Care Homes

Care Homes Solicitors in London and Essex

Operating a care home requires huge dedication and comes with a range of legal and regulatory hurdles to manage. 

Whether you are selling your care home or seeking to acquire your first care home as a new entrant to the market, or looking to make a series of care home acquisitions, we offer specialist legal advice that is tailored to your ambitions. 

We advise on a broad range of issues including:

• Selling and buying care homes
• Employment law advice
• Service user agreements
• Partnership, shareholders’ and LLP agreements
• GDPR and privacy
• Commercial property
• Disputes
• Secured and unsecured lending

Our unique selling point is that we understand what clients want from their lawyers. We will manage your transaction proactively, with careful attention to detail while never losing sight of the bigger picture.

While working with us you will have access to our strong network of other professionals such as accountants, brokers, independent financial advisers and bankers.

We offer a range of pricing options and will be happy to discuss these with you. As a client-centred law firm, we will be transparent with you about our pricing and actively manage this throughout your matter.

CQC Requirements

All care homes must be registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). As a future owner of a care home, a buyer is required to complete the registration process, which may take several months to complete. Without the CQC registration in place, a care home would be unable to operate, and it is therefore vital to ensure all applications are made as soon as possible, including for the provider itself (if required) and the change in the registered manager and/or nominated individual. Even with no obstacles, this registering as a new owner will take at least 10 weeks and so it’s sensible to make the application as soon as possible.

We understand that operating a care home involves several legal and regulatory considerations, and that these need to be managed during the transaction. We are familiar with requirements of CQC and can advise on the best way forward to deal with the handover transition. We will factor the CQC registration requirements into the transaction planning stage, and check-in with you about this throughout the sale or purchase.

How we can help with Buying and Selling Care Homes

We will give you expert advice and representation from the start-to-finish of your matter, while making sure that you understand the various stages along the way. We can guide you through matters including:

• Advising on the best way to structure your transaction from a legal perspective. We will work with your other advisors, such as accountants, to ensure that the deal structure works from other perspectives (such as tax).

• Drafting and negotiating the heads of terms with the other parties or their solicitors – this is frequently needed as each party will have their own preferences and considerations, and our expertise means that we can pre-empt what the other parties will want to include.

• Drafting and negotiating the sale and purchase, and other, documentation. Business sale and purchase transactions involve specialist legal documentation and instructing us will ensure you are receiving specialist advice in a cost-efficient way.

• Project managing your transaction, based on industry practice, to make sure that all relevant tasks are completed properly and allowing you to focus on day-to-day business matters in the knowledge that your advisers are protecting your interests.

• Ensuring all CQC requirements are considered and addressed at the outset of your matter, and including suitable provision in the legal documentation to protect your interests.

Here are our Top Tips for Selling a Care Home.