Here, a recent buyer (who wishes to remain anonymous) details her purchase of her dental practice in Watford through Dental Elite.
Which consultant in Dental Elite did you work with?
“Throughout the transaction I worked with Alison Willcock who did a great job as an intermediary between the vendor, solicitors and myself. It did get quite tense at times for one reason or another, so having someone there to mediate that was unbiased to the situation was extremely helpful.”
How long did the process take?
“The sale took far longer than it should have done – a year and a half in total – and all because the seller didn’t use a specialist dental solicitor. With no knowledge of the processes involved with a dental practice sale and no previous experience of completing any of the paperwork, everything was much harder than it needed to be. In an attempt to speed up the process both my legal team and Dental Elite tried several times to offer assistance and direct the buyer’s solicitors, but unfortunately he was reluctant to take advice from anyone.
“The solicitor’s lack of experience also resulted in me having to collect a lot of the evidence for due diligence myself. Although I worked in the practice so had access to a lot of the documents – I was an associate for 12 years before buying the practice – it wasn’t really my job to take on this responsibility. If it had been an outsider purchasing the practice they probably would have aborted the sale.”
Do you think these issues could have been avoided?
“Without a doubt – simply by employing the services of a specialist adviser all of the delays could have been avoided. Aspects of practice sales and acquisitions such as due diligence and the CQC application can be very complicated, so it is always best to have the right support from an adviser that has experience in the dental market.”
How was the CQC changeover process?
“I’m currently going through the final stages of the application to become a single provider, but it’s nearly coming to an end and everything so far has been good, so that’s very positive. Having Alison on hand to handle this has been a massive help.”
For more information contact Dental Elite. View our latest practice listings, email info@dentalelite.co.uk or call 01788 545 900