Your co-owner has crossed a line. They are diverting business to a competing entity, taking unauthorised drawings, refusing to provide accounts, freezing you out of management decisions, or breaching restraints in the shareholders agreement. The relationship that built the business has broken — and the longer you let the breach sit, the harder the eventual settlement becomes.
A Letter of Demand from one shareholder to another is the formal first step that documents the breach, demands remediation, and lays the foundation for mediation, buy-out negotiation, or oppression proceedings under the Corporations Act 2001.
The legal context
The shareholders agreement is a binding contract between the parties. Directors also owe fiduciary duties to the company under the Corporations Act — duties of good faith, proper purpose, reasonable care and diligence, and avoiding conflicts. Breach of the agreement gives rise to a contractual claim. Breach of director duties supports a claim by the company, and where a shareholder has been oppressed, sections 232 to 234 of the Corporations Act allow the court to order buy-outs, appointment of receivers, and other remedies.
Common pushbacks and why they fail
- “It is allowed under the agreement.” The agreement says what it says — selective reading rarely survives scrutiny.
- “You did the same thing.” Counter-allegations do not extinguish your claim; they simply create separate claims.
- “It is not material.” Materiality is judged objectively, and patterns of small breaches add up.
- “The company benefits.” Director duties run to the company, but conflicts and unauthorised drawings benefit the director, not the company.
The document and what it does
A Letter of Demand identifies the agreement, the specific breaches with dates and dollar amounts, the duties owed, the remedy required (cessation, accounts, repayment, transfer of opportunities back to the company), and signals the escalation path: mediation under any dispute clause, oppression proceedings under the Corporations Act, and where applicable, applications for injunctive relief.
What Claim Done delivers
- The shareholders agreement and breach pattern documented precisely
- Citation of director duties under the Corporations Act
- Specific remedies demanded with deadlines
- Reservation of oppression and injunctive remedies
- Drafted and sent on letterhead, flat $79
What to expect after
A formal letter typically converts an emotional dispute into a structured negotiation. Mediation, buy-out talks or formal undertakings often follow inside 30 days. If the breaching party doubles down, you have everything you need to move to oppression proceedings or a court application with a clear, contemporaneous record.