Stage 6 – agreeing the contract terms

Posted by Justin on Mar 15, 2009 in Blogs, business, buying, buying-pubs, English Pub, legal, legal-procedure, pub-buying, pub-sale, pub-sales, pubs, selling, solicitor | 0 comments When the seller’s solicitor prepared the draft contract, it will have included the obvious terms (eg: price) and terms to protect the seller (eg: an indemnity by the buyer in respect of post-completion debts of the business), but not necessarily any terms to protect the buyer (eg: non-competition clauses by the seller). It is the buyer’s solicitor’s job to make sure the...
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Searches – what are they all about?

Posted by Justin on Mar 8, 2009 in Blogs, business, buying, buying-pubs, English Pub, law, legal, legal-procedure, pub-buying, pub-sale, pub-sales, pubs, selling, solicitor | 0 comments Lawyers often talk about “the searches”, but what do they mean? The main search is the “local search” – strictly, a search in the register of local land charges maintained by the local district or borough council (or unitary authority), combined with a range of enquiries raised with that council, all in relation to the property being searched against – not in...
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Stage 3: Checking the paperwork

Posted by Justin on Mar 7, 2009 in Blogs, business, buying, buying-pubs, English Pub, law, legal, legal-procedure, pub-buying, pub-sale, pub-sales, pubs, selling, solicitor | 0 comments This is where the Buyer’s solicitor can get his (or her) teeth into things: going through the lease (if the pub is leasehold) and the other title documents, checking for defects or problems, raising enquiries about any problems as well as a wide range of other enquiries about the property and the business, and reporting to the Buyer on what is found. It is important that the Buyer and the...
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Stage 2: draft contract

Posted by Justin on Feb 10, 2009 in Blogs, business, buying, buying-pubs, English Pub, legal-procedure, pub-buying, pub-sale, pub-sales, pubs, solicitor | 0 comments If the seller has prep’d his or her solicitor, so that the solicitor has the relevant title documents, getting a draft contract out to the buyer’s solicitor should not be a lengthy process or involve any delay. Selling a single pub is much like selling any other small business, except for the need to deal with the transfer of the premises licence and the fact that the inventory is...
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Mexican stand-off (or: It’s good to talk)

Posted by Justin on Feb 8, 2009 in Blogs, buying, English Pub, pubs, selling, solicitor | 0 comments There should be no problems with stage 1 of the sale and purchase procedure: it should be a simple matter for the selling agents to contact the buyer’s and seller’s solicitors with details of the transaction – what can possibly go wrong? Assuming that the agent does not have a “senior moment” and simply forget to contact the solicitors – not unknown, for a...
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