Specialist legal support for buying and selling care homes
With experience buying and selling all types of business across a range of sectors, we have particular experience in the sale and acquisition of care homes, so can offer tried-and-tested expertise on how this works, making sure no detail is overlooked.
Our Commercial Law team can assist with every aspect of your transaction. As well as the legal process of buying or selling a care home, we can also advise on issues such as registering with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), continuity of contracts and recovering outstanding debts owed to a care home.
We’re passionate about the success of local enterprise in Gloucestershire and in particular about those operating in the care sector which is so vital to our community.
We see ourselves as partners in our clients’ business journeys, helping them through every stage of starting or acquiring a business, through growth and development, all the way up to their exit strategy.
Take advantage of a free initial consultation
Still exploring your options and looking for some guidance? We offer a no-obligation, free of charge initial legal consultation with one of our commercial solicitors, to talk about your goals and how we can help. This can be face-to-face, over the phone or via videoconferencing to suit you.
To book your free initial consultation with our commercial law team, please contact your local WSP Solicitors office in Gloucester or Stroud or use the enquiry form on the right.
How we can assist you with buying or selling a care home
Buying a care home
Our commercial lawyers can help with every stage of buying a care home, including:
- Getting an accurate valuation for the business
- Carrying our due diligence (checking legal titles, ownership of business assets, any work that needs to be done on the premises to achieve regulatory compliance etc.)
- Advising on employment contracts, redundancies, TUPE etc.
- Advising on continuity of commercial contracts & agreements
- Reviewing offered terms of the sale
- Negotiating terms of the sale
- Transfer of funds
- Transfer of business leases & other contracts
- Advice on care home regulation, including the requirement to register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC)
Selling a care home
Our commercial lawyers can guide you through the entire process for selling a care home business, including:
- Valuing your care home business
- Drafting Heads of Terms for the sale
- Drafting contracts of sale
- Negotiating terms of sale
- Dealing with due diligence
- Notifying employees of the sale
- Tax considerations
- Confidentiality agreements
Commercial contract advice for care home operators
Whether you are buying or selling a care home, you will need to think about the impact on the commercial relationships essential to the running of the business. Our commercial contract solicitors can help you review the contracts and agreements you have in place and assess their value and how the sale may impact them.
We can then help you factor these contracts into the value of the business and assist with issues such as:
- Continuity of contracts under new ownership
- Ending contracts and agreements
- Renegotiating the terms of care home contracts and agreements
Find out more about our expertise with commercial contract law.
Debt recovery
When a business is sold, it is common for there to be outstanding debts with this often being a factor in the decision to sell. Whether you are thinking about selling or have just taken over a business, recovering outstanding debts can significantly improve a care home’s value and/or its financial security.
Our expert debt recovery team can assist with:
- Pre-action debt recovery (securing outstanding debts without court proceedings)
- Applying to a court for a County Court Judgment (CCJ)
- Debt enforcement
Find out more about our expertise with commercial debt recovery.
Buying and selling care homes explained
How much will it cost to buy or sell a care home?
This is obviously an important consideration and we make sure to keep the costs fair and transparent so you can see exactly where your money is going and what you are getting in return.
To achieve this, our commercial solicitors will:
- Provide a fixed estimate at the outset
- Provide regular updates on legal fees
- Never exceed our estimate without your prior consent
If your transaction goes particularly smoothly and less time is spent on it than we initially envisaged, your bill will be correspondingly lower.
Where appropriate, we can offer ‘conditional fee’ arrangements meaning that if your deal falls through you pay either less or nothing.
How long does the sale of a care home take?
A typical business sale can be completed in around 6 to 8 weeks, although this will depend on the circumstances and additional considerations may alter the time scale.
The sooner you can instruct our team, the faster we are likely to be able to make the sale process for you as we will be ready to jump into action the moment a deal is agreed.
What do I need to think about when buying a care home?
The key difference from many other types of businesses is that care homes operate in a regulated sector. This means your business will be regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). You will need to register with the CQC and maintain regulatory compliance as a care home operator.
If you are buying a care home, you therefore need to:
- Understand the regulations you need to comply with
- Register with the CQC
- Have your care home inspected twice a year (these are unannounced inspections that can happen any time of day or night)
To be registered with the CQC, you must show you have the relevant skills and experience to operate a care home effectively. This includes having a registered Care Manager (who must be qualified with an NVQ Level 4 and have at least two years’ senior care management experience) and at least 50% of your care home staff trained to NVQ Level 2.
You also need to make sure that the care home buildings meet the requirements set by the CQC. If there are any failings in the standard of the building, you need to understand what these are, how they can be fixed and how much this will cost. This should be established by your solicitor during the due diligence stage of the buying process.
Why choose WSP Solicitors for buying or selling a care home?
Decades of specialist expertise
Our Commercial Team have been helping clients to buy and sell businesses, including care homes, for decades. As such, we can provide clear, practical guidance on every stage of the process, helping the sale to go ahead as smoothly as possible while protecting your interests.
Seamless personal service
When you work with us, you will have a dedicated point of contact at the firm who will get to know you and your business goals. They will be available to answer your questions and keep you updated on progress at all times, providing the close personal support you need.
Experience of multi-million pound business sales
We have experience helping clients to buy and sell businesses of all shapes and sizes, from the acquisition of small family businesses for less than £100,000, to the sale of international concerns for in excess of £30 million.
Tailored advice that adds real world value to your business
Whatever your requirements, our Commercial Team can provide the tailored advice and support you need to make your plans a reality while adding real world value to your enterprise.
Accredited experts you can trust
WSP Solicitors is Lexcel accredited by the Law Society in recognition of our legal and professional standards. We are independently regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).
Contact our commercial lawyers in Gloucestershire
For expert support to buy or sell a care home, or for any other area of commercial law, please contact our local offices in Gloucester or Stroud today.
If you have a quick question or would like to request a call back, you can also use our quick online enquiry form.
