Britannia AuctionsLiquidation and insolvency asset sales in Middlesbrough
When a process contractor or a fabricator on Teesside goes into administration, the assets are usually spread between a yard at Riverside Park or Skippers Lane, a customer's site behind a security fence at Wilton or on the Tees, a hire company's depot and a subcontractor's workshop. The first task is to work out what is where, what the company actually owns and what can be got at. Only then can anything be valued.
We do that for the office holder at the first visit, with a schedule that lists each item by location and a note of any site pass or permit needed to reach it. The sale itself is an online timed auction in most cases, with a viewing day on the main site. Stockton, Billingham, Hartlepool and Darlington are close enough to come and look, and bids are placed online and the sale is open to the rest of the UK. Use the contact form to describe the appointment.
Pumps, valves and vessels with residues still inside them
Process equipment recovered from a chemical or engineering contractor is sold on its documentation and its condition. Pumps, valves, heat exchangers, vessels and instrumentation with certificates and a clean history are catalogued for process firms and plant refurbishers across the UK. The same items with an unknown service history or a residue inside them are a disposal problem before they are an asset.
We deal with that in the order it needs. At the first visit we ask what each item last handled and flag anything that needs a decontamination certificate before it can be moved or offered. The office holder decides whether cleaning is worth paying for. The catalogue then states the service history for each lot as it is known and requires buyers to accept the item as described. Equipment rated for hazardous areas is lotted separately with its rating visible in the photographs, because that is what the buyer is paying for.
Half built modules and the steel that came with the contract
Offshore and fabrication yards fail with work in progress on the shop floor. A part built skid, a module or a pipe spool run may belong to the customer under the contract or may be the company's own until delivery. Alongside it sits plate, section and pipe that was bought for the job, often on the customer's account. None of that can go into a catalogue until the contract and the retention of title position have been looked at.
Our part is to make the position clear quickly. We schedule the work in progress separately from the plant, photograph the job numbers and the material markings, and give the office holder a written opinion of value both as a finished fabrication and as steel by weight. The plant that made it, the welding sets, plate rolls, overhead cranes, profile cutters and forklifts, is catalogued separately, and the access at each riverside site, the yard, the hard standing and the route out for every heavy lot, is checked on our first visit and stated in the catalogue.
What these sales can include
- Machine tools and production lines
- Finished stock and work in progress
- Raw materials and components
- Commercial vehicles and vans
- Plant and site equipment
- Forklift trucks and pallet trucks
- Racking and warehouse fittings
- Office furniture and IT equipment
- Catering and bar equipment
- Fixtures and fittings
- Tooling, spares and consumables
- Shop fittings and displays
How the auction runs
Insolvency assets are usually sold by online timed auction. The catalogue is photographed on site, listed with estimates and opened for bidding for a period agreed with the office holder, usually one to two weeks. A viewing day is held at the premises. Lots are offered as seen under the auction terms, and buyers are expected to inspect before bidding.
Buyers pay the hammer price plus a buyer's premium, with VAT charged where it applies and shown separately on the invoice. Payment is taken before collection. Buyers arrange and pay for the removal of their lots during an agreed collection window, using specialist movers where the weight and dimensions call for them. Our staff supervise collection so the premises are protected and every removal is signed off.
Private treaty is used for individual assets where a direct sale may produce more than the auction, subject to the office holder's approval.
The liquidation and insolvency asset sales page covers who instructs the sale, what an insolvency practitioner needs from us, securing the site, timescales, for directors.
Questions about selling in Middlesbrough
- Some of the plant is inside a customer's site on the Tees. How do you reach it?
Through the customer's own permit system. Process sites run strict access rules, and our staff attend with the passes and inductions the site requires. We schedule and photograph the company's equipment where it stands, agree with the site operator how and when it can leave, and note any lifting or isolation work that has to be done by the operator's own contractors. Those items are usually sold with collection from a laydown area outside the fence rather than from inside it.
- Is it better to sell the yard plant in one sale or split it?
One sale in most cases. A single online catalogue with lots grouped by location gives the office holder one report and one settlement, which is easier to explain to creditors than a series of small sales. We split only where the specialist items suit a different route from the general plant, or where part of the site has to be cleared to a different date. Lots are grouped by location in the catalogue, so the office holder can see what came from where and buyers know where to collect.
More questions about insolvency asset sales
Related services
Guides
- What insolvency practitioners need from an auctioneer
For office holders realising physical assets. Covers the instruction letter, the asset schedule and valuation basis, retention of title, finance checks, site security, health and safety during the sale, and the reconciliation you need for the file.