Selling a dental practice: a step-by-step UK guide
Selling a dental practice is a project that starts long before a buyer appears. The NHS contract, the CQC and your team all have their own rules and timings. Here is the order to work through them, and the details that can hold up completion.
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Selling a dental practice in the UK means selling a regulated business: the buyer needs to be allowed to own it, the CQC needs to register them, and any NHS contract can only move with the commissioner's agreement. Owners who start early, with a valuation, clean records and a clear plan for the contract, give themselves more choice of buyer and fewer surprises. This guide walks through the steps in order, answers the common questions and covers the practical handover details that are easy to forget.
Do dentists sell their practices?
Yes. Practices change hands when principals retire, relocate, change direction or bring in a partner, and an established market of dental practice sales agents, specialist accountants and solicitors exists to handle them. Some owners sell the whole business outright. Others sell part of it, bring in a partner who later buys them out, or sell and stay on as an associate for a period.
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The steps at a glance
- Decide what you want: full exit, partial sale, or sale and stay on.
- Get a valuation and fix what it reveals.
- Choose how to sell: through a broker or directly.
- Agree the NHS contract route with your commissioner, if you have one.
- Accept an offer and run due diligence with the buyer.
- Make linked CQC applications for the sale and transfer.
- Plan staff, associates and patient communication.
- Complete, then hand over the practice and its online accounts.
Step 1: decide what kind of sale you want
Your aims shape everything else. A buyer who wants you to stay for a year or two will structure an offer differently from one who wants a clean handover. A sale to a long-standing associate may be smoother for patients and staff but limit the price. A sale to a larger group may be structured differently again, for example with part of the price deferred. Talk to a dental specialist accountant about which route suits your plans, your pension and your tax position before you go to market.
Step 2: get a dental practice valuation early
A valuation tells you what the business is likely to be worth and, more usefully, what a buyer will question. In short, valuers usually work from an adjusted measure of profit and apply a multiple based on recent comparable sales, and that multiple reflects how secure the income looks. Common things to fix before selling include:
- income that depends heavily on you personally
- associates without written agreements, or agreements that are out of date
- a short lease or one that cannot be assigned
- NHS under-delivery that could lead to a contract reduction
- gaps in compliance records
- weak visibility on Google compared with nearby practices
Valuations vary and need a specialist dental valuer. Be cautious of a figure that looks designed to win your instruction.
Step 3: broker or sell it yourself
If you are comparing dental practice brokers, this is the decision in front of you. A broker values the practice, markets it, vets buyers and manages the deal through to completion, for a fee. Selling a dental practice by owner, without a broker, can make sense when you already have a buyer, such as an associate or a neighbouring practice, but you will still need a solicitor and accountant with dental experience. Whichever route you take, use confidentiality agreements before sharing financial details, and keep the sale quiet from staff and patients until you are ready to tell them.
Step 4: the NHS contract
For NHS and mixed practices in England, the contract is often the item that sets the timetable. NHS England's policy book for primary dental services explains how commissioners deal with changes. In its section on practices sold after a contractor's death it says plainly that the NHS contract cannot be sold with the practice, and most of the routes below need the commissioner's agreement. The routes depend on how you hold the contract:
| How you hold the contract | Usual route | Key point from the policy book |
|---|---|---|
| As an individual | Add the buyer as a partner by contract variation, then retire from the partnership | For GDS contracts, notice of a partnership change must be not less than 28 days |
| As a partnership | Vary the contract to add the buyer and remove the retiring partner | The commissioner must be notified that the contractor wishes to vary the contract |
| Through a company | Sell the shares | Where there is a change of control clause, shareholders cannot change without the commissioner's prior consent, which should not be unreasonably withheld |
| Any, replacing the contractor entirely | Novation | Counts as awarding a new contract, may have procurement implications, and is conditional on the buyer's CQC registration |
Two warnings from the same document. If a single-handed contractor simply retires, the commissioner treats it as termination of the contract on notice of not less than three months, so retiring before a sale is agreed can end the contract. And if you plan to take your NHS pension, the policy book describes the "24-hour retirement" arrangements, which need specialist pension advice.
