Hoarder cleaning: what a specialist clean involves

A hoarder clean usually combines three jobs: sorting belongings with the person, removing what they agree can go, and cleaning the home once the floors and surfaces can be reached. Firms’ published prices for this work cover the team’s time, waste removal and a deep clean, and some list other work as extras: pest treatment, odour treatment, pet urine, human waste and extra help with sorting.

Hoarder cleaning or house clearance?

A house clearance firm empties a property. That can be all a home needs when everything is going, nobody is living there, and there is no contamination, for example after a death. A hoarder clean suits a home where someone still lives, where belongings need sorting with them, or where dirt, pests, or animal or human waste need specialist cleaning. Some jobs need both, and some clearance firms also offer a clean afterwards.

For a clearance on its own, our sister site has a guide to hoarder house clearance and its costs.

Firms and councils use different names for heavy cleaning of a neglected or hoarded home. Some firms call it extreme cleaning or a blitz clean. Councils that buy this work, such as Camden, Durham and Barking and Dagenham, call it a deep clean, sometimes with decluttering. The name tells you little about what is included.

A home can need an extreme clean without being hoarded, and a cluttered home is not always dirty. What decides the work and the price is what is there: the amount of belongings, how much sorting the person wants to do, and whether there are pests, smells, damage, or animal or human waste. Ask each firm to list what its price includes; the questions are in our checklist for choosing a firm.

If the person who hoards still lives in the home, the clean should be something they have agreed to. Mind, the mental health charity, advises against surprise or unwanted clear-ups, and recommends respecting the person’s choices and focusing on their safety and wellbeing.

In England and Wales the law presumes that adults can make their own decisions, including decisions other people think are unwise. A cluttered home does not on its own show that someone lacks capacity, and capacity is judged one decision at a time (Mental Capacity Act 2005, sections 1 to 3).

People who hoard, and their families, ask whether cleaners will throw away things they want to keep. Before any work starts, agree with the person and the firm:

• what must be kept, and where it will go in the home;
• what can go to charity or recycling, and what is rubbish;
• that nothing else leaves the home without the person’s agreement, item by item or box by box, as they prefer;
• whether they want help packing and organising what they keep, not only removal;
• whether they want to be there during the work, and how long each session should last.

Ask whether the firm can work in shorter sessions alongside the person rather than clearing the home in one go. Some firms offer this. Our guide on how to help someone who hoards builds a plan with them, starting with safety.

A clean is not treatment for hoarding. The NHS describes cognitive behavioural therapy as the main treatment, and suggests starting with a GP, so plan for support after the clean as well: see free hoarding help.

Prices vary widely because the amount of belongings, access and contamination vary. These are firms’ own published ranges and a council’s price list, not quotes. Most firms do not say whether VAT is included.

We found no national scheme that pays for a hoarded home to be cleaned. This help is free:

• A care needs assessment from the council’s adult social care team (England). The assessment is free; any help that follows can depend on eligibility and a financial assessment.
• A home fire safety visit from the fire and rescue service, offered according to risk.
• The HoardingUK helpline, 020 3239 1600, for the person who hoards, their family or a professional. The support is free; the number is not a freephone number.
• Treatment through the NHS, starting with a GP.

Some councils and housing associations pay for deep cleans for residents or tenants they support: Camden, Durham and Chelmer Housing Partnership, for example, have contracts with cleaning and decluttering firms. Ask adult social care or the landlord whether this exists in your area. Our free hoarding help page finds the council and fire service for a postcode.

If there is a deadline, such as a council notice, a landlord’s inspection or a hospital discharge date, tell the firm when you ask for a quote, so it can plan which rooms to do first.

What councils can do (England and Wales)

• Filthy or verminous homes. Where a home is filthy or unwholesome to a degree that harms health, or is verminous, the council must serve a notice on the owner or occupier setting out the steps it requires, which can include cleaning and disinfection (Public Health Act 1936, section 83). If the notice is not complied with, the council can do the work and recover its reasonable costs from the person it served. A cluttered home does not meet this test on its own.
• Charges for council work. Some councils add a fee: Hartlepool, Dover and Woking publish charges of the cost of the work plus 20% for work they do in default of a notice. These are general charges, not specific to section 83.
• Filthy or verminous items. Where its conditions are met, section 84 of the same Act lets the council cleanse, disinfect or destroy particular items at its own expense.
• Statutory nuisance. Premises, or piles of waste, that harm health or are a nuisance can be a statutory nuisance. The council must look into complaints and, if it finds a nuisance, serve an abatement notice. It can recover reasonable costs of any work it does.
• Rats and mice. A council can serve a notice requiring treatment and prevention work, and do the work and recover the cost if it is not done (Prevention of Damage by Pests Act 1949, Great Britain).
• Housing hazards. Councils assess hazards in homes under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (Housing Act 2004). The most serious, category 1, hazards bring a duty to act. A clutter score is not the same as this assessment.

Scotland and Northern Ireland have different laws, and we have not found an equivalent procedure to summarise here. Ask the council’s environmental health team.

If you have received a notice

Read it carefully: it sets out what the council requires. Contact the council officer dealing with it if anything is unclear, and ask whether the council can refer the person for support. Show the notice to any firm you ask to quote.

If the home is rented

Some social landlords pay for deep cleans for tenants who need them: Chelmer Housing Partnership and Barking and Dagenham’s housing service have both bought this work. A landlord’s right to end a tenancy depends on the type of tenancy and the nation, and is outside what this page covers.

London Fire Brigade attended 1,028 fires involving hoarding in 2025, up from 954 in 2024. Its hoarding policy uses the clutter image rating to judge how full a home is, and it offers free home fire safety visits according to risk. Start with its hoarding advice and Home Fire Safety Checker.

Some London councils pay for deep cleans for residents they support. Camden awarded a five-year deep clean and declutter contract from November 2025, with separate therapeutic hoarding support from HoardingUK. Barking and Dagenham planned a deep and blitz cleaning contract from July 2026. Ask the council’s adult social care team whether help like this exists in your borough.

For prices, the London and Essex firm in the table above publishes £400 to £900 for one lightly cluttered room and £6,000 or more for severe jobs with biohazards or pests, without saying whether VAT is included.

We found no compulsory UK licence or qualification for hoarding cleaning. Check these instead:

• a waste carrier registration in the firm’s legal name, on the register for the nation where it is based (in England, an upper-tier registration);
• a written quote that lists what is and is not included, with VAT stated;
• an agreed list of what will be kept, and who signs off anything leaving the home;
• who will do the work: the firm’s own staff or another firm;
• what any training certificate covers. APDO’s Introduction to Hoarding Behaviour course, for example, gives a certificate of attendance, and APDO says it does not make someone a hoarding specialist.

Some firms describe themselves as licensed. Ask which licence they mean: a waste carrier registration is about carrying waste and says nothing about training. Our checklist for choosing a firm records the answers for up to three firms and prints a comparison.