How many ticking time bombs do you have in your agency? – Legal Health Check

O*NO! You know you want a healthy and legally unbreakable agency, but did you realise that there’s a lot more to a business health check than simply finances? 

All agencies place a lot of attention on their financial health, and rightly so. Businesses are constantly looking to reduce exposure to risk and reduce costs. But the legal health of your agency is equally important and if you don’t pay attention to it, you could miss a hidden issue and run the risk of a time bomb going off in your agency.

What is a legal health check?

A Legal Health Check helps in shielding your assets and future proofing your relationships so you can create a legally unbreakable agency. It is intended to guarantee that there is a systematic order in your entire agency and that nothing gets missed. It also confirms if you are complying with your legal and compliance obligations, and if other people are complying with their obligations towards you. 

A legal health check will help in recognising the exposure to risk and areas of weakness and potential liabilities. Recognising such concerns early means you can efficiently manage them before they start to adversely affect you. 

For example - these days, agencies are progressing faster than ever as they attempt to stay up with the changes in current labour markets and technology. Often contracts are drawn up, authorised, filed, and then it’s overlooked. A contract that could have been correct for a business at the period when it was signed, is not necessary that it is still relevant in the current period since business relationships evolve.

Why carry out a legal health check?

Whether you are in start-up mode or have been running your agency for years, it is a good idea to carry out a legal health check on your agency regularly to make sure your a*se is actually covered. Not only will a legal heath check put your mind at ease, but you will also know the areas that require your attention first, rather than just guessing where your time should be best spent.

It is a very good idea to perform a legal health check when you are looking to sell or refinance your agency (best to get in first before a potential bank or buyer goes poking around!). Recognising and dealing with any issues ahead of time will make your agency look more appealing, increase value, reduce risk and encourage a faster sale or refinance process. 

Why should you get one?

All agencies would benefit from a legal health check. Some advantages for your agency are:

·      Reach your goals faster – need to know if you have the correct foundations in place to accomplish your goals. 

·      Peace of mind – stop worrying about any hidden risks lurking in the shadows. Know your real risk exposure across all key areas of the business, and what you need to do about it. 

·      Easy implementation- remove the guesswork. Simply follow the action plan that comes with every Legal Health Check Report and know where best to focus your time, energy, and resources. 

·      Obligation-free – Whilst a legal health check will give you recommendations, it’s completely up to you if you want to implement any of them. The legal health check is designed in such a way that provides you with the information and tools to get where you need to be.

Takeaway

Who doesn’t want a legally unbreakable agency? 

The first step is to do a real estate agency legal health check to ensure you:

·      have no ticking time bombs about to go off (or if you do, what to do about it)

·      are on top of your legals and compliance obligations

·      know that your agency is future-proofed and will be there for you tomorrow and

·      can sleep at night knowing your a*se is actually covered!

Your next steps

If you’re interested in having a legal health check done on your agency, just email me back with ‘HEALTH CHECK’ and we can send you the deets to get you started ([email protected]). 

Boring legal stuff: This article is general information only and cannot be regarded as legal, financial or accounting advice as it does not take into account your personal circumstances. For tailored advice, please contact us. PS - congratulations if you have read this far, you must love legal disclaimers or are a sucker for punishment.