Our clearance team visit every property imaginable across the U.K. From luxurious mansion like homes, to tiny decrepit flats, we have worked on it all. However, it isn’t the type of property which makes for an interesting anecdote, but the condition a property is left in.
PPS have 10+ years’ experience dealing with probate properties and all facets of the probate process. We have seen everything you could imagine in these properties, have a read of some of our other blogs to see for yourself. A lot of the houses we clear are hoarder houses. These properties have the largest undertaking due to the volume of items stored.
What is a hoarder house?
Compulsive hoarding is the process of accumulating a large collection of items of all varieties no matter how seemingly worthless and irrational it may seem. Hoarding is a mental health problem. It’s generally agreed that hoarding can be caused by a traumatic event, like the loss of a loved one. Hoarders often think the items they are collecting may have some value to them in the future, no matter how worthless. A hoarder house is simply the property a hoarder owns that they use for their hoarding compulsions.
When passing away the intestate leaves their property as it was. Meaning all their worldly possessions and items hoarded are on full display for our clearance team.
The case
The intestate lived in his property his whole life. He was born, raised, and eventually died all in the same property after it was left for him by his parents. When entering the property, the level of hoarding was what we would consider to be extreme. Opening the door was not possible due to a blockage of clutter. Our team eventually gained entry through the first-floor window as all ground floor entrances was completely blocked. The condition of this property was nothing new. High volumes of items stored across the property making it difficult to move, let alone begin the clearance process.
The nature of a hoarder can be incomprehensible. The items stored could have sentimental value, monetary value or absolutely no value whatsoever. It is a psychological condition where no matter the item, they find some value with it and refuse to give it up. In this case, the intestate stored everything imaginable. Nothing was considered “junk”.
However, the worst thing we found was the remains of several dead cats. The bodies were mummified after being left for so long and had been stacked up on each other like a collection of books. This may seem beyond comprehension to most, but this isn’t rare for hoarders. In fact, we have encountered this on a few occasions. It is especially sad as these cats were the closest thing the intestate could call family until Blanchards located his closest next of kin.
In closing, we have dealt with numerous probate properties in every condition. If you know of a probate property in your area, please contact us.
