Clearance runs and tip trips in London with a man and van in Brockley SE4

Clearance is not the same booking as a move

A removals booking prices volume that travels from one address to another. A clearance run prices volume that leaves, gets weighed at a transfer station and generates a transfer note. The van looks the same; the licence, the destination and the paperwork are not.

The practical difference for you is timing. Clearance runs are best booked as their own slot — often the same afternoon as a move — so the load is built once rather than sorted twice on a pavement.

Your duty of care and the licence check that takes a minute

Householders in England must take reasonable steps to check that whoever removes their waste is authorised to do so. That means an upper-tier waste carrier registration, verifiable on the Environment Agency public register.

This is the single reason not to take the cheapest quote on a local listings site. Waste that is fly-tipped is traced back to the household it came from, and 'someone with a van offered forty pounds' is not a defence. Take the registration number, check it, and keep the receipt.

• ●Ask for the waste carrier registration number when you book
• ●Check it on the Environment Agency public register
• ●Get a written transfer note or receipt listing the load
• ●Keep it for two years

How clearance runs are priced

Pricing is a combination of van space and weight. A quarter-load of light household items is cheap; the same visual volume in rubble, tiles or damp garden waste costs more because it is priced at the weighbridge.

Labour matters too. A load stacked at the kerb costs less than the same load carried down from a third-floor flat. An honest quote asks three questions: what is in it, where is it, and are there stairs.

• ●Minimum charge: a single item or a few bags
• ●Quarter, half and full van loads: the standard steps
• ●Weight surcharges: rubble, soil, tiles, plasterboard
• ●Labour: stairs, long carries and dismantling on site

What cannot ride in a mixed clearance load

Some categories have their own disposal route and are quoted separately because they are weighed and processed separately. A crew that says 'yes, anything' is either adding it to your bill later or planning not to dispose of it properly.

• ●Fridges and freezers — degassing required before disposal
• ●Mattresses — separately charged at almost every London site
• ●Paint, oils, solvents and gas bottles — hazardous, HWRC only
• ●Electricals — separate WEEE stream
• ●Plasterboard, tyres and soil — surcharged or refused at many sites
• ●Asbestos — licensed specialist only, never a clearance van

Doing it yourself: van permits at London tips

Hiring a van and driving to the tip is a reasonable plan that goes wrong for one reason: almost every London reuse and recycling centre now requires a van or trailer permit, limits how many visits you get, and refuses loads it judges to be trade waste.

Apply for the permit through your borough at least a week ahead, take proof of address, and check the site's list of restricted materials before you load. Otherwise the run costs you a day, a van hire and a return trip with the same rubbish.

Reuse first — it is cheaper and quicker

Anything usable is worth diverting before it becomes weight on a weighbridge. London charity networks collect furniture free if it carries a fire label, and local reuse groups clear a sofa faster than a council bulky booking.

We sort reusable items out of the load where there is somewhere sensible for them to go. It reduces the weight you pay for, and it means the van is carrying waste rather than furniture that had another decade in it.