Do you HAVE to involve solicitors when opening a salon?

[Fluffystuff]

Hellooo!

I was just wondering if anyone could shed some light on the matter as to whether you HAVE to involve solicitors when you are opening a new salon? Im not looking to buy an existing salon, although one of the premises Ive seen is co-incidently a salon at the mo, but that would be closed down and stripped down prior to the lease being taken over. This particular one, is adjoining a hair salon and its a friend that Id be renting the space from........so is there a need for searches, contracts etc etc to be done by a solicitor? Also, how do you go about getting contracts drawn up for employees and people you have in eg botox? Im going around in circles and just wanted some unbiased advice (naturally those in the legal profession have stated that I simply MUST have a solicitor deal with it all!)
x

 

[collin]

Hellooo!

I was just wondering if anyone could shed some light on the matter as to whether you HAVE to involve solicitors when you are opening a new salon? Im not looking to buy an existing salon, although one of the premises Ive seen is co-incidently a salon at the mo, but that would be closed down and stripped down prior to the lease being taken over. This particular one, is adjoining a hair salon and its a friend that Id be renting the space from........so is there a need for searches, contracts etc etc to be done by a solicitor? Also, how do you go about getting contracts drawn up for employees and people you have in eg botox? Im going around in circles and just wanted some unbiased advice (naturally those in the legal profession have stated that I simply MUST have a solicitor deal with it all!)
x

Please please engage the services of a good solicitor..ok so its going to be a couple hundred pounds maybe but they are there to ensure your best interests are in place with any contracts that you will be signing....this small investment could save you a fortune and many many tears down line
Good luck :hug:

 

[angelina221]

No you don't need a solicitor the same as you don't need a solicitor when buying a house, but i wouldn't buy a house without using the services of a solicitor and i'd be then same when buying a business! There could be things in the lease etc... that you may overlook or not understand-leases have a language all of their own!-and your solicitor will spot these straight away. It's really not worth taking the risk for the sake of a couple of hundred quid.
You don't have friends in business. You can be friends with someone for years and things can change when you go into business but if you have everything set out in the first place then it saves a lot of hassle.
As for contracts, you just do them yourself. You can get templates off the internet.

 

[Curly Bamboo]

Even if you are legally versed I highly recommend you use a solicitor. I rent a room and I had my lease checked and it was very unfair on my part, we had to dispute and amend many clauses.

I also learnt that if you take on certain responsibilities/liabilities in the lease this may affect your insurance.

 

[YSL]

No you don't need to use a Solicitor unless you are raising finance (like when you buy a house and need a mortgage) as the Lender will insist on representation. It is illegal for anybody to draft a deed in relation to land but it would be the Landlord's Solicitor doing this for you so you would be fine.

Naturally, however, I would say that it would be prudent to engage a solicitor, however. There are a few clauses that a Landlord would slip in that you could overlook that may come back and bite you later on.

If you are renting space then you dont need searches so that will save you some money.

Also, with regards employment contracts there are some good templates about (I have said it in a few posts but businesslink.gov is a good place to start) and I think the NHF have their own.

There- now I've done myself out of fees!

 

[angone]

I got my solicitor to look over my lease which luckily was pretty straightforward anyway, I would recommend it even if it is a friend ur renting off, better to be safe than sorry. My background is in administration so I had some knowledge of contracts etc for employees, however, if you become a member of the FSB, which i also strongly recommend, they help you out with all your employee queries (they also get you a phoneline and credit card machine installed - it costs from around £170 a year plus a one off registration fee of £30.00). They also provide free banking with the co-op and lots of other useful info... worth looking into!