Business closure auctions in Liverpool

Most closure sales are driven by the lease. Dilapidations clauses usually require the premises to be handed back empty, and a landlord can charge for every week you overrun. That makes the empty date the fixed point around which we plan the sale.

Working back from it, we need time to catalogue, time for the auction to run online, a viewing day and a collection window. Two to four weeks from instruction to an empty building is typical for a mid sized workshop or unit. Larger factories need longer.

If your date is closer than that, say so at the first call. There are ways to compress the timetable, and we can sell the contents as a single lot to a trade buyer if the date is very tight.

A closure sale often involves people other than the owner. Check the following before we list anything:

• Assets on finance, hire purchase or lease belong to the finance company until settled. They can be sold, but only with the lender's agreement, and the lender is usually paid from the proceeds.
• If the company is insolvent or about to be, the directors' powers are restricted. An insolvency practitioner may need to instruct the sale. See our page on liquidation and insolvency asset sales.
• Landlord's fixtures stay. Items bolted to the building are sometimes the landlord's under the lease, and sometimes yours. Read the lease or ask.
• Customer property held on site, such as parts or goods in for repair, must go back to the customer, not into the sale.

We can work through this with you. It is much easier before the catalogue is published than after.

We visit, agree the scope and catalogue the lots on site. Everything from the main machines down to the contents of the stores can be included. Small items are grouped into sensible lots so that nothing is left behind.

The sale runs online as a timed auction. Bidders register, view the lots on a set viewing day at your premises, and bid until the closing time. Lots close in sequence, and a late bid extends the closing time on that lot so nobody is sniped.

Buyers pay the hammer price plus the buyer's premium, plus VAT where it applies. They pay us, and we pay you once collection has finished and the funds are cleared. Unpaid lots are re-offered to underbidders.

Closure sales include more than machinery. Finished stock, raw material, packaging and consumables all sell, often in bulk lots to competitors and traders. Do not throw anything out before we have looked at it.

Data needs handling separately. Computers and servers should be wiped before they are sold, and paper records that must be kept under tax or employment law should be removed from site. We can include the hardware in the sale but we will not take responsibility for what is on it.

Hazardous material, gas cylinders on rental, and waste are not saleable. Gas cylinders usually belong to the supplier and should be returned. Chemicals and waste need a licensed carrier. Sort these out early because they can hold up the handover.

Buyers collect during a fixed window, usually a few days after the sale closes. Small lots leave in vans and cars. Heavy machines are moved by riggers at the buyer's expense. Our staff are on site to release lots against paid invoices.

Keep the power on until the last machine is out. Riggers need it, and buyers check that machines run before they take them.

Unsold lots and whatever remains are the last problem to solve. We can sell them on afterwards, offer them to a clearance buyer, or arrange for a contractor to strip the unit at cost. Which option is right depends on what is left and how many days you have.

If a buyer wants the business as a going concern, the assets go with it and an auction is the wrong tool. If a competitor wants the whole contents in one go, a private treaty sale saves the auction timetable, though it rarely brings as much as open competition.

If the business is insolvent, speak to an insolvency practitioner before selling anything. Selling assets below value shortly before a liquidation can be challenged later.

If the remaining assets are small in number, they may be better placed in one of our collective sales alongside other vendors' lots than in a sale of their own.

Liverpool has a large port, and much of its industry is tied to freight. Container and bulk cargo handling at the docks supports haulage, warehousing and freight forwarding firms across Bootle, Kirkby and Speke. Car plants and their suppliers are in Halewood and Speke. Pharmaceutical and biologics manufacturing is concentrated in Speke as well. Food and drink production, construction and waste processing are spread across the city. Main industrial areas include Knowsley Industrial Park, Liverpool International Business Park, Estuary Commerce Park and the dock estate at Seaforth and Bootle.

The M62 ends at the edge of the city. The M57 links Knowsley to the M62 and M58, and the A5036 runs to the port. The Kingsway and Queensway tunnels cross the Mersey to the Wirral and the M53. Liverpool Lime Street is the main railway station. Access for low loaders is good on the outer estates and tighter on the older dockside roads.

We regularly handle closure auctions in Liverpool and across Merseyside. Sales are run on site, with viewing and collection at your premises, and the online catalogue reaches buyers well beyond the area.