JunkBossPro Blog — Property Managers & Commercial

Estate Cleanouts for Attorneys and Executors: Keeping the Paper Trail Clear

An estate cleanout is different from any other job on your board. Someone has died, and the person hiring you is acting for them: an executor, a family member handling the estate, or an attorney's office. They may live in another state. They may never have seen the inside of the house. They need the work done carefully, and they need a clear record of what you did and what it cost.

This article covers how to run that kind of job well. It is not legal advice. What an executor is allowed to do, and what records they need to keep, is a question for them and their attorney.

Like a Vacant Listing, With More Care

Working an empty house is covered in Vacant Houses and Agent Lockboxes: Running Realtor Junk Jobs When Nobody Is Home. Estate houses are usually empty of people too, and the same access habits apply. What changes is how careful you need to be about what goes on the truck, and how clear the paperwork needs to be.

Who Is the Client?

Find out who is hiring you and who is paying. It might be the executor personally, the estate, or an attorney's office that handles estates for many families. In JunkBossPro, whoever pays is the client.

An attorney's office that sends you estate houses regularly works a lot like a property manager: one client, each house an address under it, and possibly set to Monthly for one statement covering every address. Put the name of the estate or the family contact in the access notes or a custom field, so the crew and office know whose house it is. Tag the client so you can find every estate account in one filter.

A single executor handling one house is a normal client with one address. Get their email and phone, and agree on how they will pay before the work starts.

The Keep List

The most important document on an estate job is the list of what stays. Get it in writing from the person who hired you and put it in the job notes, where it shows on the crew's card:

• “Keep: piano, dining set, all framed photos, anything in the cedar chest.”
• “Family already took what they wanted. Everything else goes.”
• “Do not remove anything from the home office until the attorney has been through it.”

If the family is still deciding, wait. Hauling a box of letters someone wanted is a mistake you cannot undo.

Set Aside, Do Not Toss

Even with a clear keep list, crews find things nobody mentioned: a box of documents, an envelope of cash, old photographs, jewelry, keys, a safe. The rule for every crew should be simple. Anything that looks like paperwork, money, valuables or personal keepsakes gets set aside in one place, photographed, and reported to the office before the job continues.

The crew notes it on the job: “Found box of bank papers in hall closet, set aside on kitchen counter, photo taken.” The office texts the client right away. That habit protects the family, and it protects you.

Photos as the Record

Before-and-after photos matter on every commercial job. On an estate job they are the record of the house as you found it and as you left it. The general habits are in Before-and-After Photos for the Property Manager: Proof Every Trash-Out Was Finished. Photograph every room before touching anything, closets and drawers included where things are being removed. Photograph the set-aside pile. Photograph each room when done.

The photos stay with the job. If a relative who was not there asks months later what happened to the contents of the garage, the office can show them.

Where It All Goes

Estate houses often hold furniture and household goods that are still useful. Each job records where the load is hauled to: the dump, a transfer station, a donation center or a metal recycler, with a Go button for the crew. If the family wants usable items donated, set the haul-to to the donation center for that load. What a donation center accepts is up to them, and anything the dump or transfer station will not take is their call too, so check their rules.

A Clear Invoice

Executors and attorneys may need to account for what the estate paid. Make the invoice easy to read:

• Line items from your service list, such as “Estate cleanout, 2 truck loads.”
• Any dump fee overage on its own line, with tons and rate.
• Separate jobs for separate days or areas if the work is split, so each has its own photos and lines.
• Sales tax where it applies.

For a big house, send an estimate first. When the client approves it online, it becomes the scheduled job, and the approved estimate is part of the record.

Patience Pays

Estate jobs move slower than trash-outs. Families change their minds, attorneys need time, and people are grieving. Answer texts kindly and give clear options. The executor who felt looked after tells the attorney, and the attorney handles a lot of estates.

For the rest of the commercial tools in JunkBossPro, visit the commercial junk removal software page.