New office, new staff issues

Transferring employees to a new property

Commercial property transactions, like corporate transactions, can raise some interesting employment issues when particular employees are transferring to the property buyer as part of a sale. The breadth of expertise at the Wye Valley office and our team approach means that we can help clients with all aspects of their legal challenge.

Clare Day, head of real estate finance, recently acted for a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) property company that was acquiring serviced offices in Liverpool for £750,000.

TUPE regulations

The purchase involved a transfer of certain staff under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (TUPE) regulations. Clear contractual provisions setting out the parties’ liabilities in relation to transferring employees are key to any successful sale involving TUPE so Clare brought in Catherine Jackson, a solicitor in the Wye Valley employment team to advise.

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Clare and Catherine worked together to combine their advice into a report for the client and liaised throughout to ensure that timescales were met and any risks to the client in taking on the employees of the seller were mitigated.

Catherine said: “The more employees involved, the more wide-ranging and complex the issues may be. It is important for purchasers to be in possession of all the relevant information about the terms and conditions of employment of the seller’s staff, as well as the details of any on-going disputes.

“From a practical perspective, the purchaser’s early engagement with transferring staff, and efforts to honour any outstanding agreements, can help to smooth the transfer.”