The major obstacle presented to those in the legal profession who profess expertise in the dental arena was this:
1. In order to be registered with CQC you need to be a practice owner
2. If you are a practice owner and you are not registered with CQC, you are committing a criminal offence punishable by public flogging ( as well as hefty fine and imprisonment)
3. If you are a practice owner and you allow someone else to run your practice, you are nevertheless, personally liable for breaches of CQC regulations
The consequences of this are, if you are buying or selling a practice :
1. The purchaser cannot “pre-register” as he is not a practice owner
2. If he buys a practice and is not registered then he will be committing a criminal offence
3. It is not possible to organise simultaneous completion and registration
4. If the parties do complete and the seller allows the buyer to begin running the practice for which no doubt he has shelled out several hundred thousand pounds, the seller runs the risk of being liable for the buyers failure to adhere to the CQC regulations
5. If completion takes place without CQC registration being assured to the buyer, this will immediately put the buyer in breach of the bank’s requirements and they may refuse to release funds, thus in turn putting the buyer in breach of contract and endangering any deposit which may have been paid ( which of itself will usually amount to tens of thousands of pounds)
This natty little problem caused the specialist dental-lawyer fraternity no end of headaches !
Whilst matters took some months, there is now in place a workable system which enables sales and purchases to take place without the fear that everyone involved may end up in jail.
If a lawyer who has never heard of CQC is acting then what are the chances of them being aware of and following the correct procedure?
The only reasonable and logical answer to this question is virtually none whatsoever.
The reality is that these issues are very real and the consequences of ignorance can be dire in the extreme for everyone involved.
The need for genuine expertise in order to advice dental clients properly is no longer simply desirable; it is a fundamental and absolute necessity.
At Cohen Cramer we have over 20 years’ experience and one of the largest specialist teams in the country providing genuine expert legal advice to dentists in every part of the country, every working day of the year.
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