White Horse Inn: Next on the list

Financing is always an issue when purchasing a property, be it a pub or your main home. Luckily, we have a major advantage in that the premises are being purchased by an already established local company, MRTC, as talked about in our first blog entry. We also thankfully didn't have to produce a very detailed business plan in order to source finance/a lease agreement with any owner. We have a business plan ourselves, of course, which includes funds for repairs, refurbishment and marketing to get this new venture off to a good start.

Anyway, since the last blog entry, we have put in an offer at around 85% of the asking price, which has been conditionally accepted, so we're over the first hurdle of owning our first pub! Nervous? You betcha…

The next thing was to get a full survey done. This was especially important as we could see from both the inside and outside that there had been very little maintenance of the property over the last few years. Luckily, this was completed without major incidence and the pub received a bill of (almost) excellent health. As mentioned in the last blog entry, there is obvious work that will need doing, however it won't be as bad as was first thought. There were rumours that the roof was completely shot and we would need a complete re-roof, but I think we'll be alright!

It was then over to the solicitors for them to start negotiating on the contract. This can be quite a lengthy process, so we sat back and waited…

…but not for very long! There were a couple of issues surrounding the property boundaries and the residing tenants (as they were on a tenancy agreement with the current owners), however these were resolved with relative ease. So, the money was in place, the contract was pretty much there…and then we hit another snag: VAT. In the midst of the contract being arranged, the current tenants had given their notice to the current owners and would be leaving a month later. This raised an issue over VAT on the purchase price, which took time to resolve and put us back a couple of weeks.

Having the current tenants leave before we take over the property is perhaps a blessing in disguise. There is no full lease in place (meaning that their rights could be protected) as this had been replaced with a short-term tenancy towards the end of 2007. This will mean we won't have to manage any tenancy agreement or take over any previous responsibilities to the existing tenants.

So, we're a bit behind schedule due to the issues above, but we've now exchanged contracts with a view to completing on 1st May! We should be able to pick up the keys directly from the existing tenants, who will be acting as caretakers for the building up until completion, before the hard work begins…

Our village, Seagrave, is also in the central regional final for the Calor Gas Village of the Year competition. We have therefore been putting together a small display to advertise the fact the pub will shortly be under new ownership and our rough plans to revitalise the premises before re-opening. This should both help us with our entry in the competition and provide some early promotion to the villagers.

Look out for the next entry in our blog when we'll be detailing our first thoughts as owners of our village pub and the first few days of our master plan to renovate and get it ready for business. We'll hopefully be opening mid-summer, so it's going to be all hands on deck to get everything done!

See you next time!