Garage Clearance in Donnybrook: Clearing the Garage Before a Letting or a Sale

The part of the property nobody let

When a house in Donnybrook is rented out, the garage is often left out of the letting. The owner keeps the key and uses it for the furniture that did not suit the tenants, the boxes from their own move and the things they meant to come back for. Over the years the tenants add to it too: a bicycle left behind, a cot, garden chairs, a broken washing machine that was easier to store than to replace.

Then the house changes hands or changes tenants, and the garage has to be faced. A locked, full garage takes a room off a letting and puts a question mark on a sale. This guide is for the owner, the landlord or the agent who needs it empty, and it covers what to settle first, what the people involved need and how we clear it.

PropertyClearance.ie is based in Athy, Co. Kildare, and clears properties across Dublin 4; see our house clearance in Donnybrook page and our garage clearance service, or call 083 090 4545. We are a clearance company and nothing here is legal advice. Questions about a tenancy are for your letting agent, the Residential Tenancies Board or a solicitor.

First, whose things are they?

Before a price is asked for, sort the contents by owner in your own mind. It takes ten minutes at the garage door and it avoids the one problem a clearance cannot fix afterwards.

• Yours. Furniture, boxes and equipment you put there. Decide what you are keeping and mark it.
• A previous tenant's. Things left behind when a tenancy ended. Check with your letting agent what was agreed and whether the tenant has been asked to collect, before anything is treated as abandoned.
• A current tenant's. If someone is still living in the house, their belongings are not part of a clearance unless they tell us so themselves.
• The property's. Spare tiles and paint for the house, keys, manuals for the boiler and appliances, and anything listed on an inventory. These stay.

We take our instruction from one named person, the owner or the agent, and we clear only what that person confirms.

What a letting or a sale needs from the garage

The garage matters to more people than its owner. Each of them needs something different from it:

Three kinds of garage in Donnybrook

Donnybrook has period terraces, later family houses and apartment schemes, and each has its own kind of garage.

1. A garage on a rear lane behind a period house. Photograph the lane from the road end and at its narrowest point, and tell us about bollards or gates. If the truck cannot go down, we carry from the mouth of the lane.
2. A garage beside or built into a later house, with a driveway. The truck reverses to the door and the job is quick.
3. A lock-up or basement store in an apartment scheme. Tell us about the height of the car park entrance, the lift and any hours the management company sets. See apartment clearance.

Parking on most Donnybrook streets is at the kerb, often under permit or pay-and-display rules. A photo of the street from the gate shows us where a truck can stand.

What we clear, and what we cannot

Our crew carries out furniture, mattresses, boxes, bicycles, garden furniture and tools, shelving, timber and leftover building materials. Fridges, freezers, washing machines and cookers are taken too and go for proper electrical recycling; empty and switch off a freezer a couple of days beforehand. Heavy pieces are moved with trolleys and straps, and the floor is swept at the end.

We cannot take paint, solvents, oils, fuel, chemicals, batteries or gas cylinders. A rented house often has a shelf of leftover paint for touching up the walls, and that is worth keeping for the next decorator in any case. Everything we cannot take is stood together and pointed out to you or the agent.

We do not handle asbestos or clinical waste. If the garage roof is old corrugated cement sheeting, it is left undisturbed, because it may contain asbestos and needs a specialist contractor.

Fitting it between tenancies

The gap between one tenancy and the next is short, and the garage competes for it with the painter, the cleaner and the agent's inventory. This order works:

1. As soon as notice is given, photograph the garage and send the photos. A price can be agreed while the tenant is still in the house.
2. Once the keys are back, the garage is cleared first, before the painter needs somewhere to keep ladders and before the cleaner arrives.
3. Rooms follow if needed. Anything a tenant left in the house can go on the same load; see end of tenancy clearance.
4. Photos are sent when the garage is empty, to you and, if you want, to the agent, so the inventory can show it.

You do not need to be there. We collect keys from the agent or a neighbour, and return them the same way.

If the house is being sold

For a sale, the garage is cleared before the agent's photographs and before a buyer's survey. An empty garage shows its size, its floor and the state of its roof, and it removes a question from the viewing. If the garage is a mews building or a coach house and the sale follows a death, our Ballsbridge guide for executors covers the questions to put to the solicitor first.

What PropertyClearance.ie does on a job like this

A garage is seldom the only thing to clear when a property changes hands. These services usually run together, under one fixed price where you want them to:

• Garage clearance: garages, lock-ups and basement stores emptied and swept.
• End of tenancy clearance: what a tenant left behind in the house, the yard and the shed.
• House clearance: the whole property, when the owner's own contents are going before a sale.
• Shed clearance and garden clearance: the outside, so the photographs can be taken.
• Junk removal: a few bulky items, when a full clearance is more than is needed.

We provide a written quote beforehand and, on request, dated photographs of the empty garage for your records or the agent's file. Reusable furniture and household goods go to reuse where possible, metals and electrical items are recycled, and the rest goes to authorised facilities. PropertyClearance.ie is operated by Krystal Klean Express Limited, an authorised waste carrier under Waste Collection Permit No. NWCPO-25-13287-01, and is fully insured. We work Monday to Saturday, 8am to 5pm.

Donnybrook, Ballsbridge, Ranelagh and the rest of Dublin 4 and 6

We clear garages for owners and agents across the district, including Ballsbridge, Sandymount and Rathmines. For a let apartment, our Dublin 2 and Docklands guide for landlords and letting agents covers lifts, loading bays and management companies, and our Celbridge guide for landlords deals with a house where a tenant has left contents behind.