Morris Leslie Auctions runs its sales on its own site at Errol Airfield near Perth in Scotland. It sells cars, plant and commercial vehicles, in live sales on the yard with online bidding alongside, and in separate timed online sales. For a buyer in Poland two things matter: the collection address is at Errol rather than in central Perth, and this is the longest delivery leg anywhere in the United Kingdom.
The yard is at Errol, not where the company is registered
The auction site footer gives the address as Morris Leslie Auctions Ltd, Errol Airfield, Errol, Perth, PH2 7TB. That is where the trailer goes. In the British companies register, MORRIS LESLIE AUCTIONS LIMITED, number SC383721, is shown as active at a different Perth address. A gap between the registered office and the operating yard is normal in this trade, which is why the collection address is taken from the sale listing or the invoice rather than from a company search. A driver who types the registered office into the satnav arrives in the wrong place.
What the conditions of sale say about removal
The published auction terms are unambiguous on three points, and those are the three that decide the transport plan. First, removing the lot is the buyer responsibility and must be carried out safely and lawfully. Second, risk of damage to or loss of the lot passes to the buyer on the fall of the hammer, by whatever cause and in whatever circumstances. Third, nothing may be removed while the sale is still running without the written consent of the auctioneer. The practical conclusion: the vehicle arrives after the sale and after payment, not during. We set out the sequence itself in our article on the winning bid step by step.
The longest leg on the islands
Errol lies in Perthshire, north of the central belt. From the crossing at Dover or Folkestone it is considerably further than Birmingham or Leeds, and the run goes up the A1 or the M6 and then through Edinburgh or Stirling. For a heavy machine on a low-loader that is a matter of a day, a driver rest period and a real cost, not a rounding on the quote. Which is why, on a Scottish purchase, costing the haulage before bidding pays off more than usual; what to send to get a firm rate is covered in our article on a transport quote before the auction.
Where the machine enters the Union
A machine bought in the United Kingdom does not have to be cleared in Poland. On a Scottish route that heads for the continent through the Channel ports anyway, a serious alternative is clearance in the Netherlands under customs procedure 42, that is release for free circulation with a simultaneous intra-Community supply. The tax is then not paid at the border but accounted for in the country of destination. The legal basis is the exemption in the VAT Directive, and the conditions were tightened by Directive 2009/69/EC: at importation the importer supplies his VAT identification number issued in the member state of import, or that of his tax representative, the VAT number of the customer in the destination member state, and evidence that the goods are intended to be dispatched to another member state. On top of that comes the obligation to list the supply in a recapitulative statement. We set out the mechanism in our article on customs procedure 42, and the arithmetic in our piece on clearing in the Netherlands instead of Poland.
When it pays and when it does not
It pays where the buyer already has tax handling in place in the country of clearance and where the route runs through that port anyway. A company not registered in the Netherlands cannot apply for an import VAT deferment licence on its own account; the Dutch tax administration says so plainly and points to a tax representative, who must be established in the Netherlands and provide financial security. The cost of that arrangement goes into the import bill. It does not pay where there is one machine, no agreement with a representative, and clearance in Poland is simpler. The decision is taken before the crossing, because after it there is no changing it.
What we could not confirm
We could not confirm whether the yard provides loading, or with what equipment. The conditions place removal on the buyer but say nothing about who physically lifts the machine. We ask the auctioneer before sending a vehicle, because the answer decides whether a trailer with ramps or a unit with a winch goes; the comparison is in our article on loading a machine at the auction yard. Nor do we quote premiums, removal deadlines or storage charges: those are set by the conditions of the particular sale. We are not a representative of this or any other auction house; we are the buyer carrier.
Sources
- Morris Leslie Auctions: auction site and the Errol yard address
- Morris Leslie Auctions: auction terms and conditions
- Companies House: MORRIS LESLIE AUCTIONS LIMITED, SC383721
- EUR-Lex: Directive 2009/69/EC, conditions for the import exemption with intra-Community supply
- Belastingdienst: tax representative in the Netherlands
Buying at Errol and want the delivered cost to an address in Poland? Send the lot number, the dimensions and the removal date through the quote form. See also our guide to the UK auction market.
