House contents sale UK

When it’s time for us to sell up in the UK, I want to sell everything in my property, furniture, white goods, the whole lot. I am thinking of having an “everything must go” auction type of sale for 48 hours weekend, whereby people would give sealed bids for whatever they are after buying and once the time is up, contact the highest bidders and give them the news. Has anyone ever done something like this and what are your thoughts on the idea, as I’m obviously trying to maximize the potential of the items on sale. Thanks in anticipation.

To be honest, when I buy things at auction I like to go along, view the items, bid on them and leave with the things I’ve bought.
The process of going along, making a sealed bid and returning a day or so later to collect and pay for the items I’ve won sounds a bit messy. If I left bids on half a dozen items and won only one item that I wasn’t particularly bothered about then I probably wouldn’t go back to collect and pay for it, especially if the sale was some distance away.

Pete.

That’s a fair point and I haven’t finalized how I am going to do it as yet, so there could be a fair bit of tweaking for it to work without upsetting the bidders. I might even get a proper auctioneer in to do it. As long as people are aware of what it is that we are doing, then everyone is on the same page. I think in Scotland, when people are buying property, they have to put in sealed bids and I think that is the way I wanted to do it, but I appreciate your comment, thank you.

There’s a big difference between buying a property and buying a few items of household furniture and white goods. Sealed bids, or a Dutch auction, works well in some situations but I don’t think it’s the way to go in this case - just my opinion though.

Pete.

I think you're making it more complicated than it has to be. Why an auction?

You could sell things stipulating that it needs to be collected on a certain date only, take a deposit so you'll know people will come back.
You could approach the house buyer to see if they want to buy anything.

We sold a lot of items that could go straight away, dining table, wardrobes etc. Once those were sold we put another lot up for sale working through the house., for the last two weeks we had a mattress on the floor, a fridge, cooker and an old TV. Mattress went to the tip, the fridge and TV went to the charity shop.


We found as long as things were sensibly priced they went near enough straight away.

Nothing cleanses the mind like a good de cluttering

we carbooted all our household items, fridge washer etc went, went to local auction house,what was left charity shop,

Why are you not fetching to spain ??? Silverdale have fetched quite a bit of furniture to spain for us and are way cheaper than re buying here in Spain

Hi Michelle, thanks for your email. It may be that we bring some of our stuff to Spain, last time we were here, we moved, lock stock and barrel, we went on Eurotunnel, then drove through France, then Spain with our little dog, took us from Friday morning until early hours of Monday morning, with all relevant stopovers and Friday night and Saturday night somewhere in France. I don't want to do that again, so it might be better for someone like Silverdales to bring some stuff for us. Are they in Spain and what are their charges , any ideas? I will be buying a Spanish registered car in UK, as Spanish used cars are a bit pricey. Thanks for your help.

apricorncup17 wrote:I will be buying a Spanish registered car in UK, as Spanish used cars are a bit pricey. Thanks for your help.

If you’re a UK resident then it’s illegal for you to drive a Spanish registered vehicle on UK roads. You’d have to have it transported at least as far as France for you to be able to drive it legally. Even then, it would be preferable to legalise the ownership with the Spanish Trafico/DGT and so that it’s legal to drive it in Spain.
If you’ve owned the vehicle less than 6 months then you won’t be able to import it as personal effects, so you’ll need to pay import duty on it.

There are all sorts of other potential minefields attached to buying a Spanish registered car in the UK, as the transfer of ownership will need to be between the current registered owner (according to DGT records) and yourself. It’s VERY unlikely that the garage you buy it from will be the owner from a Spanish perspective, and without the necessary paperwork and permissions from the current registered owner it could be impossible for you to legalise the vehicle in Spain.

Pete.

Thanks Pete, I should have known it wouldn’t be straightforward, but that is quite convoluted. The UK companies are saying that they can sort out all the relevant paperwork at this end. If it is already registered in Spain, that is just one part of a complicated process. I was only considering buying in uK, as Spanish vehicles seem to be pretty overpriced in comparison in Spain, but the hassle of what you have described is very much food for thought. They (the company) have also stated they can insure it here for 12 months for travelling in Europe. I was previously insured with Linea direct in Spain, which was the same as my UK insurer before we came out, Direct line. Are you also saying that in spite of it being Spanish registered, I would still be liable for import duty if I bring a car back to Spain?