To sell used industrial machinery, get a realistic value first, then list it on a marketplace such as The Commercial Trader, sell it to a dealer, auction it or sell it straight to another manufacturer. When a factory is closing, treat the sale as one project: build an asset register, value each machine, choose a route for each item and leave time for dismantling and collection before you hand back the site.
You can see what similar machines are advertised for among the used industrial machinery for sale on The Commercial Trader, in categories such as used packaging machines, used filling machinery and used conveyors.
How do you get used industrial equipment valued?
Start with why you need the figure, because a selling price, a formal valuation and an insurance figure are different things. For a selling price, dealers and auctioneers will often give an informal figure, while finance, accounts, insolvency or a dispute usually call for a formal written valuation from a RICS Registered Valuer.
| Who | Best for | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Machinery dealer | A quick idea of what a trade buyer will pay | An offer, or an informal figure |
| Industrial auctioneer | Planning an auction or a site clearance | An estimate of what the machinery may make at auction |
| Chattels valuer or auctioneer | Valuing a site’s machinery, equipment and other movable contents | A valuation, usually after a site visit |
| RICS Registered Valuer | Finance, accounts, insolvency, tax or disputes | A formal written valuation to the RICS Red Book |
| Comparing listings | A rough starting point | Asking prices for similar machines, not a valuation |
The RICS Red Book Global Standards, whose 2025 edition took effect on 31 January 2025, include the International Valuation Standards, and RICS members giving written valuations must follow them. A RICS Registered Valuer is a member registered on RICS’s Valuer Registration Scheme, which monitors their Red Book work.
Chattels are movable items, such as machinery, equipment and fittings, rather than land and buildings. Propertymark, the professional body formed in 2017 when NAVA, the National Association of Valuers and Auctioneers, and three other bodies came together, covers chattels auctions and valuations. Its Find an expert search lets you filter for members offering chattels auctions or valuations.
Asking prices for similar machines on The Commercial Trader give you a starting point, not a valuation, so use them to sense-check the figures you’re given.
What information does a valuer need about your machinery?
Give a valuer the make, model, serial number and year of each machine, with its condition, working status and service records. The more a valuer knows about each machine, including how it would be removed, the more accurate the figure is likely to be.
For each machine, gather:
- The make, model, serial number and year of manufacture
- Hours, cycles or output, if the machine records them
- The power supply, such as voltage and phase, and any air or water connections
- Its dimensions and weight, and how it’s fixed to the floor
- Its condition, whether it works, and any known faults
- Service records, manuals and safety certificates
- Tooling, change parts, spares and software licences included in the sale
- Photos from all sides, plus the nameplate, control panel and any damage
- Where it stands on site, and the access for removal, such as doors, floor loadings and room for a crane or forklift
What’s the difference between market value and a forced sale?
Market value is what a machine should sell for between a willing buyer and a willing seller, after proper marketing, with both acting knowledgeably, prudently and without pressure. A forced sale isn’t a separate kind of value: it describes a sale made under pressure, such as a short deadline.
The RICS Red Book uses the International Valuation Standards’ definition of market value, and it doesn’t allow the term “forced sale value”, because a forced sale describes the circumstances of a sale rather than a basis of value.
Machinery can be valued where it stands and working (in situ), or as items to be taken out and moved (for removal, or ex situ). A machine valued for removal is usually worth less, because buyers allow for the cost of disconnecting, lifting and transporting it. The Official Receiver’s guidance on plant and machinery describes agents selling at prices that allow for removal.
Where can you sell used factory equipment?
You can sell used factory equipment on an online marketplace such as The Commercial Trader, to a machinery dealer, through an industrial auction or a broker, directly to another manufacturer, or to a clearance firm. The best route depends on each machine’s value, how many machines you’re selling and how much time you have, with scrap as the last resort.
| Route | Best for | Speed | Control over price | Costs to allow for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Online marketplace such as The Commercial Trader | Working machines with clear specifications | Depends on the price and demand | You set the price | A listing fee, and your time handling enquiries and viewings |
| Machinery dealer | A quick sale, or several machines at once | Fast | The dealer makes an offer | A trade price |
| Industrial auction | Large numbers of machines and fixed deadlines | Set by the sale date | Bidders decide, above any reserve | The auctioneer’s fees |
| Broker or negotiated private sale | High-value machines, given time | Slower | You agree the price | A broker’s commission |
| Direct to another manufacturer | Specialist machines with known users | Varies | You negotiate | Time spent finding the buyer |
| Clearance or asset recovery firm | Emptying a site quickly | Fast | The firm makes an offer | A lower price, with the cost of clearing the site taken off |
| Scrap | Obsolete or broken machinery | Fast | Scrap value | Handling it as waste |
To list industrial machinery for sale on The Commercial Trader, add each machine to its Industrial Machinery category with full specifications and photos. You set the price, buyers’ enquiries come straight to you, and the route suits working machines that buyers can see running.
