This is where I'm based, so it's the shortest drive I make. If there's a full house in Chatham you can't face, I've almost certainly walked one on the same street.
Chatham has a lot of old housing — century homes and pre-war brick through the core and the east side, post-war bungalows north of the Thames, and everything in between — and a lot of it is still in the hands of the people who raised their families in it. An old Chatham house has a full-height basement, an attic, a back porch that got closed in, and often a garage that hasn't held a car since the eighties. That's a lot of room to fill, and it fills.
The families that call me about Chatham are local more often than in the county towns — a daughter across town who's been dropping groceries off for years and finally got past the front room, or an executor who grew up in the house and can't bring themselves to go into the basement. Because it's local, the instinct is to do the cleanout yourselves. That's a fine instinct, and some families who start it do finish it.
I'm based in Chatham. I buy houses here as they stand, contents and all, and I can usually walk one within a couple of days. Here are the three options, honestly.
Their safety comes before the house, and if they own it and can make their own decisions, selling is their call. A continuing power of attorney for property lets you act for them while they're living; it ends the moment they die. How POA works when selling a parent's house.
If the house was in the deceased's name alone, the executor generally needs the Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee before a sale closes; held jointly, it passes to the surviving owner. Start that now — it takes longer than the sale. What an executor needs before selling.
A tenant can't be removed for hoarding without a Landlord and Tenant Board order (N5 for interference, N7 for impairing safety), and selling doesn't end the tenancy — the buyer becomes the landlord. I buy with the tenant in place and handle it lawfully afterward. Selling a house with tenants in Ontario.
Weekends, bins, a trailer, and every object looked at by someone with the right to decide about it. Chatham-Kent residents use the municipal waste depots for drop-off, with the Ridge Landfill outside Blenheim as the region's landfill; a full house is many loads either way. Makes sense when the family has the time, everyone's on side, and the house will be worth listing once it shows.
Two quotes from insured local companies; the price scales with volume, stairs and distance to the dump. Worth knowing: a heavy buildup of combustible material is a fire hazard under the Ontario Fire Code, and in Chatham-Kent a complaint goes through the municipality's customer service line or online form to by-law enforcement, which can issue a property standards order with a deadline — and if it lapses, the municipality can do the work and add the cost to the taxes. Makes sense when the house needs to show and the money is there up front.
Take what matters to your family and leave the rest where it is. No cleanout, no bins, no showings, no repairs, and a written number with the math shown. Makes sense when the cleanout is the thing stopping the decision — or when time, distance or health mean the first two were never really options.
The cleanout isn't the decision. It's the thing standing in front of the decision.
Chatham is home — I'm based here and can usually see a house within a day or two. I walk every house before I put a number on it, and the number I say is the number I pay — priced after I've seen the basement, not before. Drive time approximate.
The form on the cash-offer page takes a minute, or text 548-290-8128. It comes to me, not a call centre.
Email-only if you prefer. Photos or a walk-through video before I visit are a good start.
With you, or with a key if you can't face going back in. I price the work room by room, cleanout included.
Worth done, minus the work, minus my margin — every line shown. If listing would net you more, I say so. You decide, on your schedule.
No fee, no obligation, one word ends it. If it's urgent, don't wait on the form — call or text.