I am presenting a paper on recent developments in relief against forfeiture as part of the Greens List breakfast briefing series. My paper will be presented from 7.45 on 3 November 2011 at Level 1, 205 William Street, Melbourne. I will be talking about: some recent cases in which relief against forfeiture has been obtain […]

In earlier posts here and here I have discussed the FEA decisions about the whether the words ‘without any deduction whatsoever‘ in a rental covenant are sufficient to exclude an equitable set-off. An application for special leave to appeal from the decision of the Full Court of the Federal Court to the High Court of Australia has been filed […]

Given developments over the last few days, I thought it would be worth doing a single post on the validity of the third floor determination. The relevant dates are as follows: 15 April 2003 – the RLA 2003 received Royal assent; 29 April 2003 – date of third floor determination; 30 April 2003 – Gazette […]

Geoff Browne has been appointed as the next Small Business Commissioner. I have been told that Mr Browne was formerly a Deputy Director of Consumer Affairs Victoria and that his appointment was effective yesterday. Peter Lisle has been Acting Small Business Commissioner for about the last 18 months.  Mr Lisle did an excellent job as […]

My friend Robert Hay just added a post to his blog on a new decision in which VCAT held that a landlord repudiated the lease by failing to comply with its repair and maintenance obligations under s 52 of the RLA. Read Robert’s post here. VCAT’s decision is available here. Acceptance of the landlord’s repudiation […]