Retail Leases Amendment Bill 2019 passed though the lower house and tabled before the upper house

Remember the Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic)?  We used to talk about it a lot in the good old days …

… anyway, reminiscing aside, in a welcome break from all things COVID-19 in the world of commercial and retail tenancies, the Retail Leases Amendment Bill 2019 (Vic) passed the lower house of Victorian Parliament on 4 June 2020 and was introduced into the upper house on the same day.

I am reliably informed that the bill has been tabled for debate in the upper house over the last few days, but is yet to be reached.

To refresh your memories, the Bill is intended to amend the RLA 2003 as follows:

(i)  to clarify the obligations of landlords and tenants under retail premises leases in respect of essential safety measures; and

(ii)  to require landlords to give information to tenants under retail premises leases in a more timely manner; and

(iii)  to clarify the timeframe within which landlords must return security deposits to tenants under retail premises leases; and

(iv)  to create a new early rent review process for tenants under retail premises leases; and

(v)  to establish a cooling off period for the renewal of retail premises leases in certain circumstances.

For further discussion, refer to my earlier post here: https://samhopperbarrister.com/2019/10/30/retail-leases-amendment-bill-2019-tabled-before-parliament/ 

For the real lease-nerds:

• a copy of the Bill is available here: RLA Amendment Bill 2019
• a copy of the Explanatory Memorandum to the Bill is available here: EM to RLA Amendment Act 2019
• the second reading speech in the lower house is available: here
• the second reading speech in the upper house is available: here

Thanks to Peter Lowenstern for letting me know of the Bill’s progress.