officially responsible, if you've already gone in and started clearing it, you might have admitted the liability. Could you try citizens advice or a pro bono lawyer half hour?

I'd contact the council, or tell the landlord to. If you're not an executor you are not responsible for anything. If he didn't leave any money and/or you haven't had any moneys transferred from his bank account or taken other financial action, you are free of any responsibility.

If you have had the last few pounds transferred, then sadly you have unwittingly taken responsibility for his effects etc, from a legal perspective. I made that mistake.

If you have home insurance that includes a free legal helpline (the vast majority do) give them a call. They'll let you know whether you can leave it to the landlord, or whether any of your actions so far amount to intermeddling (the legal term for 'taking some kind of action that obligated you to finish the job') and makes you de facto executor.

How about a skip?

Please don’t do that. I was left with 6 car loads of detritus when my tenants skipped without paying rent for months, place was in a shocking state. It’s not the landlord’s problem.

Please contact the charities mentioned, maybe hire a local van, it’s very reasonable but take your siblings to help and get it cleared. Don’t they want anything from his belongings? The photos etc?

Hiring a van won’t necessarily help as many tips only allow local council taxpayers to use them/only allow cars not vans