A partnership agreement sets the partnership’s terms so the Partnership Act 1890 defaults do not apply by accident. The template is included in every Buzz Legal subscription.
Partnership Act 1890. The Act supplies default rules that apply only 'subject to any agreement express or implied between the partners' (s.24 opening words), so the value of this document is almost entirely in displacing them. ⚠️ THE FIVE DEFAULTS THAT CATCH PEOPLE OUT: 1. s.26(1) — where NO FIXED TERM is agreed, the firm is a partnership at will and ANY partner may determine it AT ANY TIME on notice to the others. One partner walking out dissolves the whole firm. Clause 3 displaces this. 2. s.24(1) — all partners share EQUALLY in capital and profits and contribute equally to losses, regardless of what each put in or does. Clauses 5 and 6 displace this. 3. s.25 — NO majority can expel a partner unless an express power has been conferred. If expulsion is not written in, it does not exist. Clause 13 confers it. 4. s.33(1) — the death or bankruptcy of ANY partner dissolves the firm as regards ALL partners, subject to agreement. Clause 14 displaces this. 5. s.42(1) — an outgoing partner whose account is unsettled may elect either a share of post-dissolution profits attributable to their share, or interest at 5% on it. Clause 15 displaces this. s.9 — every partner is liable JOINTLY for all debts and obligations of the firm incurred while a partner, and their estate is severally liable after death. Liability is UNLIMITED and personal; that is the point of difference from an LLP under the Limited Liability Partnerships Act 2000. Also relevant: s.5 (a partner's acts bind the firm), s.24(8) (ordinary matters by majority, but NO change in the nature of the business without unanimity), s.28 (duty to render true accounts), s.29 (accountability for private profits), s.30 (duty not to compete), s.35 (dissolution by the court). Checked 2 Sep 2026.
Read it against your own business before you issue it, and change what does not fit. If the other side has already threatened a claim, that is a dispute, and it goes to AD Solicitors.
The document has 22 numbered sections:
Everything in square brackets is a blank for you to complete: names, dates, figures and the terms particular to your business. Read the whole document before you send it, and check the clauses on what happens when something goes wrong against how your business works.
If a clause does not apply, delete it.
All 101 documents in the library are included in every Buzz Legal plan and updated as the law changes, and every plan lets you ask legal questions as they come up. Plans start at £49 +VAT a month and you can cancel the first two at any time.
We draft your Partnership Agreement around how you trade, at a fixed price agreed in writing before work starts. Subscribers get 10% off.
The library is included in every Buzz Legal subscription, which starts at £49 +VAT a month. One plan opens all of them, and they are kept current as the law changes. If you only need this one document and do not want a plan, we will draft it around your business for a fixed fee agreed before anything starts.
It covers what the law requires for this kind of document. Check the clauses on what you are liable for, what happens when things go wrong and who owns what against your own business before you use it.
A contract review is a fixed £249 +VAT and covers one document read in full with the risks marked up. Drafting from scratch is priced per job and agreed in writing before anything starts. If legal questions come up most months, a subscription from £49 +VAT a month covers them.
A contract review is a fixed £249 +VAT for one document read in full and marked up. Drafting is quoted in writing before anything starts.
