In the decision of Lontav Pty Ltd v Pineross Custodial Services [2011] VSC 278, handed down last Thursday, a tenant applied to the Supreme Court seeking orders that the landlord of a retail premises lease had wrongly purported to terminate the lease and, in the alternative, sought relief from forfeiture. There are a couple of […]

The definition of “accountant” in s 3 of the RLA will soon be changed.  It currently reads as follows: accountant means a member of— (a)        the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia; or (b)        CPA Australia (ACN 008 392 452); or (c)        the National Institute of Accountants; The new definition will change subsection (c) to […]

The s 146 notices served on the former RE cited a failure to tend and maintain the plantations on the leased land in breach of the leases. The receivers of the land owning company argued that a failure to maintain is not a breach capable of remedy. Primary RE argued the contrary position, stating that […]

In an earlier post on this blog I noted that there was a cross-referencing error in s 62 of the Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic). That error has now been corrected by a the Statute Law Revision Act 2011 (Vic) (see item 81 of the Schedule), which came into force today. Thanks to Vanessa for pointing this […]

The decision in the Timbercorp Almonds apportionment case was handed down last week and is available here. The case arose out of the collapse of the Timbercorp Ltd managed investments schemes.  When the Liquidator sought to sell land on which almond orchards were planted as part of various managed investment schemes operated by the Timbercorp group, […]

One of the more difficult issues in the Primary RE case was the argument by Primary RE that the landlord failed to adequately prove the particulars of the breach in the notice. The text of the notices is included in another post on this blog here. It appears from the judgment that a significant amount […]

Section 146 of the PLA states that (emphasis added): (1)            A right of re-entry or forfeiture under any proviso or stipulation in a lease or otherwise arising by operation of law for a breach of any covenant or condition in the lease, including a breach amounting to repudiation, shall not be enforceable, by action or […]

The notices served on the former RE/tenant in the Primary RE case stated that (omitting formalities and title particulars): 2.            The lease contains the following terms (among others): (a)         the Tenant will at all times during the term of the Lease establish, tend and manage the Plantation Crop (as defined) in a proper and skilful […]

This post is the second in a series of posts discussing the judgment in Primary RE Ltd v Great Southern Property Holdings Ltd & Ors [2011] VSC 242. The main clause relied upon by the Receivers of the land owning companies in their s 146 notices was clause 6(b), which required the tenant to: … establish, […]

Given the number of issues raised in the Primary RE case and the size of the judgmnent (114 pages!), I thought it would be useful for those following this blog to have a separate post on each issue in the judgment. The first and, perhaps, one of the less complicated issues considered in the Primary […]