Britannia AuctionsPlant and construction equipment auctions in Birmingham
A lot of Birmingham construction work happens on tight plots. Infill housing, demolition and refurbishment in the inner city, and the endless utility work on the roads, all run on compact plant. Mini diggers, small dumpers, breakers, compressors and the trailers that carry them. When a firm closes or finishes a run of contracts, that is what fills the yard.
We sell it by online timed auction. Every machine is a lot with photographs, the hour reading and the serial number from the plate, and buyers bid over a week or two before collecting in a fixed window. Larger plant from the civils and groundworks side, the 13 tonne excavators and telehandlers working on the distribution sheds out towards the M42, sells in the same sale.
Use the contact form to tell us where the plant is. In this city, where it is matters.
Getting a low loader into an old estate
Inner city estates in Birmingham often have narrow roads and little yard space. A groundworks contractor in Aston or Saltley may run a dozen machines from a yard that takes a rigid lorry comfortably and an articulated low loader with difficulty, and the only way to know is to look at it.
We deal with that before the sale, not after. We visit, measure the gate and the turning space, check the hard standing and the road outside, and agree whether machines can be collected from the yard or should be moved to a compound with hard standing first. Where the yard works, we set collection slots so that one lorry is loading at a time. Where it does not, a move before the catalogue goes live can be arranged and the sale runs from the compound.
Buyers are told which it is. A collection note that says kerbside loading, no forklift on site, saves everyone a wasted trip.
Reach, paperwork and what moves the price
The buyer pool for a Birmingham sale is not limited to the city. Bidding is online and open across the UK, and the trade in West Bromwich, Walsall, Dudley, Sutton Coldfield, Solihull and Redditch is within a comfortable drive of the viewing day, twenty minutes down the M5, the M6 or the A45 from most yards in the conurbation.
What a machine makes depends on more than its looks. Condition and specification, the hours against the age, whether the type is still in everyday use, how it is lotted, the reserve and what it costs to move the machine out all come into it. Paperwork is part of it too: a current LOLER certificate on a telehandler, a service book and the keys. We ask for those at the first call, and we say what interest we would expect before you commit.
A machine on finance can only be sold with the funder's agreement, so tell us early which ones are.
What these sales can include
- Excavators and mini diggers
- Dumpers and site dumpers
- Telehandlers
- Generators and lighting towers
- Compressors and breakers
- Rollers and compaction equipment
- Site cabins and welfare units
- Scaffolding and access equipment
- Concrete mixers and pumps
- Buckets, quick hitches and attachments
- Plant trailers
- Surveying equipment and small tools
- Fuel bowsers and tanks
How the auction works
Each machine is a lot with a full description, photographs and the hour reading. Bidding runs online for a set period, usually one to two weeks, and lots close in sequence. A bid in the last minutes extends the close for that lot.
Plant is offered as seen under the auction terms, and buyers are expected to inspect before bidding. The buyer pays the hammer price plus a buyer's premium, with VAT charged where it applies and shown separately on the invoice. Payment is required before removal.
Buyers arrange and pay for the removal of their lots within the agreed window. What that takes depends on the machine: wheeled plant with road registration can be driven away, and tracked or heavy machines go on a low loader. Nothing leaves the site until it is paid for and signed out.
The plant and construction equipment auctions page covers what buyers want to know, finance and ownership checks, where the sale runs from, reserves and the market, alternatives.
Questions about selling in Birmingham
- Our yard in Aston is too small to turn a lorry. Does that stop the sale?
No. It changes where the sale runs from. We look at the yard, and where an articulated low loader cannot be loaded safely we can arrange to move the machines to a compound with hard standing before the catalogue opens. Buyers then collect from there. The cost of the move comes off the proceeds, and we will give you a view on what that is worth against selling the plant where it stands.
- Will site cabins and welfare units sell alongside the machines?
Yes. Cabins and welfare units are lots like any other. We photograph the inside and out, note the condition of the floor and the electrics, and say whether the unit has its own generator. A unit that size usually needs a crane lorry or a hiab, which the buyer arranges and pays for, so we agree a collection slot with you for a time when the yard is clear enough for it.
More questions about plant and construction
Related services
Guides
- How used machinery is valued
Buyers pay for what a machine will do for them, less what it costs to get it out and running. This guide explains how make, hours, tooling, demand and removal cost feed a guide price, and why that price is not book value.
- Selling a commercial vehicle fleet
Fleet sales turn on paperwork as much as on price. This guide covers the V5C, MOT and plating documents, clearing finance before listing, keys and livery, recording mileage and tachograph data, and how to defleet in batches while still trading.