selling a business

rightwithpower

hello,
I was recently involved in the sale of a business, but the outcome was that I were completely ripped off by the buyer. I am considering sue-ing them but need examples of legal precedents where the plaintiff was successful.
thanks
rightwithpower

GAH

I suggest you take some proper legal advice

spadoosh

IM sure there are millions of examples where the plaintiff was successful, irrelevant though if it has nothing to do with your case.

Seek professional legal advice. Businesses can be hard to value and as such you might be overestimating the value of the business.

GDB2222

Ripped off in what way?

DVardysShadow

rightwithpower wrote: »

hello,
I was recently involved in the sale of a business, but the outcome was that I were completely ripped off by the buyer. I am considering sue-ing them but need examples of legal precedents where the plaintiff was successful.
thanks
rightwithpower

See a lawyer and take advice. Better still don't see a lawyer and save the fee.

As seller, you would be presumed to know what the business was worth. So the only grounds for suing would be if you were not paid what you were owed and you were deceived by the buyer.

Perhaps if you explained what happened in outline, you would get some better advice

Notmyrealname

rightwithpower wrote: »

hello,
I was recently involved in the sale of a business, but the outcome was that I were completely ripped off by the buyer.

Thats your problem TBH. You cannot get ripped off by a buyer unless they don't pay you. If you've been paid, you've not been ripped off.

The fact that the buyer kicked you in the nuts with the price or got you to part with more than you wanted for less than you wanted or got you to sign agreements such as one stopping you setting up the same business within an area for a specified length of time is your problem. If you didn't like the deal, you shouldn't have done it. You can't decide in hindsight that you should have got more money or better terms.

rightwithpower

Hello,
Thanks for the input. I have been away and had various logging on problems, plus my p.c needs replacing.
I know I was very brief with my post, so I will inevitably get similar replies on speculation.

My off licence business was set up without any help from anyone and successful. It and had been established over fours years.

My business was valued by a commercial valuator.

The fact is I used a lawyer from May 09 who claimed he was experienced in commercial sales and I still had to pay him and the lawyers representing the landlord.

There was a verbal agreement on the price with the buyer. This person was then replaced by someone else to be the person who`s name the lease should be in. They constantly visited my premises and accused my legal rep of dragging his feet, although they went away on holiday during the transaction.

They used a member of their family who was a partner in a law firm. They constantly claimed they had not received documents, this in spite of my lawyer sending out copies to them and emailing me each time.

The selling price was changed at least three times by them with some reason or another why they should not pay the asking price.
On each occasion they it was "this is taking too long" or "I lost favourable selling period" or "I am not going ahead unless you sell at this price".

At this time (Sept 09) I did not intend to pursue any further discussions with these people as a I realised they were time wasters with no intention of paying for my business. I suggested, and said openly to send them packing, but it was not purely my decision.

However they were embolden by the fact that we were still giving them audience to their scam and ask that the premise licence be updated and paid for following which I am to pay for the cost of the landlord`s legal fees because they wanted a new lease and was not their fault the original least was mislaid. They had agreed to proceed beforehand on the existing lease.

Their lawyer in the meantime shutdown early for christmas. Their lawyer even lied to mine that they had not spoken directly to the landlord`s reps although documents proved otherwise.
At this time I owed some money on the rates and was raided by bailiffs a few days after new years day threatening to remove stock at 9.30pm unless I paid up.

By this we were really fed up of the so called buyers and finally agreement was reached all round to remove the remaining stock along with equipment, fixtures etc and pull everything down so that they would not have a ready made business without paying for it to move into, just the shell we had when we set up.

After this whole carrying on they later a sent note to the lawyer saying it has taken too long and were returning all documents. (including those they supposedly had not received)
A week or so later however they had still not had enough of the games they were playing and said they were considering to go ahead and still felt that their last offer was sound.

I know you will judge me for being foolish for not pulling out a lot sooner, but as I said there were too many people making decisions, and maybe I should go after the incompetent lawyer.

Anyway the reason for me seeking landmark cases, is that I feel could do a better job representing myself than the lawyer I had employed.

The situation with these scum is that they currently set up a "off licence" within a month under a different name, registered for a personal licence and and has had the council running after me for whatever money is alledgedly owed.

RWP.

paddyrg

Sounds sh*tty, but legal?

Emmzi

if you let other people make decisions for you, it is no one's fault but your own

GDB2222

You had a business that was 'successful', and you decided to sell. You had an agreement in principle, but the buyers did not proceed as hoped. So, fair enough, these things happen. You should just continue your successful business and wait for a new buyer.

Instead, you had bailiffs at the door because your successful business had not paid its bills, and you decided to close down the business and surrender the lease rather than carry on.

Let's be frank. You've only told us half the story.

lincroft1710

You cannot sue a third party just because you made poor decisions. You have no basis for a case.