Forensic accounting: Unscrambling partnership disputes

In brief

• Types of disputes which may arise.
• Identifying the issues to address.

A Statistical Release issued by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in October 2019 notes that there were approximately 405,000 partnerships in the UK at the start of 2019. Partnerships are easy to set up, and combine ownership with control. Another advantage is that there are no statutory administrative requirements for most partnerships: unless they are limited liability partnerships, they do not have to provide information to Companies House about their ownership, management or financial position or comply with the other requirements of the Companies Acts.

The extent to which partnerships document the relations between partners varies: some have complex partnership deeds whereas others work less formally. Disputes between partners may arise in any partnership, however, and a partnership deed may not address the cause. Although disputes may arise for reasons such as the direction of the business, financial considerations will often be