Questions and Answers
A selection of frequently asked questions, with answers, are listed below. Please do not hesitate to submit a question if you your question is not answered below via the submit enquiry at the end of the Q's & A's.
Q: I / We have never owned or run a pub before, what is the best way in which to go about buying a first pub?
A: It really depends upon how much capital you have available for your purchase. If you go to our Pub Leases Explained page this will give you an indication of the kinds of prices that you can expect for tenancies, leasehold or freeholds.
Q: What about training and qualifications?
A: Since the introduction of new legislation (Licensing Act 2003), it is a requirement that anyone selling alcohol must be the holder of a Personal Licence to do so. Every premise (pub, bar or off licence etc) must have a nominated Designated Premises Supervisor (DPS) who must be a Personal Licence holder. Again, on our Homepage there is an index. Go to the Training page and this will tell you how we can help in terms of training or qualifications if you have none.
Q: What price should I pay for a pub?
A: That depends on you and the seller. Prices will vary depending upon if they are Leasehold or Freehold. You can proceed very much in the same way as buying a house if the pub is Freehold. i.e. making an offer. On leasehold & tenancy's the price will not be negotiable.
Q: I / We want to buy a pub and have some available cash but want to possibly raise some money to help finance our purchase. How do we go about this?
A: Once again, you can go to the Finance & insurance page on this website and it will give you the details of Professional partners of ours who can explain all of the options to you. In short it is possible to raise funds to help with your purchase, via equity raising on an existing property or stand alone finance raising. Go to The Finance & Business Support page.
Q: What other costs apart from a purchase price do I / We need to account for?
A: You will need money to purchase the stock when you takeover the pub, as this is outside of the purchase price and also for your legal costs / solicitor (except for a tenancy where it is rare to need to involve a solicitor). Also you will need some working capital to begin with.
Q: How long, from start to finish, does it take to complete a purchase?
A: A Freehold purchase will take between 8 & 10 weeks and leasehold between 6 & 8 weeks. To purchase a tenancy, following brewery interview, this can be completed between 2 & 4 weeks.
Q: What does a Tied Tenancy mean?
A: This type of agreement involves much lower purchase costs. It is ideal for people starting in the business and still gives you your very own business to run. Certain products, normally draught beers and bottled beers have to be purchased form a nominated supplier, hence the term 'Tied Tenancy'. You can usually buy any other saleable products, food, wines, spirits and minerals form your chosen supplier. (See our page Pub Leases explained for more information).
Q: How is a tied tenancy different from a lease?
A: Have a look at our Pub Leases Explained page and this will tell you more. In the main, a lease will be more expensive to buy but you can then sell it for the business Goodwill, whereas a tenancy you can only sell the assets that you own.
Q: This will be my / our first business venture. How do we deal with things like Insurance, VAT, PAYE and all of the other things that will be necessary to arrange?
A: You will receive support from the brewery that you are buying your lease or tenancy from. Also, we have a number of Professional business partners who can help with providing the various elements of business support you may require, such as Accountancy (for VAT & PAYE), Solicitors, Insurance and various other aspects. Please go to our Finance & Business Support page.
Q: I / We don't have a business plan at present. How do we go about this?
A: Once you have found the pub that you want to buy, either the landlord will expect you to provide a business plan with financial projections included or, if you are buying a freehold, you will need to do so to make sure it's viable. Any financial lender will want to see this also. Our Finance & Business Support page will help you with this.
Q. I / We have found a pub we like but would like to re-decorate / renovate it if successful. Is this allowed?
A: Pretty much in all cases yes it is. With some types of leases or tenancy you may need to get the permission of your Landlord to do certain things, but mainly these are structural works. (If you are planning external re-decoration you need to check with your local authority in case their building regulations place restrictions on colours etc)
Q: I / We've been to look at a as customers and now we want to arrange to look at the Living accommodation too. How do we arrange this?
A: Simple, just contact us and we will take care of this for you with a time and date when you can be shown around.
If you have a question or observation that is not dealt with above (including something you think we should add to the above Q's & A's please submit this via the form below: