A care home in receivership set against a background of a family feud, a local authority embargo preventing them taking more residents and a Care Quality Commission rating of ‘requires improvement’ was able to be sold as a going concern because of our involvement.

We acted for the receivers, Jeremy Willmont and Lee Causer of Moore Stephens, when the financial viability of the business was threatened.

The complex situation threw up several issues which we resolved, including:

• the validity of the receivers’ appointment by the partnership’s bank
• the risks of continuing to trade at a loss in order to achieve sale as a going concern
• the employability of carers from outside the EU whose immigration status was uncertain because their sponsor’s licence had not been renewed
• the sale of the care home to an established operator, although the price did not match the highest offer received
• the reinstatement of the contract with the local authority, representing approximately half of the care home’s business.

Sam Payne, head of our Restructuring and Insolvency team, said: “This was a fast paced and complex instruction but we were ideally placed to act, as we were able to utilise the firm’s healthcare expertise and also Derek Jones’ regulatory experience, to compliment the team’s Restructuring & Insolvency skillset.  In 2017 alone we acted on more than 10 social care (single sites or groups) insolvencies and the two teams – R&I and Healthcare – have forged a great working relationship.”

Jeremy Fricker of Moore Stephens said: “HCR provided sound legal advice on a number of difficult issues arising; we found HCR to be always quick to respond to requests for advice, and their fees represented excellent value for money.”