VIC Commercial Law and Company Directors - Removed Without Consultation or Compensation

[RBTP]

Hi,

I'm a young guy who started a for profit company with 4 other Investor/ Directors and have been removed from my directorship without consultation or compensation. The other company directors / shareholders are also refusing to buy out my share in the business and are now even refusing to respond to my letters.

The worst part is that they are now blocking my access to the companies financial records as well as access to the company premises. I must recover my original investment as it's now a debt I owe. I was working on and for the company for 60 work weeks with no pay for approximately 4-5 months and have still seen nothing for all of my efforts.

During the time when I was ousted, I suffered a depressive mental breakdown as a result of the stress, extreme work hours and of course the political circumstances. I'm now broke as a result of all of this and am struggling to find a way out.

Interestingly, the ATO still has me on record as being a company director and shareholder in the business.
I'm pretty sure the other directors still have my name on the lease for the property which the company operates in which is also of great concern to me.

Any Commercial Law help or suggestion here would be greatly appreciated.

I have no idea what to do next and am going out of my mind with anxiety and depression. It's been difficult for me to secure work since this has occurred due to the nature of the industry I work in (film and media) and the circumstances mentioned above.

 

[Rod]

You need to look after your health as number one priority. Everything else is secondary.

Have you read the company constitution? If not, you need to. Look at the rules around director hiring/firing. Was there a shareholder agreement? If yes, what does it say about selling shares? Do you own a significant number of shares (ie >10%)?

In an ideal world, what do you want now as an outcome?

On the limited information available you may have some kind of action against the company/directors. If your breakdown was known to the others, that may give them certain rights to take the action they did. If so, depending on the outcome you want, you need to firstly recover, then begin working to get the outcome you seek.

BTW, are/were you into competitive canoeing or one of the other directors??