TABLE OF CONTENTS


What is a Change Of Ownership?


  1. Changing the registered company name
  2. Changing the company type
  3. Somebody new taking over the company/branch/single service (sales or lettings)



What do we need to process a Change of Ownership?


Direct debit details
- need new registered company name associate with a new payer ref
- new company name needs to be on future invoices
- T/AM to send over signed contract (DD attached)


New branding (if this is changing)

- i.e. new logo, emails, description
- check for current creatives and have DSN update with new branding

If an agent is being brought by another but allowed to keep same branding, let them know Microsite tab writing will go so they need to get it copied on their side to add again

 


Registered company name


Registered: the name a company is registered under – can reference Companies House

Trading: the name that is displayed to and known by the public. These names can be the same,
a registered name may change, but the trading name can stay the same. We don’t need COO paperwork to change a trading name.


Look out for: The registered company name it should match the company name under billing details this is what will be on the invoices and needs to match what’s on Companies House.




Creating a new Payer Reference

  1.  Access new Payer Reference through Site Admin

  2. Info on first page comes from the ‘Billing Details’ section on the contract

  3. Info on second page is from the DD mandate.




What to do with old company info?



Any new branding (logo, profile description) if the company name/trading name is also changing
- don’t want mismatched branding onsite (eg. Logo not matching the trading name)
 - can get this from the AM/TAM or agent

Understanding why it’s a change of ownership – Call the AM/TAM
 - change of registered company name?
- is the company type changing?
- has someone new taken over the company?
- has someone new taken over just one branch?
- has someone new taken over just one service (sales or lettings)?
 - ask for DD and new branding (if needed) if this hasn’t been sent in.



Change of registered company name


  1. Create new payer
  2. Change ‘Name’ at company level
     - refer to registered company name on contract
  3. Edit any other details that are different on the contract
     - i.e. branding, emails, users etc.
  4. Process change of ownership first before starting form, then can automatically push through


Entire company bought out

  1. Company A buys company B
  2. Company B needs to send cancellation email to confirm A has bought them out
  3. Company A will come onto Rightmove as new
     - entire new company or existing company with new additional branches
  4. Company B needs a cancellation put in
     - leaver reason: Change of Ownership
  5. No property transfer needed
     - properties can come on as new unless keeping the same original branding 
  6. This needs to be manually processed if products being moved over


A single service is taken over

  1. Company A buys company B’s lettings service – Company B is continuing with sales only
  2. Company B needs to sign a form to downgrade to sales


  1. Company A will come onto Rightmove:
    - entire new company
    - existing company with:
  2.  live lettings branch in same area – form to be
  3. signed to add sales
  4. . new sales branch to be setup
  5. This needs to be manually processed if products being moved over 


Setting Live differently


For the COO’s that you need to make new companies/branches for, you may have to make the core and products live earlier and free, so you can move products over so they don’t drop of from site, as well properties not dropping of.

Do this after billing.


If you do this before mop up they should get a clean bill for the next month, if done after mop up they will get 2 bills on the following month. 


If a property transfer is needed process this per the norm, make sure both are set to RM plus, transfer the properties, then raise your request to ADF advising them what you are doing and what you have done.


ADF will then request feed to the new branch ID, once this is confirmed by the feed provider, ADF will delete the properties transferred and activate the feed for fresh data to pull through.


You can then finish the property transfer, adding PL’s etc.


If this has been done before the old branch is set to cancel, if you get in writing from the agent you can make the old branch invisible.


If you are transferring products over you will need to make sure that the products are live and free, with a chargeable date for the 1st of the month as the agent has already paid for these products on the old branch which is cancelling.


If you are being asked to transfer products that have limited availability like an LVA you will need to make sure that there is no one in the waiting list to get these products. If there are people waiting you need to contact Lola Smith or Stuart Whittall or Scott Kingsbury to get approval to transfer these across to the ‘new’ company.