Clearing a relative's home is rarely difficult in purely practical terms. What makes it hard is everything around it: sorting through an entire life, often against a deadline, while grieving.
This guide sets out how a deceased estate is cleared in practice, the order things need to happen in, and where it is reasonable to bring in help. It is written for anyone in Sundsvall, or with a relative who lived here.
Start with the estate inventory
This is the most important point, and the one most often missed.
Do not empty the property before the estate inventory, the bouppteckning, has been carried out. It records what the estate contained at the time of death. It must be drawn up within three months of the death and submitted to the Swedish Tax Agency within a month after that.
Disposing of items before then can cause real problems, particularly where there are several beneficiaries or if someone later questions what was there. Wait, or check with whoever is handling the inventory.
Give notice on the tenancy in good time as well. On a death, the estate can often end a Swedish rental contract with one month's notice, provided notice is given within a month of the death. Miss that window and the ordinary notice period applies, frequently three months. Speak to the landlord straight away.
Step 1: get an overview
Walk through the property once without touching anything. Photograph it room by room, including storage areas, the basement, the loft and any garage.
Note what has value, what is obviously waste, and what needs special handling: firearms, medicines, electronics, paint and chemicals.
Look for documents and keys before anything is moved. Bank papers, insurance policies, wills and contracts are often found in drawers, in folders in the loft or in an old cash box.
Step 2: sort into four piles
There is no better system than this, and it works even with several people involved.
- Keep – items to be divided between the beneficiaries
- Sell – furniture, art, tools, collections
- Donate – clothes, kitchenware, books
- Discard – broken and worn out items
Agree in advance who has the final say when something is unclear. What causes conflict in an estate is rarely money, but objects with sentimental weight. Set the rules before you are standing in the middle of the living room.
Take your time with envelopes, photo albums and letters. That is where the things that matter tend to hide.
Step 3: valuation and selling
Most of the contents of an ordinary home have low resale value, even if they were expensive once. The usual exceptions are art, good quality older furniture, tools and machinery, watches and jewellery, and certain collections.
Selling takes time. If the property has to be empty within a few weeks, it is often more sensible to let an auction house look at anything of possible value and donate the rest.
Step 4: clearance and removal
Once the sorting is done, the clearance itself is quick. A normal sized flat is usually emptied in a day with the right crew; a house with a basement and garage can take two.
We collect, sort and take everything away. Items for recycling are sorted according to the rules, and anything that can be donated is passed on rather than discarded.
In Sundsvall two things govern the time it takes: the stairwell and the parking. Many estates are in older buildings in the stone town centre or in Skönsberg, where there is no lift and the van cannot always stand by the door. We factor that in when quoting, so there are no surprises.
Step 5: cleaning
With the property empty, the cleaning remains. If it is a rental, it must be cleaned to the landlord's end of tenancy standard and it is inspected like any other move.
Estate cleaning often needs more than a standard end of tenancy clean. If the property has stood empty for a while, or if the person was unwell for a long period, sanitising, odour removal and extra work in the kitchen and bathroom may be required. We say so plainly when we see the property, rather than quoting a price that will not hold.
Step 6: handover
- Hand over every key, including storage, post box and laundry room
- Attend the inspection if you can
- Cancel electricity, broadband, newspapers and subscriptions
- Redirect post to the estate's address
- Notify the Tax Agency of the change of address where required
How long does it take?
The clearance and cleaning usually take two to three days for a flat, cleaning included. What takes time is the sorting, and that depends on how many of you there are and how much has to be gone through.
A realistic plan: the estate inventory first, then one or two weekends of sorting, followed by clearance and cleaning within a single week.
What does it cost?
The price depends on volume, floor level, lift access, how much has to be taken away and how much sanitising the cleaning requires. We always give a fixed price once we have seen the property, either in person or from photographs.
Send us a few pictures of each room, the storage area and the basement, and you will get a price that holds.
RUT and deceased estates
Special rules apply. As a general rule an estate can only use RUT relief for work carried out before the death, and cleaning done afterwards is not normally covered by the deceased person's allowance. In some cases a beneficiary can use their own relief, depending on how the property is used.
We go through what applies in your case before booking, and would rather check with the Tax Agency once too often.
How we work
We handle deceased estates across Sundsvall and the surrounding area, from Alnö and Sundsbruk to Timrå and Härnösand. Discreetly, at your pace, and with nothing disposed of that you have not approved.
You do not need to be present if you would rather not, and if you live elsewhere in the country we carry out the whole job and keep you updated with photographs.
In summary
Do the estate inventory first. Sort into four piles. Get help with the heavy work, and expect the cleaning to need more than a standard end of tenancy clean. Call us before you start and we will tell you what is reasonable to do yourself and what is worth handing over.