Does a liquor licence transfer with the bar, or does the new owner start from scratch?

A liquor licence does not automatically follow the business when a bar is sold. In Ontario, a liquor licence is issued personally to the licensee (an individual or a specific corporate entity), not to the location or the brand, so a new owner buying the bar's assets or shares generally needs the regulator's approval before it can lawfully sell alcohol under its own name.

What that approval process looks like, and how much can be done in advance of closing, depends on the structure of the deal. A share sale, where the existing licensed corporation itself simply changes ownership, is often more straightforward than an asset sale, where the buyer is a new legal entity applying in its own right — though even a change of ownership within an existing licensed corporation typically still needs to be reported to the regulator. Buyers should never assume they can open under the seller's existing licence on day one without confirming this directly.

Because timing a bar sale around licensing approval is one of the most common ways these deals go wrong, this is worth building into the purchase agreement itself — as a closing condition, not an afterthought — with a Treadstone business lawyer's help.