Guides · Running the place

Premises licences and late nights (TENs): what I learned the hard way

How licensing really works for a small bar, and three mistakes that cost me.

Licensing is the part of running a bar that nobody teaches you, and the part where a missed email can cost you a night's takings. I held the premises licence for my bar in Brentford for fifteen years, ran late nights on Temporary Event Notices, and made three mistakes worth sharing. Here's how it works in England and Wales, in plain English.

The three licences people mix up

Premises licence. Belongs to the building and says what you can do there and until what time: selling alcohol, late-night food and hot drinks after 11pm, music and so on. Your hours and conditions are written on it.
Personal licence. Belongs to a person and lets them authorise alcohol sales. You get it after a short course and a criminal record check, and it no longer expires.
Designated Premises Supervisor (DPS). The one personal licence holder named on the premises licence as the person in charge of alcohol sales there. No DPS, no alcohol sales.

Temporary Event Notices (TENs): late nights without changing your licence

My licence had normal closing hours. For birthdays, Christmas parties and private bookings that wanted to go later, I used a TEN. It's a notice to the council, not a request for permission, and if the police and environmental health don't object, it simply goes ahead.

Fee: £21 per notice.
Standard TEN: at least 10 working days' notice. The day the council receives it and the day of the event don't count, so in practice give yourself three weeks.
Late TEN: 5 to 9 working days' notice. If anyone objects, a late TEN is simply refused, with no hearing. Personal licence holders get only a few late TENs a year.
Limits: up to 499 people at once, including staff, and up to 168 hours per event. A premises can have up to 15 TENs a year, covering up to 21 days in total.
Who checks it: the police and the council's environmental health (noise) team each get a copy and have three working days to object.

The mistake that cost me a late night. For a January booking I emailed the TEN form to the council in mid-December. I thought sending it was enough. It wasn't: the notice isn't valid until the fee is paid. The licensing officer tried to call me to take the £21, my phone didn't pick it up over Christmas, and by the time I saw the email it was too late to pay. The TEN never existed. Most councils now use an online form that takes the payment at the same time and sends it straight to the police and the noise team. Use the online form, pay on the spot, and keep the confirmation email.

Changing anything on the licence

When I changed the name of the bar, I sent the council a change-of-details form. They issued a replacement premises licence for a £10.50 fee, paid over the phone. Small, but nothing happens until you pay it, and the council will chase you for it. The same goes for a change of address on a personal licence.

Bigger changes, such as later hours, a new outside area or live music, need a variation application. That's a proper process with a notice in the window and a newspaper advert, so plan months ahead, not weeks.

When you sell or leave: get your name off the licence

This is the one I'd underline twice. When I closed the company and handed the lease to new owners, I asked them to put the premises licence into their own names. They said they would. A year later I found out the licence was still in my name, with me still recorded as the person responsible for alcohol sales at a bar I no longer ran.

If you're named as the premises licence holder or the DPS, it's your name on the paperwork if anything goes wrong there. Don't rely on a promise. Before you hand over the keys:

Make the licence transfer and the change of DPS part of the sale itself, signed before completion. The new owner applies, and you sign your consent.
Check with the council a few weeks later that both changes have actually been made.
If they haven't, write to the council. You can surrender the premises licence and ask to be removed as DPS. Do it in writing and keep a copy.

A simple licensing checklist

Keep the premises licence summary on display, as the law requires, and the full licence somewhere staff can find it.
Pay the council's annual licence fee on time. Miss it and the licence can be suspended.
Put every TEN in the diary three weeks before the event, submit it online and pay at once.
Make sure staff know the opening hours and conditions on your licence, especially the closing time and any rules about doors, windows and music.
When anything changes, such as name, DPS, hours or ownership, tell the council in writing straight away.

Fees and limits above are the standard ones for England and Wales at the time of writing. Check your own council's licensing page and the government's guide to Temporary Event Notices before you rely on them. Scotland and Northern Ireland have different systems.

The opening and closing checklists I used are in the Café & Bar Records Pack.

Yasar Bakici ran Time Café & Bar in Brentford, London, for 15 years. About