What ways are there you could be forced out of a business partnership or PLC by your colleagues?

Answer 1

Assuming you don't have majority ownership, to remove you from active control all it takes is a vote by the other partners / shareholders.

In a plc, it is not possible to remove your financial interest (i.e. force you to sell your shares) except by a take-over or other closure of the business (eg. bankruptcy)

In the case of a Partnership check the Partnership Agreement ..

Typically, if you want to sell up, you must offer the other Partners 'first refusal' .. and if they want to "buy you out" they have to offer a "fair commercial value" (or better) ..

However, as far as I am aware, they can not force you to sell your shares == of course, once they have forced you off the Board there are other tricks they can pull .. for example, they can decide not to pay any more Dividends until after you sell up .. and then they can start to issue new shares = you have to be offered a proportional amount, however it is unlikely you will want to put more money into a 'non-performing' asset & thus you share will be 'diluted'.. if they keep doing this eventually your share will become insignificant ..

Less legal (but almost impossible to stop) tricks would include the remaining partners setting up a new company and transferring the assets of the old company by way of 'consultancy' payments etc.