If you’ve found the kennels or cattery of your dreams and are ready to make an offer, the next step will be to appoint a solicitor.
Make sure you find a specialist business solicitor as buying a kennels or cattery involves far more than just a conveyance or transfer of property. A high street solicitor won’t have the necessary knowledge or expertise to secure the best deal for your business purchase.
Step by step guide to buying a Kennels or Cattery
Step 1 You need to find a kennels or cattery business that suits your requirements and agree a deal price and structure. This is usually summarised in a Heads of Terms or Memorandum of Sale. The deal structure can have a significant impact on both your finances and your exposure to risk so, although these documents are usually expressed to be not legally binding, it’s important to set the right expectations with the seller from the outset. Make sure you appoint, or at least talk to, a specialist business solicitor before you sign even a non-binding heads of terms or memo of sale. He or she will add significant value at this early stage.
Step 2 Due diligence – this is the investigatory stage of the process where, as a prudent buyer, you seek to establish what you are buying. Clever buyers work closely with their legal advisers at this stage to ask the right questions of the seller and to survey the property and review the business data and documentation. You will, for example, need to make sure that the Animal Boarding Establishment Licence and all necessary planning consents are in place for the business and that there are no hidden environmental issues.
An experienced business solicitor will manage this process efficiently and to your advantage. At Truelegal, we use virtual datarooms for due diligence which greatly enhances speed, transparency, efficiency and traceability. We find that buyers using our buying process then have the full business, legal, financial and staff documentation efficiently stored electronically for future use when running their kennels or cattery.
Step 3 The business purchase or sale agreement is the key document, together with the documentation for transferring the Freehold or Leasehold of the property. Your solicitor needs to make sure that the right warranties and indemnities are included to protect your investment. It is essential you understand what you are agreeing to.
Step 4 Alongside the main agreements there will be other issues where advice is required. A prime example is dealing with employed and temporary staff. Where you are buying the business goodwill, you will need to become very familiar with TUPE legislation which has a number of pitfalls for ill-advised buyers.
Make a free enquiry
The sooner we become involved in the process of helping you to buy your kennels or cattery business the more likely it is that your purchase will be successful, so please contact us today.
Please either call us now on 01392 879414 or complete our Free Online Enquiry and we will soon be in touch.
Our full contact details can be found on our Contact Us page.
We look forward to hearing from you.
