​Business Partner Has Gone Silent

Me, my husband and a friend of his started a small restaurant about 6 months ago. We invested equal amounts with the friend (around 7k each of the 3 of us)

At the beginning the friend had to leave town for work for 3 months so me and my husband had to work the restaurant all by ourselves and he did what he could from the distance, but the first months were the hardest and the husband had to keep paying for stuff out of pocket and ended up putting 7k extra on top of his 7k of initial investment.

The partner came back in April and didn’t like how things were being handled, he wanted dividends. The accountant ensured us that we would start seeing dividends until after a year or 2 of being open, that we should focus at the moment on making the restaurant self sufficient. He was okay with that, and started making events and inviting people over to increase sales, which worked at first, but realistically speaking his friends can’t come over everyday.

He put in some work but never the same amount as me and my husband, we would do all the shopping, errands, check ins with the electrician, carpenter, etc. Be there almost everyday to help out whenever employees needed a hand on different things. Mostly everything and all he would do was come over to drink with friends and whenever he didnt invite friends he just wouldn’t show up at all. I talked things out with him, he said he’d put in the work and did for about 3 weeks, after that he had a meeting with us where he said he wanted to meet up with an accountant and draft an official document where each of us would get a third of the restaurant and he would be the one to handle every economic decision in the restaurant.

We didnt agree nor disagree, we stated that we were gonna meet with the accountant, lay down all the work and facts and they would determine what would be a fair percentage for each. He didnt like the idea and said he would not continue further if we didnt agree to give him a 1/3 and full economic control. And wasn’t willing to discuss it any further without the accountant.

He said he’d tell us when he’d be available fir a meeting with the accountant (which hasn’t happened yet) and since then he’s gone completely silent, hasn’t supported the restaurant at all these past days.

We would take turns to take care of the restaurant daily needs and on his turn he would only show up at closing. I texted him that I can handle closing everyday from now on, since he hasn’t supported the restaurant adequately.

He didnt bother replying. I am thinking of talking to a lawyer. I wouldn’t want him to get a third of a restaurant where he hasn’t put in as much effort and work, nor money as the other 2 people involved. I think it would be unfair for us 3 to all get the same dividends.

But I wouldn’t wanna close the place down, And we haven’t enough revenue yet to open a new one. Is there a way we could buy him out but start paying months or a year from now?