When a goodwill purchase stalls on the legal side, not the finance

A North West dentist had agreed to buy the goodwill of a local practice, around £200,000, with the finance fully arranged. Solicitor delays repeatedly pushed back completion. We stayed engaged with all parties and kept the finance in place until the deal closed.

The Situation

A dentist in the North West had agreed terms to acquire the goodwill of an established local practice. It wasn’t a simple goodwill-only purchase either, the broader deal included a property element as well, which meant more moving parts and more parties who all needed to stay aligned for completion to happen on time, each with their own solicitors, their own timetables, and their own priorities.

On the finance side, there was nothing to worry about. The numbers were solid, the goodwill portion was agreed, and the loan was secured against it without difficulty. If the deal had been left to the finance alone, it would have moved quickly and completed without any drama at all.

It wasn’t the finance that slowed things down. It was the legal side. Solicitor delays pushed the expected completion date back further than anyone involved wanted, and that kind of hold-up creates a particular kind of frustration, everyone knows the deal itself is sound, but nobody can move until the paperwork catches up. For a buyer who has already mentally committed to a practice, arranged their own affairs around a completion date, and started planning for the transition, that gap between “agreed” and “completed” is one of the more stressful parts of the entire process, made worse by not knowing exactly when it will close.

What We Did

We stayed in the loop with everyone involved, not just the client, but the other parties on the legal side too, so that momentum didn’t stall completely while the delay worked itself out. Just as importantly, we kept the finance firmly in place throughout, confirming with the lender that the agreed terms would hold even as the completion date moved. A client dealing with legal delays shouldn’t also have to worry about whether their funding is still there by the time the solicitors are ready. Taking that variable off the table meant the client only had one problem to manage instead of two, and could focus their energy on the legal process rather than splitting attention between two separate sources of uncertainty.

This is a role that doesn’t always get talked about when people think about what a finance broker actually does. Sourcing the loan is often the easy part. Staying involved after the finance is agreed, chasing momentum, keeping lines of communication open, making sure a solid deal doesn’t quietly stall for reasons that have nothing to do with the numbers, is where a lot of the real value sits.

The Result

The deal completed successfully. Around £200,000 was secured, and the client took ownership of a practice they had worked hard to pursue. The delay was real, and at points frustrating, but it never threatened the deal itself, because the finance was never in question and the team stayed engaged until completion actually happened, not just until the loan was agreed and the paperwork was signed on our end.

The lesson generalises well beyond this one case: a buyer’s job isn’t done the moment finance is approved. It’s done when they actually own the practice. Anyone going through solicitor delays on a goodwill purchase can at least take some comfort in knowing the finance is one thing they shouldn’t need to chase themselves, freeing them up to focus on the parts of the process that actually need their attention.

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