Ex business partner bailed on agreed payments
Location: Washington State (Greater Seattle Area)
I had a really terrible ex business partner that basically dragged the company into the ground (which looking back seemed intentional). The company grew to about 1m/year gross and we were broke. We run a mitigation/construction company and the plan was pretty straightforward. I run the mitigation side, he runs the construction side. I finish the cleanup and demo, he comes in and puts everything together. I streamlined the business to about 42% profit margins and things were running smoothly on my end and I was still so confused how we were barely paying ourselves anything by the end of the month. Once I had everything streamlined on my end, I started looking into his side of the business and it was nothing but a complete nightmare. The partner was at -30% profit margins, blew off customers, leaving us bad reviews, etc.
Once I called him out on it, he basically said "okay lets split up". I decided to leave and he would pay me out $25,000 and incur all of the current company debt (around $60,000). 3 weeks later I started my own mitigation business and ran at full speed ever since.
Its been 7 months give or take and I am doing great and he is not (naturally). But, he stopped making payments and said he is refusing to do so. Some of that debt is tied to my name and SSN.
I get that it looks like a stupid move to leave with debts that are out of my control, but with how bad the situation was, I would have paid more to leave that nightmare.
I sent over a 10 day demand letter which said in summary "Pay up or I am going to legally come after you" Which he responded with some ChatGPT BS response.
What I wanted to ask is that I know if it is worth going after him. I dont think he really has a lot of money, but he has roughly around $30-$40,000 worth of assets that I would love to get from him. But I am wondering if it is worth it?