The Victorian Small Business Commission has published a FAQ guideline on the operation of the COVID-19 Omnibus (Emergency Measures) (Commercial Leases and Licences) Regulations 2020 (Vic). The Commission’s FAQs are available here: https://www.vsbc.vic.gov.au/fact-sheets-and-resources/faqs/ The FAQs address many the important questions that practitioners are asking about the Regulations.  All practitioners dealing with applications for rent relief (whether […]

In an earlier note I suggested that the landlord needs to offer to its tenant an extension of the lease term by up to 24 months.  However, it has been pointed out to me that the extension that the landlord needs to offer may be less than that. Regulation 13 states that (emphasis added): Extension […]

Click to access Australian%20Jurisdictions%20responses%20to%20COVID-19-5May2020.pdf

Well, the new Regulations contain a few surprises with some wins for each of landlords and tenants respectively. The Regulations broadly follow the scheme of the Code with a number of notable exceptions. Abi and my preliminary comments are set out below. First, as expected, the Regulations operate for the period 29 March 2020 to […]

The COVID-19 Omnibus (Emergency Measures) (Commercial Leases and Licences) Regulations 2020 (Vic) have just been published and are available here: Omnibus Regs Abi and I will write a summary shortly.