Hoarders house, needs deep professional clean.

fixXxer

Hi all.

Without going in to too much detail, an elderly relative has gone in to hospital.

When we went to the house, we were shocked to find all the rooms full floor to ceiling with a mix of new, unopened items, rubbish, food waste, old clothes, electrical items and in one room, human waste.

It was so bad the fire department couldn't get the front door open at first and then couldn't get up the stairs to the relative at first as there was so much stuff.

We need a professional to come in, gut the house and deep clean it before we can even look at repairs.

I have no idea where to start here. Has any one any advice with getting a clean of this size done?

Mrs OBumble

Have you got legal authorization to throw the relatives belongings out? I know it's a state, but you could get into trouble if you don't have the permission. Will there be a Fair Deal application to be done - do you have the paperwork you need for that, or is it deep in the house?

alibab

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Have you got legal authorization to throw the relatives belongings out? I know it's a state, but you could get into trouble if you don't have the permission. Will there be a Fair Deal application to be done - do you have the paperwork you need for that, or is it deep in the house?

As above, I know you don’t want to give details but do you have permission of the person in hospital to enter the house and the authority to make any changes . You might not like how the person lived but this was there home and there choices and without permission have no right to change .

Wesser

A social worker should be assigned to her and s/he will know where to get these kind of resources. They should also be able tol do an assessment of her capability/ safety to return

wexie

I've had to deal with a somewhat similar situation and found that cleaners won't go near the job if they can't move around the house.

So you may need to clear it out yourself first. Rent a skip and sort out whatever needs to be kept and thrown.

Should be plenty of landlords on here with recommendations for cleaners (might help if you mentioned what area of the country).

Good luck, it's not a nice job

ted1

Rubber gloves , face mask , old clothes , a skip and off you go.

Mrs OBumble

Again, hospital social worker should know of companies that specialise in this sort of work.

fixXxer

He's had a stroke so isn't conscious at the moment.

I've probably undersold it because I'm still in shock. The rescue crews had to wear masks and suits when they went in, it was so bad. The ESB had to shut off the power as the internal wiring was a fire hazard and the smell was so bad the fire crew were throwing up.

He's my uncle so it's my dad (his brother) and I who are looking at what to do next. I've no ****ing clue.

Mrs OBumble

Hospital social worker is the first stop so. They'll advise you where to go to get the legals sorted out. Really until that happens, you cannot really do anything except make the place safe.

Another source of advice would be the council environmental health officer. They have dealt with situations like this before.

4ensic15

A friend of mine had a relative, his mothers first cousin, like that. It took 6 roll on roll off skips to empty the house and garden. The first thing to do is get skips and clear out as much junk as possible. Get rid of the obviously old and broken electrical items and clothes and other junk. Your uncle is hardly going to sue you when he gets out if he gets out.

skooterblue2

Wesser wrote: »

A social worker should be assigned to her and s/he will know where to get these kind of resources. They should also be able tol do an assessment of her capability/ safety to return

This sounds a more sensible idea. There are usually mental issue with hoarding. If a Social worker says it has to go is a lot easier than to say you dumped his life collection. I know its probably stacks of junks and newspapers and what not. If a social worker makes an order then it is gospel.

4ensic15

skooterblue2 wrote: »

This sounds a more sensible idea. There are usually mental issue with hoarding. If a Social worker says it has to go is a lot easier than to say you dumped his life collection. I know its probably stacks of junks and newspapers and what not. If a social worker makes an order then it is gospel.

Social workers have no such authority. They can write a report saying what they saw. That could be used in a court application to make the person a ward of court. Social workers have no authority to order the dumping of anyone's possessions.

Atlantic Dawn

How do you know they don't have €50k in cold hard cash stitched in to an old smelly duffle coat or in the middle of a an old mattress, throw away nothing without their permission, no right to.

JustAThought

skooterblue2 wrote: »

This sounds a more sensible idea. There are usually mental issue with hoarding. If a Social worker says it has to go is a lot easier than to say you dumped his life collection. I know its probably stacks of junks and newspapers and what not. If a social worker makes an order then it is gospel.

That is absolute nonsense about the SW & 'gospel'.
From being in a similar position you cannot legally do anything to his property and posessions without his permission . If he is made a ward of court due to being mentally incapable or ill - and this has to be signed off by 2 consultants who have treated him within the past 6 months (*I think) with your Dad and yourself in charge of.the WOC committee then you have lots of options - including clearing it Ll out with relatively free conscience. That is assuming your uncle will not recover - which again the doctors or in this case occupational health team can advise on. Try and get the hospital social worker to.get the occupational health team out to do an evaluation on the house for his fitness to return and ability to look after.himself BEFORE you throw out the human waste and floor to cealing stuff. The OW will show a clear inability to mind himself and live alone and will really help in speeding the state help he can get.including a long term bed or nursing home care. Its an awful situation to.find yourself innl and must be terribly upsetting and shocking. I am very sorry.

