HVAC owners planning an exit
Selling a HVAC business? Price the job history before you sign
Updated
An HVAC firm sold as a going concern often passes its customer base and its job system to the buyer. The service history inside that system is a second asset, and some of it can be licensed before or alongside the sale.
What sits in the job system
Years of maintenance visits, refrigerant top-ups, equipment changes and quotes, each tied to a site and a technician. Buyers on our board describe wanting exactly this kind of working record, and those that say so remove names and contact details: Nyne de-identifies, Polyshares anonymizes before delivery, and micro1 anonymizes before resale.
Source: Job records data buyers
Check three things before a buyer asks
First, ownership: 9 of 17 vendors on our board say the records stay with the firm. Second, the vendor's own pooled use: 12 keep a right to aggregated or anonymised data. Third, the exit window, which runs from Joblogic's thirty days to Fieldmotion's ninety, and to nothing promised at all on Workiz.
Records you are still bound to keep
A sale does not end the duty to keep section 608 refrigerant records for three years or HMRC's six years for company accounts, so a licence never means deleting the originals. The rules for each trade are on our record-keeping page.
Source: Field service trade records law
Licence, sale or wind-down
A firm still running jobs licenses a copy and keeps the business. A firm being sold can license before completion or let the buyer of the business take it over. A firm that has closed has its records sold by its directors, or by the administrator, liquidator or trustee if it could not pay its debts. Tell us which applies on the enquiry form.