Joint venture, one party goes to jail

[Carlos G.]

Hello, So in 2015 my friends enter in a joint venture agreement for sale of property to renovate and flip this 4plex. The agreement is between friend 1 and friend 2 is to put money upfront as friend 3 facilitated the deal and was going to bring in his expertise and take care of the rest. Along with that he got a limited power of attorney along with a quitclaim deed from the owners. Friend 3 will be unable to fulfill his part of the deal. 1. How can they separate themselves from friend 3. What would be the next step? Thank you,

[Brandon Battle]

You need a lawyer to determine the current status of ownership of the property and to determine how to legally force his removal from the partnership.You should have done that immediately when the trouble began.Most likely is you will have to sue him for breech of fiduciary responsibility to your partnership and force him to sign away any ownership rights.That will take a long time and money however.You may be better of financially by offering to buy him off the title for a reasonable price.He may have family members desperately needing money to survive after he goes to jail,you can use that as leverage.