Selling a working production line as one lot can be more attractive to a buyer than selling its machines one by one, especially when the tooling, automation and spares go with it.
Factories often have forklifts and compressors to sell too, which The Commercial Trader lists under Plant Machinery as used forklifts and used air compressors. If you’re selling forklifts, The Commercial Trader’s guide to buying a used forklift shows what buyers will check, and for laundry equipment, see its guide to selling a used industrial washing machine.
How do you sell industrial machinery when closing a factory?
Treat selling a closing factory’s machinery as one project with a deadline: check what you own, value it, choose a route for each machine and plan removal around the date you have to leave. Start as early as you can, because machines that can be shown working are easier to sell, and dismantling, lifting and collection all need time on site.
- Check ownership and finance. A leased machine belongs to the leasing company, and one on hire purchase only becomes yours after the final payment, so get the finance company’s written agreement before you sell either.
- Build an asset register. List every machine with the details a valuer needs, plus where it stands in the building.
- Get values. Get selling prices from dealers or auctioneers, and a formal valuation if directors, lenders or an insolvency practitioner need one.
- Choose a route for each item. Sell high-value machines on their own, consider selling a working line as one lot, and group smaller items together.
- Keep machines running for as long as you can. Buyers can see them working, and valuers can test them.
- Plan dismantling and lifts. Under LOLER regulation 8, every lift must be properly planned by a competent person, supervised and carried out safely, and HSE says complex lifts need a written plan.
- Set collection deadlines. Put a collection date in every sale agreement, with time to spare before you have to leave the site.
- Deal with what doesn’t sell. Reuse it, recycle it or dispose of it as waste, following the waste rules below.
Listing machines on The Commercial Trader while they’re still connected and running lets buyers see them working before the site closes.
Equipment that’s going to be reused for its original purpose, needing minor repair at most, generally isn’t waste, according to GOV.UK’s guidance on deciding if something is waste. Anything you discard is waste and must go to an authorised person, such as a registered waste carrier. In England and Wales, the waste duty of care code says to keep waste transfer notes for 2 years and hazardous waste consignment notes for 3 years, and Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own codes.
Electrical equipment at the end of its life usually comes under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations 2013. Regulation 8 excludes large-scale stationary tools and large-scale fixed installations, though, which can include a factory’s bigger production machinery. Under regulation 12 of the WEEE Regulations, producers fund the disposal of business electrical waste they placed on the market from 13 August 2005, and of older equipment they replace like for like.
What changes if the company is insolvent or being closed down?
If a company becomes insolvent, its directors must put creditors’ interests first, and a sale of machinery for much less than it’s worth can be reversed by a court. Get advice from a licensed insolvency practitioner before you sell assets if the company is, or might become, insolvent.
GOV.UK’s guidance on director duties upon insolvency says directors’ priorities shift from the shareholders to the company’s creditors, and that directors must protect the company’s assets. Directors can also be made personally liable for wrongful trading, which means carrying on trading after they knew, or should have known, that there was no reasonable prospect of the company avoiding insolvent liquidation or administration.
Under section 238 of the Insolvency Act 1986, which applies in England and Wales, a court can reverse a sale made for significantly less than its value. A sale made in good faith, for the business, with reasonable grounds to believe it would benefit the company, is protected. Section 240 looks back 2 years before the insolvency, where the company was unable to pay its debts at the time or became unable to because of the sale.
GOV.UK’s guidance on closing a limited company sets out the options, from striking off a solvent company to liquidation. A company can’t apply to be struck off if it has traded or sold stock in the last 3 months. Under section 1004 of the Companies Act 2006, selling its own equipment to conclude its affairs doesn’t count, but selling stock it held for resale does. Anything it still owns when it’s dissolved passes to the Crown as bona vacantia, so sell the machinery or deal with it first.
Do you charge VAT when you sell used machinery?
A VAT-registered business charges VAT when it sells used machinery, because VAT is charged on sales of business assets. The main exception is a transfer of a going concern, where the business itself is sold as a running operation, but selling capital assets on their own isn’t a going concern. Machinery sold to an overseas buyer can also be zero-rated if it’s exported and you keep proof of export, as VAT Notice 703 explains.
