Premises Licences usually have no end date, so in the life of any Licence, the business or person how operates it (‘The Premises Licence Holder’) changes every so often. However when businesses are sold, people often forget to update the Licence with the new Holder’s details. When a Company ceases to trade, the Licence dies with it. Time and again we find Licences held in the name of by now non-existent Companies – meaning that (a) the Licence is ‘dead’ and all licensable activities must therefore cease with immediate effect and (b) a new Licence needs to be applied for, which is an otherwise unnecessary expense and takes at least four weeks to obtain. Therefore: Please check your current Premises Licence to make sure that it bears the correct name of the person or company that currently trades the Licence. If it doesn’t, then call us immediately as this is an emergency.
The process to transfer a Premises Licence:
There are several steps that The Licensing Guys can help you with to successfully transfer a premises licence to you or your company.
We will contact the previous holder to obtain from them the signed Consent to transfer the Licence over to you, the new holder. We will then complete the relevant Transfer application form on your behalf and file it with the necessary authorities in order to ensure that the application submitted is valid and takes immediate effect. This will preserve you and your business. NB If at the time the business changed hands, the old DPS left the business and you have appointed a new one, then you will also need to vary the Licence to show that there is a new DPS now in place. Selling alcohol without a valid DPS is a criminal offence so it is essential that you also check the correct person is shown as the current DPS. If you need to change the DPS as well, then please cleck on the link on this website and we will Vary the DPS as well at the same time.
