Selling a Daycare or Childcare Business With Commercial Property in Alberta

1. Establish ownership and sale perimeter

Map the corporation, shareholders, licence holder, property owner, employer, funding-agreement party and contracting party for families and suppliers. Identify every related entity and intercompany arrangement.

With counsel and tax advisors, distinguish a share sale from a sale of business assets, real estate or leasehold rights. The marketed headline should not blur structures with different licence, tax, liability and consent consequences.

• Legal seller
• Licence holder
• Share or asset structure
• Property or lease
• Included assets
• Excluded obligations

2. Disclose the licence path accurately

Provide the current licence, conditions, program plan, correspondence, inspection record and known changes. Alberta's handbook says an asset buyer requires a new licence because the licence is not transferable; a share sale retains the same corporate licence holder but still triggers reporting and possible personnel or program review.

Coordinate the proposed transaction with licensing staff early enough to avoid an unintended service gap. Do not advertise a transferable licence or represent regulator approval before it exists in writing.

3. Build the approved-premises record

Organize the lease or title, municipal use and development approvals, building and occupancy records, fire and health records, approved drawings, outdoor-play rights, parking, pick-up and drop-off, accessibility, alterations and landlord correspondence.

Identify mismatches between current operation, approved drawings and lease rights before launch. The presence of an outdoor play area does not prove it is approved, controlled by the operator or adequate for the proposed program.

4. Reconcile capacity, enrolment and attendance

Prepare a capacity schedule by program, room and age group, then reconcile active registrations, attendance, withdrawals and available spaces to the licence and source systems. Preserve effective dates and explain temporary closures or unavailable rooms.

Licensed capacity is not current enrolment, daily attendance or collected revenue. Do not combine waitlist names with registered children or present temporary attendance as a durable occupancy rate.

5. Build a supportable revenue bridge

Reconcile parent billing, receipts, refunds, deposits and credits with affordability funding, subsidies and other support by month. Tie totals to claims, bank records, general ledger and financial statements selected by the accountant.

Separate reported results, normalization adjustments and forecasts. Past grant or subsidy receipts do not guarantee future eligibility, rates, enrolment or payment for the buyer.

6. Schedule parent and funding liabilities

List parent deposits, prepaid fees, credits, disputed amounts, refunds, closure commitments and transition communications. Identify which party will deliver care or settle each balance after closing.

Organize funding agreements, claims, adjustments, audits, overpayments and correspondence. Have the ministry and qualified advisors confirm the implications of the proposed structure rather than treating prior funding as a saleable asset.

7. Prepare a staffing continuity record

Provide anonymized role, certification, schedule, wage, benefit, tenure, leave, vacancy and turnover information first. Release identifiable records only when necessary and lawful.

Counsel should address employee notice, offers, accrued obligations and transaction structure. Marketing should not promise that staff will remain or that the buyer will inherit the seller's workforce supports.

8. Control inspections, complaints and incidents

Index licensing and public-health inspections, complaints, non-compliances, corrective actions, reportable incidents, insurance claims and material litigation with dates, status and source documents.

A corrected item should retain the original finding and evidence of correction. A general disclaimer does not cure an omitted incident or materially misleading overall impression.

9. Separate property value from business value

For owned property, prepare title, planning, tax, condition, capital and environmental evidence independently from the business financial package. For leased premises, provide every lease document, deposit, guarantee, option, default, consent and change-of-control term.

An operating-business asking price is not an appraisal of the real estate, and a municipal assessment is not market value. State the allocation or valuation basis as a proposal until qualified advisors complete their work.

10. Stage the privacy-controlled data room

Start with aggregate enrolment, revenue, staffing and incident schedules. Use counsel-defined disclosure stages, redaction, secure access and a question-and-correction ledger for child, parent and employee information.

Alberta PIPA requires reasonable information practices. An NDA does not remove necessity, consent, statutory-business-transaction, security or destruction requirements.

11. Coordinate offers and transition

Require buyers to state structure, funding, operator experience, licence plan, property or lease conditions, requested records, financing, closing and transition assumptions. Compare certainty and dependencies, not price alone.

This guide is educational and is not legal, tax, accounting, employment, privacy, appraisal, business-valuation, licensing, health, safety-code or funding advice. Commercially does not certify earnings, enrolment, capacity, licences, funding or property approval.