Make sure you also film the documentary evidence - having so much broken/clutter is not a crime but the dirt and fecaes and fire hazzard issues will help.you - if you.dont rush to destroy the evidence in an attempt to help.him as it can be the biggeat asset in getting him a place in a nursing home and ling term appropriate help which he clearly needs.

skooterblue2

4ensic15 wrote: »

Social workers have no such authority. They can write a report saying what they saw. That could be used in a court application to make the person a ward of court. Social workers have no authority to order the dumping of anyone's possessions.

Still its a crap decision to have to make to decide to dump someone who is still alives belonging. I know its a fire hazzard/bio Hazzard/ infestatino hazzard. Difficult choice but someone has to make it.

JustAThought

skooterblue2 wrote: »

Still its a crap decision to have to make to decide to dump someone who is still alives belonging. I know its a fire hazzard/bio Hazzard/ infestatino hazzard. Difficult choice but someone has to make it.

Remember they guy who ditched the broken harddrive with 1m of bitcoin tokens on it!! Went to the dump digging for weeks to try and find it...one mans junk is another mans millions! First editions, historical photos, a lifetimes lore and collections... he could get quite upset by it...

Graces7

Google hoarders on youtube... the UK has a system and specialist cleaners. Most council will also as tenants can leave a mess. Ask Citizen;s Info who will have met this before and will know who to contact, and the legalities.

surrender monkey

There are cleaning companies that specialise in this type of thing. http://forensiccleaningservices.ie/property-clearance/

Pricey though, that said perhaps you should hold off doing anything until the relative is conscious as other posters have said. I hope your uncle gets well soon.

Berserker

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

How do you know they don't have €50k in cold hard cash stitched in to an old smelly duffle coat or in the middle of a an old mattress, throw away nothing without their permission, no right to.

Happened to us. We were helping a friend to clear out the home of an uncle of hers who died. The house was in a bad state, nothing like the OPs though and we started to uncover bundles and I mean bundles, of cash including Euro, Sterling, Dollars and Irish punts in random locations. We counted upwards of 60K by the end of it all.

fixXxer

Thanks for advice everyone. We'll be speaking to the Social Worker about taking care of who is in charge of his care soon.

Doctors don't think he's coming out of this intact one way or the other. Either he'll die soon or he'll be in a nursing home the rest of his life. Either way, the mind is gone it's just the body hanging around now.

Thanks again.

Alanstrainor

fixxxer wrote: »

Thanks for advice everyone. We'll be speaking to the Social Worker about taking care of who is in charge of his care soon.

Doctors don't think he's coming out of this intact one way or the other. Either he'll die soon or he'll be in a nursing home the rest of his life. Either way, the mind is gone it's just the body hanging around now.

Thanks again.

Really sorry to hear.

spaceHopper

Sorry about your uncle, for now the house isn't going anywhere, if you can sort out the food and other weaste, the secure the house, shut off the water and gas too.

If you have no authority to clean and rent the house and he has to go into a home then SW will be involved in getting him into rehab or a home. If they get a sense that his family will sort things out they will wash their hands of him and leave everything to you only helping out if forced to. It's probably in his best interests if you do less not more. Has he a medical card, if not try applying for one.

Also if he hoarded chances are he may have hidden money in the house which makes it a target for break ins

skooterblue2

spaceHopper wrote: »

Also if he hoarded chances are he may have hidden money in the house which makes it a target for break ins

Best to move a family member in until the situation becomes clearer, nothing like an empty house to attract squatters and vandals.

fixXxer

skooterblue2 wrote: »

Best to move a family member in until the situation becomes clearer, nothing like an empty house to attract squatters and vandals.

The house is not fit for human habitation and won't be until it gets an extensive deep clean. Even then, there are signs of structural issues that have been ignored for twenty years or more. If someone broke in I'd be more worried about them getting Weil's disease and suing.

El Tarangu

fixxxer wrote: »

If someone broke in I'd be more worried about them getting Weil's disease and suing.

Sorry to hear about your uncle, OP; it must have come as an awful shock (the stroke, and then again going into the house), but good to see that you can still see the funny side of things

Claw Hammer

El Tarangu wrote: »

Sorry to hear about your uncle, OP; it must have come as an awful shock (the stroke, and then again going into the house), but good to see that you can still see the funny side of things

There is nothing funny about Weil's disease.

Gaspode

Unless it's a burglar that catches it.

Claw Hammer

Gaspode wrote: »

Unless it's a burglar that catches it.

Burglars never catch anything except suspended sentences.

xalot

OP, very sorry for the situation you find yourself in.

Could you tidy everything into moving boxes for sorting at a later date. That way you could move all the boxes into, say, one room, and get the place professionally cleaned. You wouldn't be throwing anything out and down the line you could go through things a box at a time, at your own pace.