Buying a Round Contract

Hi all,

This week we are looking at purchasing a new round and have had an offer accepted. 

Does anyone have any advice on what we should look out for so as not to get ripped off. But more importantly does anyone have any contract templates (terms of sale) that we could have.

Cheers 

A&D

Personally think this should have been discussed before agreeing a price , it’s also difficult to enforce anything that you get  in writing as all you are buying is good will , the customer is free to choose who they want to clean there windows and if they decide they don’t like you and go back to the previous one what can you do about it ??  It’s a case of hoping that they stick with you , I would want to be introduced to all the customer s just to make sure that they are all legitimate and let them know that I was taking over from joe bloggs but that’s about all you can do . 

Thanks Pjj. We have discussed a fair amount. We're going out with him two days this week to view the jobs and meet as many customers as possible, although you can't guarantee you will catch all 150 customers in - what would you do to minimize the risk? We are thinking about asking him to do random phone calls from the client list to make sure the list is genuine?

So to be clear you'd say a contract is a waste of time?

Also he is looking for a 10% deposit when we go out to meet the customers, 50% of the asking price once we've met them all and then the remainder on receipt of the full client list. Thoughts people?

Expurgoclean said:

Thanks Pjj. We have discussed a fair amount. We're going out with him two days this week to view the jobs and meet as many customers as possible, although you can't guarantee you will catch all 150 customers in - what would you do to minimize the risk? We are thinking about asking him to do random phone calls from the client list to make sure the list is genuine?

So to be clear you'd say a contract is a waste of time?

Also he is looking for a 10% deposit when we go out to meet the customers, 50% of the asking price once we've met them all and then the remainder on receipt of the full client list. Thoughts people?

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I think enforcing a contract would be costly and very time consuming and doubt it would be worth the hassle, meeting the customers or the majority of them I think would be the safest method , I expect you will loose a few due to them not liking you or something else very trivial I think that’s inevitable but provided the majority are happy hopefully you won’t have a problem , what kind of job is the seller doing ? If possible try and do a better job than he is doing so that the customer thinks they are getting added value , just make sure when viewing the jobs that they arnt to underpriced , as taking over a round and increasing the price could cause a lot to cancel 

All great advice Pjj, thanks, he sounds quite thorough but we'll see when we go out with him tomorrow.

All points taken on board, we'll let you all know how we get on tomorrow.

Expurgoclean said:

Thanks Pjj. We have discussed a fair amount. We're going out with him two days this week to view the jobs and meet as many customers as possible, although you can't guarantee you will catch all 150 customers in - what would you do to minimize the risk? We are thinking about asking him to do random phone calls from the client list to make sure the list is genuine?

So to be clear you'd say a contract is a waste of time?

Also he is looking for a 10% deposit when we go out to meet the customers, 50% of the asking price once we've met them all and then the remainder on receipt of the full client list. Thoughts people?

Click to expand...

Buying a "Contract Round?".

Hhmm,i thought abt it before.I couldnt agree more with Pjj.

- Whom guaruntees your round & your funds to buy the "round ?".

- Is it a "genuine or Ghost round?".

- A Random call to a Client - Seriously ??.

- No Formal legal binding contracts of Any Sort.Purely Verbal agreements??.

- Then a 10% Deposit!.

All this arouses suspicion,im afraid fella!.Unless you have £'s to burn.

Good Luck - Id be Very Alert!.Could be genuine,you never know.

Deposit? I would be telling him you’ll get the money when the hand over has been done ,

your trusting him so why don’t he trust you that’s what I would be asking

Pane said:

Buying a "Contract Round?".

Hhmm,i thought abt it before.I couldnt agree more with Pjj.

- Whom guaruntees your round & your funds to buy the "round ?".

- Is it a "genuine or Ghost round?".

- A Random call to a Client - Seriously ??.

- No Formal legal binding contracts of Any Sort.Purely Verbal agreements??.

- Then a 10% Deposit!.

All this arouses suspicion,im afraid fella!.Unless you have £'s to burn.

Good Luck - Id be Very Alert!.Could be genuine,you never know.

Click to expand...

I think if I was taken round to meet customers I would be happy , but there is no guarantee that the existing customers will stick with you , all you are buying is good will it might work out ok it might not it’s difficult to tell I have sold work before and some of the people have phoned me up saying the new guy is unreliable or does a bad job , will I start doing them again , this then puts me in a difficult position I said no I can’t sorry , then they can get offish with you . I personally have only bought work once off a friend when he was moving and I did it to help him out rather than needing the work , I have since sold some of it on and just kept the commercial. 

Pjj said:

- No Formal legal binding contracts of Any Sort.Purely Verbal agreements??

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Pjj has given really good advice. In the past we bought a round. We discussed it together, then he took us round the customers and introduced us. He gave us the records. Those who were not in, we put a note through the door explaining  we were taking over the round. Then we paid him, he was a genuine chap and all worked well plus we picked up many more customers. You cannot have any legal binding contracts. 
we have also sold work. We went to meet one lot I took an instant dislike to them, they had a bad attitude, seemed dodgy so I didn’t introduce them to the customers. 
we have also sold work to really nice window cleaners. You can get a feel for things. I don’t think the 10% thing sounds too good, but he might be frightened you will try and take his work without paying him. But if your both very fair and genuine it will work out. You will see people’s reactions when they open the door. Hope all goes well for both of you.