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Taking over a licensed restaurant: licence transfer
If the shop you are taking over already holds a food business licence, you can apply to transfer it instead of starting a new application. The transfer has its own requirements, and the licence's record comes with it.
What FEHD requires
- The new licensee applies for the transfer.
- At the time of applying, the new licensee must submit a certificate that the premises are free of unauthorised building works: Form UBW-1 for a provisional licence or Form UBW-2 for a full licence. FEHD will not process the transfer without it.
- For premises in a private building, the applicant declares that the use complies with the Government lease conditions (Form FEHB 192).
In practice
- The current and new licensees meet FEHD together.
- A transfer generally takes a little over a month.
- Demerit points and any prosecutions still pending pass to the new licensee.
Check before you take over
- The licence type and its conditions: what the shop is actually allowed to do.
- The expiry date, and the licence's record of past offences.
- Whether the approved plans still match the layout on site.
- Whether there are unauthorised building works that would stop the certificate being signed.