Say clearly whether your asking prices and any offer you accept include VAT, because a price that doesn’t mention VAT is treated as including it, so the VAT comes out of what you’re paid.
If you’re cancelling your VAT registration, VAT Notice 700/11 treats the goods and assets you still hold as a supply, but nothing is due if the VAT on them comes to £1,000 or less.
Selling plant and machinery also affects your capital allowances, because the disposal value, usually the sale price, can create a balancing charge. A balancing charge is added to your taxable profits, typically when a sale brings in more than the value left in your capital allowances pool. Speak to your accountant before you agree prices, because the timing and price of each sale can change your tax bill.
What are your safety duties when you sell used machinery?
Anyone who sells used machinery for use at work, including one-off sellers and auctioneers, must make it safe so far as is reasonably practicable and supply instructions in English. Selling it “as seen” doesn’t remove that duty, but machinery sold clearly for scrap or spares doesn’t have to be made safe, and HSE recommends saying so in the sale documents.
HSE’s guidance on second-hand products explains these duties in full. When buyers watch a machine running, have a competent operator run it while they stay clear of moving parts. Before a machine is dismantled or collected, have competent people isolate it and disconnect it from power, air and water, and pass on the manuals and any safety information you have.
How do you sell several machines on The Commercial Trader?
List each machine in the Industrial Machinery category that fits it, with full specifications and photos, or ask The Commercial Trader’s team to upload your stock for you. Buyers send enquiries through a form on each listing that goes straight to you, so you agree viewings, collection and payment with them directly.
- Choose the category that fits each machine, such as Industrial Packaging Machines, Filling Machinery or Conveying Systems.
- Write each listing with the details a valuer would ask for, so buyers have what they need to make an offer.
- Add photos of each machine from all sides, plus its nameplate and control panel.
- State the collection deadline, and who’s responsible for disconnecting and loading.
- For many machines, ask The Commercial Trader about a plan for multiple listings, and fill in the advertise form on the homepage. The Commercial Trader’s team will be in touch within 48 hours to arrange uploading your stock.
The Commercial Trader’s Help page explains how listing works. Listings on The Commercial Trader carry no commission, and boosted listings appear at the top of results for more visibility. The Commercial Trader’s guide to listing machinery online covers writing a listing and getting paid safely.
List industrial machinery for sale on The Commercial Trader, or browse the used industrial machinery for sale to see what similar machines are advertised for.
Frequently asked questions
How much is my used industrial machinery worth?
What used industrial machinery is worth depends on its make, model, age, condition and specification, how much demand there is for it, and what it costs to remove. Compare asking prices for similar machines and get offers or a valuation, rather than relying on what you paid for it.
Who can value industrial machinery in the UK?
For a formal valuation, use a RICS Registered Valuer working to the RICS Red Book. Chattels valuers and auctioneers value machinery and other movable site contents, and Propertymark’s Find an expert search lets you filter for members who offer chattels valuations. Machinery dealers can tell you what a trade buyer would pay.
Is an auction or a private sale better when a factory closes?
An auction suits a large number of machines and a fixed deadline, because most lots sell on one date, though any that don’t reach their reserve can go unsold. A listing or private sale can bring more for higher-value machines when there’s time, so compare what you’d net from each route after commission, removal and transport.
Can you sell machinery that’s on finance or lease?
Only with the finance company’s agreement, because a leased machine belongs to the leasing company, and one on hire purchase isn’t yours until the final payment. Ask the finance company how a sale would work, including any settlement figure, and get its agreement in writing before you list the machine.
What happens to machinery left behind when a company is struck off?
Anything a company still owns when it’s dissolved passes to the Crown as bona vacantia. Sell the machinery, or deal with it, before the company is closed, and take advice from an insolvency practitioner if the company might be insolvent.
Do you charge VAT in a closing-down sale of machinery?
A VAT-registered business charges VAT in a closing-down sale of machinery, because VAT is charged on sales of business assets unless the business is sold as a going concern or the machinery is exported. When you cancel your VAT registration, the assets you still hold count as a supply, but nothing is due if the VAT on them comes to £1,000 or less.
Can you list a closing factory’s machinery on The Commercial Trader?
Yes, you can list industrial machinery for sale on The Commercial Trader, with each machine in its Industrial Machinery category, or ask The Commercial Trader about a plan for multiple listings and help uploading your stock. Buyers’ enquiries come straight to you, so you can arrange viewings while the machines are still running.
