Britannia AuctionsLiquidation and insolvency asset sales in Southampton
The docks set the pattern for insolvency work in Southampton. A freight forwarder or haulier at Nursling or Adanac Park fails with a shed of racking, a yard of tractor units and trailers, and containers that belong to shipping lines. A boatbuilder on the Itchen fails with part built hulls, moulds, a travel hoist and customers' boats stored on the hard.
We act for administrators, liquidators, lenders and landlords. The first visit produces a schedule with serial numbers and photographs, a written opinion of value, a list of vehicles and plant on finance and a note of every item that appears to belong to someone else. The sale is an online timed auction, run in situ where the yard allows it. Bids are taken online from anywhere in the UK, and Eastleigh, Totton, Fareham and Portsmouth are able to get to a viewing day without a long trip. Use the contact form to describe the appointment.
Tractor units, trailers and the containers in the yard
A haulage yard next to a container port holds four kinds of thing. The company's own vehicles and plant. Trailers and tractor units on finance. Containers that belong to shipping lines and forwarders. Goods inside those containers and on the loaded trailers that belong to the forwarders' customers. Only the first is the office holder's to sell, and the second needs the funder's agreement, because a financed vehicle belongs to it until the agreement is settled, so the first job is to sort the yard into those groups.
We do that on the first day, unit by unit, with photographs. Funders are sent the schedule. Container owners are told where their boxes are and asked to collect. Loaded trailers are held until the office holder has decided what happens to the goods. What is left, the vehicles the company owns outright, the forklifts, the workshop tooling and the racking in the shed, goes into one online catalogue. Hauliers across the UK can bid online, and the M271 puts the docks a few minutes from the M27 for buyers arranging collection.
Boatyards on the Itchen and the boats that belong to customers
A boatbuilder or marine engineer fails with a yard full of other people's property. Customers' boats are in for refit, on cradles or in the shed. Part built hulls may have been paid for in stages by the buyer. Engines and electronics may have arrived from suppliers on retention of title terms. We walk the yard when we first visit and schedule every boat with its name, hull number and location, then hold the ones that are claimed until the office holder rules on them.
The company's own assets are catalogued separately. Moulds, tooling, a travel hoist or crane, workshop machinery, chandlery stock and the yard trailers are of interest to the marine trades along Southampton Water and the Solent, and to bidders further afield online. Access is the practical issue. Yards on the river were laid out for boats, not lorries, so heavy items may need to leave by water or by crane from the quay, and we put that in the report with a method for each lot.
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 Southampton
- A customer's yacht is in the shed half way through a refit. What happens to it?
It stays where it is until the office holder has decided. The boat belongs to the customer, but the company may have a claim for work done and parts fitted, and the office holder will want that settled before release. We schedule the boat, photograph the work in progress and list the parts on it, so the office holder has what is needed to agree a figure. Once released, the customer collects it or arranges a move. It never goes into the catalogue.
- The tractor units are all on hire purchase. Is there anything left worth selling?
That turns on what is owned outright. The trailers, forklifts, workshop equipment, racking, fuel tank, diagnostic kit and office contents often are, along with the stock of pallets, straps and tyres in the yard. A vehicle on hire purchase belongs to the funder until the agreement is settled and can only be sold with its agreement, in which case the settlement figure is usually paid from the proceeds and accounted for separately. We report the position on every unit at the site visit, so the office holder can see what is left.
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.