partnership loan wanting out, advice please

celebrate

hi everyone, my first post in this section of the forums so please be gentle!!!

i'm just wanting a bit of advice

i am a GP, I along with 6 of my partners invested in rennovating a property and converting it to a conference centre. We took out a loan of £850000 for purchase and cost of renoovations. All the loan has been used. We have started business but so far have no money for many fixtures and fittings , have basics but place looks a little bare. We have a repayment of £7000per month to the bank for the loan:eek::eek::eek: We have in the last 3 months taken on a marketing person to try and push the business at a cost of £1000 per month. Currently our income from meetings is £2000 a month

My partners refuse to sell. They refuse to see that we arwe all too busy with our day jobs to make a go of this. They want to wait as business is coming in slowly but steadily. We are putting in £1000 each per month to cover costs. I am only part time and am struggling to make ends meet. We used the surgery building as collateral even though the project is nothing to do with our " normal" jobs

We never got round to phsyically drawing up a partnership agreement

So my question is, I want out, can anyone help me with my best options, I do have some money put by in premium bonds

We are waiting to have the place valued i am pessimistic about it being worth more than the loan.

How can I sell my share on if my partners (and outside investors unlikley) aren't willing to take on my part of the "debt"? Also when I enquired with the bank they refused to release me from the mortgage as the business wasn't bringing any money in at that stage.

Do I put in a cash sum to cover my part of the loan and ask them to exclude me from the repayments every month?

Although I have some money invested elsewhere if i reinvested in this place does that mean if it went bankrupt i would be worse off than the others for having put money in?

I went into this very naively and have learnt so many valuable lessons :(:(:(

Any helpful advice much appreciated, any cruel mean comments will be taken on the chin.:A

BoGoF

Bottom line is if you signed up for the loan with the lenders then you are stuck. The others would need to take out a new loan and pay the old one off for you to be free on any liability.

Should you come to any informal 'agreement' between you and the partners without the original loan being paid off then as far as the bank are concerned you are still liable for the debt, and not just your share.

poppasmurf_bewdley

For goodness sake. You're a GP earning a good salary. Go and speak to a solicitor who will give you proper professional advice and charge you a few quid.

Asking on here is akin to asking us if someone's suffering from a heart attack or indigestion instead of ringing the ambulance. You're talking about an £850k investment - not a £100 payday loan problem.

Poosmate

For a GP you are a little .. err.. naive! In case you hadn't noticed we are in the middle of a possible double dip recession so things are bound to be tight right now. At least you have some income which is paying for the Marketing agent and covering some or all of the running costs.

Have you asked youself why you are getting the jitters? Is it because you are struggling to make ends meet? If so, as you work part time could you not increase your hours?

Do you feel that maybe the other partners are not playing an active enough part in your (collective) business as you thought they would? Are you maybe doing more in the business because you work part time and maybe feel a little taken for granted?

Did you even plan who would do what in these early days whilst the business was becoming established? I believe businesses seldom turn a profit in their first year (or few) of trading so did you have any such contingency plans?

If your partners are unwilling (maybe they are unable) to take on your share of the business then you are kind of stuck unless you can get someone else in to take your place and of course, as others have said, unless the original loan is paid off and a new contract is drawn up you could still be held liable. There is also the fact that your "surgery" is being used as security too (I presume you are all joint owners of that too). Are you all partners of the surgery with equal standing? If you want out of the new business will you be ousted out of your practice too?

As for trying to buy your way out of this business, I personally believe this idea is just silly. If you only have maximum premium bonds then you have £30k, enough to cover your share of the mortgage for another 30 months. Much can happen in 30 months. The economy couls be well on it's way to recovery by then. If not, remember your 6 partners are in the same boat and if it really is a sinking ship, they're not going to want to lose their investment without a fight. I suspect that would probably happen sooner rather than later.

Regarding you all being "too busy in your day jobs", you can never be too busy to run your own business, especially when just starting out. To me, that's just a recipe for failure unless your other partners have more money than sense and are just playing at being business people.

The way I see it, you are lying in the bed you made and it's not time to get up yet. You can sit and worry about it or you can use your time (as you work part time) to throw yourself into the business and take a leading role, lead by example. You kind of have to make this work and as much as you say it's totally seperate to your day jobs it's not! You're partners and your surgery is being used as security so if the business fails it will have an effect on your day jobs.

Poo

KingElvis

Glad I'm not signed onto your surgery...oh wait a mo, maybe I am?