Frequently Asked Questions

We consider it essential that you ensure your satisfaction with a vehicle and that viewing of the item prior to bidding should take place.

Viewing of On Line Items will be restricted to Mondays Wednesdays & Fridays between 10 AM and Midday. Only customers who are currently registered on our web site will be allowed into our sites to view vehicles. Proof of Registration must be shown by those who wish to view vehicles.

When you enter an Auto Bid amount you will have control of the bidding up to your specified threshold.

Each time someone bids less than your Auto Bid amount you will regain control of that item as the system will automatically input your bid at one increment over their bid (up to your Auto Bid limit). If your Auto Bid amount is exceeded you will be emailed in the normal way.

You can use Auto Bid to bid on any online auction item.

The ABI Category is an indication of the level of damage to a vehicle.

There are four categories A, B, C & D (also some vehicles may be labeled category U to indicate Unclassified, or X to denote "unrecorded").

• Category A indicates the most severe level of damage. This type of vehicle is crushed and not sold at auction. An example would be a "burn out".
• Category B vehicles must be broken for spares. These vehicles must not be repaired. HBC only sell such vehicles to licensed & approved vehicle dismantlers.
• Category C vehicles may be repaired (although they are uneconomic for the Insurance Company to have repaired). Category C cars and vans will require a Vehicle Identity Check
• Category D vehicles covers all other repairable vehicles.
• Category U indicates that the vehicle is uncategorised by the provider of the item to HBC.
• Category X indicates that the vehicle is unrecorded these vehicles not recorded as accident damaged. Normally these vehicles are stolen recovered, or have slight damage.

For more information view MotorVehicleSalvage.pdf from the ABI website.

HBC require that customers who want to register as "Spares Only buyers" hold a waste management license (or exemption). These may be obtained from your local Environment Agency.

To transport Spares Only vehicles you need to hold a Waste Carriers License.

If you do not hold a Waste Carriers License HBC can arrange delivery.

To purchase spares only vehicles you need to hold a Waste Management License. This applies to all vehicles including Motorbikes.

Spares Only vehicles can only be purchased by registered vehicle breakers. Such vehicles must not be rebuilt or returned to the road. Spares Only Vehicles can only be dismantled for parts or scrap.

These vehicles are de-identified by ourselves and rendered unfit for the public highway. This may include additional damage not shown on the images.

See also 'ABI Categories'

In order to allow you to bid on an auction item and to be able to contact you we need you to register with us.

All customers will need to register on-line before they will be able to bid on our on-line auctions. Our current annual registration fee is £25 + Credit Card Processing Fee + VAT on the that fee.

If you wish to register for our online auctions click here....

If you wish to purchase "Spares Only" salvage you must also bring your Waste Management License .

We're sorry but we do not sell spares. Nor do we deal in Parts simply because we do not break vehicles.

We can provide a delivery service cost depends on number and type of vehicles purchased and delivery area (On average this might be approximately £1 per mile + VAT with a £25 minimum ) Please contact the site manager for exact pricing. Vehicles need to be collected within 48 hours unless prior agreement is made with site management.

Delivery Charge Maps

Don't have Acrobat Reader for PDF documents? Click on the button for a free download.

You can view all vehicles via the AUCTION ENTRANCE page. There is a link to it at the top of most HBC pages.

All vehicles are sold by on-line auction. (Paper auction listings and the Fax-u-back service are no longer available).

This is where a vehicle is in stock at HBC but not yet available for sale.
You can declare an interest online and be notified when that vehicle is available and scheduled for auction.
We are unable to offer viewing facilities for future items.

This depends on our insurance company suppliers, who tell us that the vehicle is available for sale. On average such items would be available within 4 weeks but it may be longer. Sometimes (in about 1% of cases) we are asked to remove such items from sale, in these cases if you have registered an interest we will tell you.

The Vehicle Identity Check (VIC) scheme has been developed by the Vehicle Inspectorate to help fight car crime by deterring criminals from stealing cars and passing them off as repaired accident damage ones.

HBC currently charge an Administration fee of 3% + VAT on all sales. Additionally we charge a Credit Card Processing Fee of 3% + VAT on all on-line Credit Card Transactions. The Credit Card Processing fee will effect On-Line Deposits and Registration.

We believe that most online auction web sites are fundamentally unfair in that the winning bidder is not the person prepared to pay the most money but the person who manages to enter their bid at the last possible second. Thus many other online auctions end up being more of a lottery rather than an auction. Some sites such as "BidSlammer" have developed to take advantage this loophole. The HBC site is similar to the traditional auction in that everyone has a fair chance to bid.

If someone bids on an item within five minutes of the scheduled auction end time the auction extension feature will be triggered. An auction will close at the scheduled end time or five minutes after the last bid. Whichever is the later.

Please check your recent emails. we will suspend customers if they breach our terms and conditions. We will also suspend customers if they are the highest bidder for a vehicle but we have been unable to take a deposit on a winning bid.

No, mileages are not guaranteed