Stage 7: Money, money, money

Posted by Justin on Mar 24, 2009 in Blogs, business, buying, buying-pubs, English Pub, legal-procedure, pub-buying, pub-sale, pub-sales, pubs, selling, solicitor | 0 comments While all the legal investigations are being dealt with, the buyer needs to get his or her finances in place, ready to – (a) pay a deposit (usually ten per cent of the purchase price) on exchange of contracts and (b) pay the rest of the purchase money, plus legal expenses, plus the stock value, on completion As exchange of contracts and completion often take place on the same day, the...
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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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Stage 5: replying to enquiries

Posted by Justin on Mar 10, 2009 in Blogs, business, English Pub, legal-procedure, pub-sale, pub-sales, pubs, selling | 0 comments There seem to be two types of buyer’s solicitors: those who ask the seller’s solicitors to answer standard commercial enquiries, however irrelevant they are to the particular transaction, and those who raise their own enquiries ensuring they are relevant and purposeful. Similarly, there seem to be two types of seller’s solicitors: those who go through the enquiries with 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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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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