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Buying a dental practice: right to work checks on the staff you inherit, the 60-day window, and how long to keep the copies
A buyer of a dental practice has 60 calendar days after a TUPE transfer to run fresh right to work checks. The dates and record rules, worked.
Buying a dental practice usually means taking on its nurses, receptionists, hygienists and practice manager as they stand. Most of the attention goes on the price, the NHS contract and the lease. The right to work position of the people you inherit gets less, and it stays with the new owner if the seller's paperwork turns out to be wrong.
This guide reads what the Home Office says in its employer's guide of 1 October 2026. It covers one situation: a practice sale where staff transfer under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006, known as TUPE. Whether TUPE applies to your deal is a legal question for your solicitor. The Home Office guide says that where it does apply, the rules below follow.
What the Home Office guide says happens on a transfer
An employer who carries out a prescribed check correctly has a "statutory excuse": if the Home Office later finds an illegal worker, the employer is not liable for a civil penalty. The check has to be done before the person starts work.
On a TUPE transfer, the guide says that right to work checks done by the outgoing employer are deemed to have been carried out by the employer who acquired the workers. So the buyer gets the benefit of the seller's correct checks. The guide then adds the catch: if the seller did not do them correctly, the buyer would be liable for a penalty if a worker who started on or after 29 February 2008 is later found to be working illegally.
For that reason the guide advises buyers to run a fresh check on every transferred worker. It also says a fresh check may be the only way to work out when a follow-up check is due for anyone whose permission to work has an end date.
The 29 February 2008 date matters for a long-established practice. The guide says employers are not required to hold a statutory excuse for employment that began before that date, where the person has been in continuous employment since.
The 60 calendar-day window
A check before the first day is not practical on a business transfer, so the guide gives a grace period: 60 calendar days from the date of the relevant transfer, in which the buyer should run the fresh check. It applies to every relevant transfer, including where the seller is in insolvency proceedings. The guide is plain that there is "no grace period for any subsequent follow-up checks".
The guide does not say whether the transfer day counts as day one. We counted from the day after, which gives the later date, so the table below is a planning aid only. Plan to finish well inside it.
| Event | Date | Date it runs to | Our calculation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Practice sale completes, staff transfer | 1 December 2026 | 30 January 2027 | 30 days to 31 December, 30 more to 30 January |
| Positive Verification Notice issued by the Employer Checking Service | 15 January 2027 | 15 July 2027 | Six months from the date of the notice |
| Nurse leaves | 31 August 2026 | 31 August 2028 | Leaving date plus two years |
The Positive Verification Notice (PVN) row applies to a worker whose position needs the Home Office to confirm it, for example someone with an outstanding application. The guide says the excuse expires six months from the date of the PVN, when a follow-up check must be done. That follow-up has no grace period.
The three ways to check
Before the worker starts, the guide says an employer must do one of three checks:
- a manual check of original documents
- a Home Office online check, using the worker's share code
- a check through a Home Office certified digital verification service provider
The type depends on the person's nationality and permission to work. The guide notes that holders of an eVisa can only prove their right to work through the Home Office online service, so a manual check of paper documents does not work for them.
One point suits a practice with a nurse who has moved between employers: the guide says right to work checks done for another purpose, such as a regulatory application, do not give a statutory excuse. A check made for someone else's licence is not yours.
Keeping the record
For a manual check the guide requires a copy of each document, a dated record that the check was made, and safe keeping for the duration of the worker's employment and two years afterwards. After that the file must be securely destroyed. For a digital verification service check the same period applies to the output of the check.
Writing a date on the copy is not enough by itself. The guide gives a form of words: "The date on which this right to work check was made: [insert date]".
A worked retention example, with the arithmetic shown:
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Nurse starts | 3 March 2020 |
| Nurse leaves | 31 August 2026 |
| Length of employment | 6 years 5 months 28 days |
| Keep the file until | 31 August 2028 |
| Time from start date to destruction date | 8 years 5 months 28 days |
Check the length row against the dates: 3 March 2020 to 3 March 2026 is 6 years, then to 31 August 2026 is 5 months 28 days. Add the two years afterwards and the file is held until 31 August 2028, which is 8 years 5 months 28 days after the start date. This is separate from the retention period for clinical records, which is in our records retention guide.
A checklist for the first week after completion
- Ask the seller for each worker's right to work file and compare it with the guide's steps: original or online check, dated record, copy kept.
- List every transferred worker with a start date. Mark anyone who started before 29 February 2008 as a continuous-employment case and keep the evidence.
- Run a fresh check on everyone, and diarise the day the 60 calendar days end.
- For anyone with time-limited permission, diarise the permission end date. There is no grace for follow-up checks.
- Store each file with a deletion date of the leaving date plus two years.
Check everyone
The guide tells employers to give people a reasonable opportunity to prove their right to work and not to discriminate. Check every transferred worker the same way, not only staff who seem to you to be from abroad.
A practice buyer also has the employment cost side to plan. The notice period guide and the holiday entitlement guide cover two things that transfer with the team.
In the practice
Overlyft can set up AI staff who join the practice team and take over the right to work diary: a list of every worker, the date each check was made, the end of each permission, the 60-day window after a purchase, and the date each file can be destroyed. It prompts the practice manager a month ahead of each date. A person runs every check and approves every decision, and nobody on the team is replaced.
This page is general information, not advice.
Where this comes from: Home Office, "Right to work checks: an employer's guide" (GOV.UK publication page, last updated 1 October 2026), and its PDF "Employer's guide to right to work checks, 1 October 2026", including the introduction, the three checks, "Record and retain" and "Transfer of undertakings (TUPE transfers)". Read 22 October 2026. The guide's civil penalty amounts were not in the text we read, so none are quoted. We did not read the separate code of practice, the TUPE Regulations 2006 themselves, or the 2026 extended-liability provisions beyond a skim. Not legal advice.
AEO Lookup editorial team
We write practical guides for people who run small UK firms, and we check every fact against its source on the date shown. Read how we review, or tell us if something has changed.
