Do I have to resolve a dispute with my business partner before I can put the business up for sale?

In most cases, yes, at least to some degree, because selling a corporation you co-own generally requires cooperation from your fellow shareholder — depending on your shareholders' agreement and share ownership, a sale of the company's shares or of substantially all its assets typically needs their consent or a shareholder vote, and an active dispute makes getting that cooperation much harder.

The nuance is what your shareholders' agreement actually says, if you have one. Some agreements include shotgun clauses, rights of first refusal, or specific buy-sell mechanisms that let one partner force a resolution — a buyout, in effect — without needing to first resolve every underlying disagreement. Where no such agreement exists, or it doesn't cover your situation, an unresolved dispute can genuinely block a sale until it's addressed, whether through negotiation, mediation, or ultimately a court proceeding using remedies available under the Business Corporations Act.

Rather than waiting for the relationship to improve on its own, it's worth having a business lawyer review your shareholders' agreement, or the lack of one, to identify what mechanisms are actually available to move the business toward a sale despite the dispute.