Step 5: due diligence
Once you accept an offer, the buyer's advisers will ask for accounts, the NHS contract and its delivery history, staff and associate contracts, the lease or title, equipment records and compliance evidence. Having these ready before you go to market shortens this stage and shows the buyer the practice is well run.
Step 6: CQC sale and transfer
In England, the CQC treats a change of provider at an active location as a sale and transfer. Its guidance on how to buy, sell or transfer a registered business says:
- both you and the buyer should apply around the same time, so the applications can be linked and assessed together
- as the seller, you tell the CQC the incoming provider, the locations and the date regulated activities will transfer
- if you are selling the whole business and stopping regulated activities, you must cancel your provider registration, and if you keep providing care elsewhere, you apply to change your registration
- the CQC completes registration when both sides' legal representatives confirm the sale is complete
- registered managers can move to the incoming provider or cancel their registration
If you sell the shares of a company that is the registered provider, the provider itself does not change, but ask your solicitor what the CQC needs to know about new directors and managers.
Step 7: staff, associates and patients
Staff. Under TUPE, employees' jobs usually transfer to the new owner on their existing terms, with continuity of employment, and employers must inform and consult affected staff. Take employment advice on the timing.
Associates. Associates are often self-employed, so TUPE may not apply to them in the same way. Read each agreement for notice periods and restrictive covenants, and talk to key associates early, because a buyer will want to know they are staying.
Patients and records. Agree with your solicitor how patient records will pass to the buyer and who will be responsible for them afterwards. Data protection law gives patients the right to be informed about how their data is used, so plan a clear letter or message telling patients about the change, what stays the same and who to contact.
Tax when selling a dental practice
The sale of a business or shares usually brings Capital Gains Tax into play. Business Asset Disposal Relief can reduce it on qualifying disposals. Gov.uk lists the rate as 18% on gains from 6 April 2026, and the conditions include, for a sole trader or partner, having owned the business for at least two years, and for company shares, being an employee or office holder and holding at least 5% of the shares and voting rights for two years. Your accountant should model the options before you agree a structure, because the way the deal is set up affects the tax.
Step 8: hand over the practice's online presence
This step is easy to leave to the last week. Patients find practices through Google, so the buyer is paying, in part, for the practice's place in search. Make these completion items:
- Google Business Profile. Add the buyer as an owner and transfer primary ownership. Google says new owners and managers wait seven days before they can manage some features, and a profile needs at least one other owner or manager before primary ownership can move, so start this before completion day.
- Website and domain. Transfer the domain registration, hosting and any email accounts on it.
- Phone numbers. Move the practice numbers, including any call tracking numbers.
- Directory and social accounts. The NHS website profile, Facebook, Instagram and directory listings.
Reviews stay with the Google Business Profile, which is one more reason never to delete or recreate it. If you want to strengthen the practice's visibility before you sell, our guides to local SEO for dentists and working out a review target are a good place to start.
How quickly can a dental practice be sold?
There is no standard timescale. It depends on how long it takes to find the right buyer, the commissioner's response on any NHS contract, the CQC process, the buyer's funding and how ready your paperwork is. The parts you control are preparation and paperwork, so start those well before you plan to leave, and avoid promising staff or patients a fixed date until completion is in sight.
Can anyone own a dental practice in the UK?
No. Under section 41 of the Dentists Act 1984, an individual who is not a registered dentist cannot carry on the business of dentistry except in limited cases, and section 43 requires a company carrying on the business of dentistry to have a majority of directors who are registered dentists or registered dental care professionals. Check that your buyer's structure meets the Act early, because a buyer who cannot lawfully own the practice cannot complete.
Show buyers a practice they can find
Practice Radar's Insight plan tracks your rankings, map pack position and reviews against nearby practices every week, so you can see and improve how patients find you before you sell.
Run on our own practice first: ninth of the 14 practices measured in its town in May, first of 18 in September, on UK-wide search value. Page-one keywords: 6 in May, 194 in September.
Thirty days free. No card, and nothing starts automatically when it ends.