Negotiations & Legal Process

We encourage buyers to make an indicative offer as early as possible in the process. We then lead the negotiations, the end result of which should be an agreed Heads of Terms document, with the preferred buyer. This is essentially a memorandum of understanding which we draft, setting out the main points of the agreed deal.

At this stage, few of the terms are legally binding. However, there is usually a binding clause which grants the buyer a period of exclusivity, during which the vendor agrees not to contact any other buyer.

The legal stages can take as little as 5 weeks but they often extend to 3 months or more during which:

• Solicitors prepare legal documentation and carry out their due diligence checks;
• Buyers and their advisers make enquiries into accounting and commercial aspects;
• Buyer and seller jointly prepare for a smooth transfer of ownership. We monitor the process closely and keep it moving as quickly as possible because the longer the legal stages go on, the greater the risk that the deal may be adversely affected by matters beyond the vendor’s control.