Advice Needed

[tunafish]

I run a small part time business with another person, but recently we had an argument and he basically decided to take half of the funds in the business account which was £70. From which he had no claim over as it is company funds. As it was pained into a proper business bank account etc.

Now this is plain theft, you cant just claim funds from a business account, from which he has no claim over. He seems to think that as its a partnership he has claim over half, where infact he does not.
The business name and bank accounts are registered to me, my house address is the main company office as such. We just had a joint account on the bank, and thats it.

If anything those funds are legally all mine, as at the end of the day the business is in my name and ofcourse i could also claim these as expenses which i can also prove, which infact ammounts to more than whats in the accounts.

How do i go about legally claiming these funds back, as what he basically did is theft, he took the funds then notified me 5 hours later once they had cleared. i have asked him to return it and he has not.

[fisicx]

Is the £35 really that important? A partnership has no legal status so you cannot claim theft. As you parner no longer wishes to remain in business with you the partnership dissolves instantly and I would suggest that the assests should be split between the partners.

http://www.bytestart.co.uk/content/1...tnership.shtml

[tunafish]

Except it was never a partnership to begin with!
The business name is in my name etc i am the business owner and the guy only had a joint account with me! Thats it!

And the money is £70 not £35

[fisicx]

I'm confused - is it a registered company? If not then there was no legal status to your partnership. If they had access to the bank account and there were no controls over who could withdraw funds then I doubt that you would be able to claim theft.

If your ex partner is claiming that they are entittled to half and took at £70 then I suppose your could claim back £35 but just getting a solicitor to write a letter is going to cost you more than that.

I think that no matter how agieved you feel it is unlikely that your will get your money back without a fight so it might be better to chalk it up to experience.

[tkessex]

I think you're confusing exactly what status your business holds.

A partnership has no legal differentiation between its partners and the name under which it operates, and is formed on the basis of a preset partnership agreement (detailing profit-sharing, types of partner etc). You should also have registered the partnership with HMRC via your local tax office, each partner also declaring themselves to be self-employed.

If you believe you are the only one who has any rights to the business's funds then you're not acting as a partnership, but as a sole trader. If this is the case your business will have no requirement for a 'main office' and the business itself (including the name) won't be registered to you as there is no pre-requisite for that either.

You need to clearly define the conditions under which you work, what form wages/profit-sharing takes and what status each of you holds.