Getting internal approval for an equipment sale
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Before equipment is advertised, record who can approve the sale and what they are approving. Permission to obtain an estimate is not necessarily permission to accept an offer, change a reserve or release the asset.
The right approval process depends on the business and the asset. This guide provides an operational record, not a legal test of a director's or employee's authority. Ask the appropriate adviser when the ownership or authority is unclear.
Define the decision precisely
Begin with the asset references and the proposed scope. Include accessories and exclusions. Explain why the equipment is available and who has checked that the business can release it. The keep, redeploy or sell decision should happen before a sale instruction is treated as final.
Check finance and ownership records where relevant. An internal approval cannot override another party's interest. If more than one legal entity owns the assets, the multiple-owner sale guide helps keep instructions separate.
A useful approval states its limits. It may authorise marketing by a particular route while reserving the final price decision. It may require the owner to approve additional costs above a specified amount. Leave thresholds blank until the business actually chooses them; copying an arbitrary amount from a template serves no purpose.
Internal disposal approval note
Use this as a working document and adapt it to your own governance arrangements.
Decision reference and date:
Assets covered: asset IDs, location and attached list version.
Reason for disposal: specific operational reason and the person confirming it.
Ownership and authority evidence: records checked, relevant agreements and unresolved matters.
Business use: last required job, proposed release date and the person approving release.
Proposed sale route: recommendation, alternatives considered and assumptions behind the choice.
Commercial limits: who may approve the estimate, reserve, offer, additional costs or withdrawal.
Information approval: who checks descriptions, photographs, condition statements and included items.
Hold points: issues that must be resolved before marketing, agreement or release.
Approvals: names, roles, dates and the scope of each approval.
Review trigger: changes that require a new decision, such as a different asset package or later release date.
Attach the evidence rather than attempting to fit every detail into the note. A short record with traceable documents is more useful than a long declaration that nobody can verify.
Keep the decision with the current asset list
Catalogue work often reveals extra accessories, a missing item or a reason to retain equipment. Give changes a version and ask whether the existing approval still covers them. Do not rely on a broad verbal agreement made before the final scope existed.
RICS's valuation standard treats the scope and assumptions of valuation work explicitly. The same practical discipline helps your internal record: make clear which assets and circumstances the decision concerns without claiming the note is a formal valuation instruction.
Once you appoint UK Auction Group or another sale adviser, provide a named decision-maker and the limits on delegated decisions. That avoids technical staff accidentally giving what sounds like a binding commercial instruction when they were only trying to answer a buyer's question.
Explore the selling assets guides.
Sources
This guide gives general information. Equipment-specific, legal, tax and safety decisions may need a qualified adviser or competent specialist. The guides do not promise sale prices, fees or results.