Britannia AuctionsLiquidation and insolvency asset sales in Warrington
Warrington's position at the meeting of the M6 and M62 means the town has more vehicle and trailer businesses than most, and when one fails the yard is full of other people's units. A trailer repairer at Woolston Grange or Appleton Thorn has customers' trailers on the ramps and in the yard, its own workshop plant inside and a landlord who wants the unit back. A haulier at Omega has a rented shed, a financed fleet and a racking system that took a month to build.
We act for administrators, liquidators, lenders and landlords. The first visit produces a schedule with photographs and serial numbers, a list of every customer unit on site, a written opinion of value and a note of finance and hire. Sales are online timed auctions with a viewing day. Bidding is online and open UK wide, and Widnes, Runcorn, St Helens and Wigan are minutes away for anyone who wants to view. Use the contact form to describe the appointment.
Trailer repairers and the customer units parked in the yard
A repair yard has to be sorted before it can be sold. Customer trailers, some repaired and unpaid, some part way through a job, some abandoned years ago, sit alongside the company's own. We walk the yard on the first day and list every unit by chassis number and owner where the job card shows it. Customers are told their unit is held and asked to settle and collect. Units nobody claims are reported to the office holder, who decides whether to sell them after the proper notices have been given.
The company's own assets are then straightforward. Column lifts, brake testers, welding sets, axle and tyre stock, air tools, the paint booth and the recovery truck are catalogued for operators in the town and across the north west. Buyers arrange and cover the cost of the removal of their own lots, and the motorway junctions are close to the yards on this side of the town.
Collection planned around the yard and the motorways
Two motorways meet here. The M62 runs to Liverpool and Leeds and the M6 to the Midlands and the north, so a viewing day at Omega or Winwick Quay is within reach of a wide area. That matters most for the lots worth inspecting in person, such as forklifts, vehicles, fabrication plant and racking in quantity.
What a site can take is checked when we walk the site: the vehicle route and turning space, the loading doors, the yard and whether it is shared. Where that supports it, a sale in situ with a collection window agreed with the office holder is the normal route for a distribution shed or a fabrication unit. Where it does not, as can happen in the tighter units near the Ship Canal, the lots are collected and sold from our own premises. Each collection is booked, checked against the schedule and photographed as it leaves. The office holder gets the record and the landlord gets an empty unit on the agreed date.
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 Warrington
- Customers want their trailers back but they have not paid the repair bills. Do we release them?
That is the office holder's call, and our records support it. We list each customer unit with the job card, the work done and the amount outstanding, and we hold it in the yard until the office holder decides. Where the customer pays, the unit is released against a receipt. Where the customer disputes the bill, the office holder can negotiate or, after the required notices, instruct us to sell the unit. Nothing is released or sold on our own initiative.
- The landlord at Omega has served notice on the shed. How fast can it be cleared?
We propose a timetable on our first visit rather than promise one. The cataloguing, the bidding period and the collection window each depend on the number of lots, the access and how much racking is coming out, because the buyer dismantles that after the loose lots have gone. The landlord is given the proposed dates at the start, with access agreed for the buyer's team. Buyers arrange and pay for the removal of their own lots, and our staff attend to release them against paid invoices.
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.