Britannia AuctionsPlant and construction equipment auctions in Edinburgh
Edinburgh's construction work happens in the city, but its plant usually lives outside it. The contractors and hire firms who work the city centre jobs keep their yards at Sighthill and Newbridge in the west, or at Loanhead south of the bypass, and those are the places we are most often asked to sell from.
The plant is what you would expect from a city that builds on tight sites. Mini and midi excavators, tracked dumpers, small rollers, telehandlers with a compact footprint, and a great deal of access equipment and site fencing. Bigger machines come from the civils work on the bypass corridor and the housing sites in Midlothian.
We sell it by online timed auction with a viewing day at the yard. Send a list through the contact form and we will come and see it.
Term days and the date the yard goes back
Commercial leases in Scotland tend to turn on the term days, and a yard given up at Whitsunday or Martinmas has a fixed date by which it must be empty. That date is what the sale is planned around. Bidding is timed to close before it, with the collection days between the close and the handover, and how much room there is depends on how many lots there are and the access. Buyers pay before they collect, so nothing leaves without cleared funds.
If the date is too close for a sale from the yard, we can collect the plant and sell it from our own premises. The landlord gets the yard back on the day and the sale runs on its own timetable. That can be the better plan where neighbours share an access road and a week of collection lorries would not be welcome.
A machine on finance stays with the funder until the agreement is settled, so the earlier we know the term date, the more room there is to get the funder's agreement.
Reach across the Forth and the routes out
An Edinburgh catalogue reaches further than Lothian. The Queensferry Crossing puts Dunfermline and the Fife trade half an hour away. The M8 brings Livingston and Bathgate within reach, the A1 brings Haddington, and Dalkeith, Loanhead, Penicuik and Musselburgh are on the doorstep. Those firms can view in person, and online bidding takes the same lots to the rest of the UK.
The route out is checked yard by yard rather than assumed from the address. Newbridge sits beside the motorway junction, Sighthill is close to the bypass, and Seafield and the older units at Leith are tighter, but in every case we look at the gate, the turning space, the hard standing and the road outside before the catalogue goes out, and the collection method goes in the lot.
Compact plant is the kind of machine small builders use everywhere, and we will say what interest we would expect before you commit.
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 Edinburgh
- Most of our plant is compact kit for city centre jobs. Is there a market for it beyond Edinburgh?
Yes. Compact excavators, tracked dumpers, small rollers and plate compactors are the machines small builders use across the country, and they travel on a plant trailer behind a van rather than on a low loader, so collection from Livingston or Dunfermline is a short job. The online catalogue takes them further than that. Hours against age, condition and the service history are what the bidding rests on, and the paperwork is usually the first thing a buyer asks about.
- Our yard at Loanhead shares an entrance with two other units. How does collection work?
We agree collection slots rather than an open window. Each buyer books a time and we tell the neighbours which days the lorries are coming. A member of our team is on the gate to marshal them. The order is agreed with you for that yard, since which machines go first depends on their weight, the vehicles collecting them and the room the entrance leaves. Where the shared entrance cannot take a low loader, we can move the heavy plant to our own premises before the sale.
More questions about plant and construction
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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.