Care Homes

Thomas Guise Solicitors are nationally recognised in the long term care sector and we offer specialist legal advice relevant to your business needs.

Our Long Term Care Team advises corporate providers and owner-operators in England and Wales throughout the sector, from small specialist units for those with learning disabilities or challenging behaviour to large units for the elderly.

We have many years experience in aquiring care homes for clients either by way of asset purchase or share transfer. This enables us to ensure that as a purchaser your interests are fully protected and that potential delays are averted.

We also deal with the specific requirements of the major lenders who finance care home purchases. We are able to anticipate their requirements and ensure that these are satisfied at an early stage with a view to achieving a swift and smooth transaction.

As well as representing you in the sale of a care home, we also offer a legal grooming service prior to marketing the business.

This ensures that all the necessary legal information is available for the purchasers and their legal representatives when a sale is agreed and that any problems that could otherwise delay or cause the transaction to fail are dealt with beforehand.

If you wish to dispose of your Care Home, opportunities may be available through our contacts with other care home operators and prominent accountancy firms in the sector.

We have close contact with the major lenders and are retained by a number of clearing banks to act on their behalf in high value transactions. We are therefore well placed to assist in assessing your requirements and sourcing the appropriate funding.

If you do not have the right business structure this can cause tax problems and succession difficulties. By preparing Partnership Agreements or Shareholders Agreements we can help you prevent these problems from arising. If you wish to avoid disputes and unforseen losses, it is also important to regulate your business relationships. Again, we can assist by advising on contracts with suppliers, service users and purchasing authorities.

Your employees can often be your most valuable asset and will almost certainly comprise your largest overhead. If the correct legal framework is not in place you may suffer from high staff turnover, difficulties in recruitment and retention, or the prospect of compensation being awarded by an Employment tribunal if an employee is dismissed or made redundant.

We can create the legal framework you need by drafting employment contracts, advising on Health & Safety at Work issues and ensuring that the correct procedure is followed in the event of redundancy or dismissal.

Our commercial property specialists will be pleased to assist you in any property matters, including the sale or purchase of land, the grant of a new lease, commercial mortgages or planning issues.

We will provide advice and representation if you experience difficulties in applications for registration or in complying with regulatory requirements.

Inheritance tax used to be a tax on the wealthy, but now it affects a significant proportion of property owners including the owners of care homes.

One way to avoid or reduce this liability is by way of a Discretionary Trust Will. In some cases there can be a tax saving of over £100,000 and we can advise whether it could be used as part of your Inheritance Tax Planning.