Bereavement Clearance in Rathmines: A Family Home with a Tenant in Part of It

One house, two households, one front door

Rathmines has a great many large Victorian and Edwardian houses and a long habit of letting part of them. A familiar arrangement in Dublin 6: a parent lived in the main part of the house, and the garden flat, the basement or the return was let, sometimes to the same tenant for years. When the parent dies, the family has a bereavement clearance to arrange in a building where somebody else still lives, pays rent and uses the front door.

Our Dublin bereavement clearance guide covers the decisions: what to keep, who chooses, when to start. This guide covers the tenant in the building, and how the clearance is planned around them.

It is practical guidance from clearance work, not legal advice. Anything about the tenancy itself, who the tenant now deals with, what notice can be given and what the estate may do with the let part of the house, is for the solicitor handling the estate and, for the rules on tenancies, the Residential Tenancies Board. PropertyClearance.ie is based in Athy, Co. Kildare, and clears homes across Dublin 6; see our house clearance in Rathmines and bereavement clearance pages, or call 083 090 4545.

How these houses are usually divided

Every house is different, but the pattern repeats. The parent kept the hall floor and the bedrooms above it. The let part is one of three places:

• The garden or basement flat, with its own door from the front area or the garden and often its own meter. The most self-contained arrangement and the easiest to work around.
• The return, the half-landing rooms at the back, whose door opens onto the staircase the crew will be using all day.
• A top-floor flat, so the tenant passes through the hall and up the full staircase, past every room being cleared.

Then there are the shared parts: the front door and hall, the stairs and landings, the back garden, a shed, an attic reached from a shared landing. Over the years the parent's belongings spread into them, and the tenant's bicycle or boxes spread into the hall. Sorting out whose is whose there is one of the first jobs, and it is done by asking, never by assuming. If the division was informal, with a shared kitchen or bathroom, say so when you send photographs; shared rooms are sorted with the tenant in the same way.

What belongs to the estate and what belongs to the tenant

Only the solicitor can tell you what the estate owns and what it may do with it. What we can give you is the practical sorting the crew works to, which keeps the two households apart:

Clearing around a sitting tenant

The tenant did not choose any of this. They may have known the parent for years, they do not yet know what happens to their home, and now a truck and a crew are arriving. Courtesy at the start saves a great deal later.

• Tell them early, in writing. The dates, the hours (we work Monday to Saturday, 8am to 5pm), what is being cleared, and that nothing of theirs will be touched. Give them a number to ring on the day.
• Agree the shared spaces. Walk the hall, the stairs, the garden and the shed with them and write down which items are theirs. That list comes with us.
• Keep their access open. The front door is propped open while loading, so someone from the crew stays near it, and the route to the tenant's door is never blocked for longer than it takes a wardrobe panel to pass. Post in the hall stays exactly where it is.
• Noise, dust and the hall. There will be footsteps on the stairs all day. Floor protection goes down along the shared route, and the hall is swept at the end of each day.

If the tenant asks the crew about the tenancy itself, the crew does not answer; the question is passed to you and the solicitor. Staying out of the tenancy question is part of doing the job properly.

Timing: the solicitor, the tenancy and the sale

A bereavement clearance in a shared house sits inside three timetables, and only one of them is yours to set.

The estate

Before anything leaves, the solicitor confirms who may give instructions and whether anything must stay for a valuation; if it must, the valuer comes first. We provide a written quote beforehand and, on request, dated photographs of every cleared room and written confirmation for the estate file.

The tenancy

Whether the house is sold with the tenant in place, whether the let part is vacated first and what notice is involved are decisions for the executor with the solicitor's advice; the Residential Tenancies Board publishes the rules. For the clearance the question is simpler: is the let part included or not? The usual approach is to clear the parent's rooms first and deal with the flat later if it becomes vacant. That second job is an ordinary end-of-tenancy clearance, quoted from photographs once the tenant's things have gone. If the flat is already empty, send photographs of both parts and the house is quoted as one job.

The sale

The estate agent sets the date for photographs and everything works back from it. Allow a day or two between the clearance and the photographer for a clean if one is needed; a clean is a separate job, so ask when you request the quote and we will say what can be arranged.

How the day runs in a house with a tenant

The sequence is the same as any bereavement clearance, with the tenant's part of the building taken out of it:

1. The week beforeThe tenant has the dates in writing, the shared-space list is agreed, the solicitor has confirmed the instruction and anything to be valued has been seen.
2. ArrivalKeys collected from whoever holds them. The crew lead introduces themselves to the tenant if they are in. The truck stands at the kerb as close as the street allows; parking in Rathmines is on the street and often restricted, so a photograph of the street in both directions is part of the quote. Floor protection goes down along the shared route.
3. Top of the house downThe parent's bedrooms, then the hall-floor rooms, carried down the shared stairs in panels where furniture comes apart and whole where it does not.
4. Papers and personal itemsAnything that looks personal, in drawers, boxes, pockets and behind furniture, is set aside and shown to you rather than loaded.
5. Shared spacesOnly the items on the agreed list leave the hall, the landings, the garden and the shed. The tenant's door is never opened; if the flat is in the return or at the top of the house, the crew works past it.
6. Sweep, photographs, keysThe cleared rooms and the shared hall are swept and photographed, floor protection comes up, keys go to whoever you have named, and the tenant is told the work is finished.

What the estate agent wants left for photographs

Agents photograph a house once it is clear and clean, and they have views on what should remain. Ask before you book, and tell us exactly what stays so it can be protected while everything around it leaves.

• In the parent's rooms: some agents want a few good pieces left for scale, others want bare rooms. Curtains, blinds and light fittings usually stay; carpets are the agent's call.
• In the shared hall: the agent will want the entrance photographed clear. If the tenant's bicycle lives in the hall, ask them in advance whether it can be moved for the hour the photographer is there. It is their decision.
• In the let part: if the house is sold with the tenant in place, the agent arranges any photographs of the flat directly with the tenant. We are not involved in that.
• The garden and shed: cleared of the parent's items on the agreed list, so the photographs show space rather than storage.

Whether the house is sold with the flat let or with vacant possession changes what the agent wants cleared and when, so settle it with the agent and the solicitor before fixing a date.

Rathmines, Ranelagh, Rathgar, Harold's Cross and Portobello

The same large houses, garden flats and street parking run through Ranelagh, Rathgar, Harold's Cross and Portobello, and we clear homes in all of them. For the physical side of a tall house, carrying routes, protecting original stairs and sequencing over more than one day, see our Donnybrook guide. If the let part of the house later needs clearing on its own, our apartment clearance page describes that job; for pieces going to relatives, see furniture removal. For the whole city, start from the Dublin page.