My colleague Davids Darzins of Darzins Legal has also provided some useful material that he has kindly offered to share with readers of this blog. Davids says this: The VSBC FAQs can only be viewed one FAQ at a time … I have downloaded each of the FAQs and the answers.  These are set out […]

Some readers may recall a post that Callum Dawlings and I wrote a few years ago about problems with VCAT’s jurisdiction over interstate residents: see https://samhopperbarrister.com/2018/04/27/vcat-jurisdiction-over-interstate-residents/ This issue has now been addressed by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal and Other Acts Amendment (Federal Jurisdiction and Other Matters) Act 2021 (Vic). My colleague Brett Harding […]

His Honour Justice Croft has returned to sit in the Supreme Court of Victoria as a Reserve Judge for 5 years. Justice Croft sat as full time for 10 years until late 2019, during which his Honour heard all retail leasing appeals and almost every matter that touched on the Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic) […]

Last year, the Office of the Small Business Commission provided resources for landlords and tenants about the CTRS on its website, including a valuable FAQ’s section. The FAQ’s have now been updated to reflect the new 2021 CTRS. To review the FAQ’s, follow this link: https://www.vsbc.vic.gov.au/fact-sheets-and-resources/faqs/#commercial-tenancy-relief-scheme-2021-faqs

Ok – so there is a LOT to work through. I recommend that readers start with the post from Easternbridge lawyers linked to my last post. Here it is again: https://www.easternbridge.com.au/post/ctrs-2021-regulations My preliminary comments on the new Regs are as follows: People may have started negotiations for rent relief already (in fact, the government encouraged […]

The new CTRS Regulations have now been passed. A copy of the Regulations is available here: https://content.legislation.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-08/21-103sra%20authorised.pdf I will provide a summary of the Regs once I have had a chance to work through them myself. For those wanting to get the jump on the competition, a summary of the Regs has already been posted […]

A consideration that almost always arises in litigation is the time to trial. This is particularly relevant in retail leasing disputes heard at VCAT, because the parties are usually in an ongoing relationship of landlord and tenant and delay can at times extinguish the subject-matter of the litigation. For those considering this issue, VCAT has […]

The Commercial Tenancy Relief Scheme Bill 2021 (Act) is available on the Parliamentary website and a copy of it is available here: And, yes, I accidentally wrote “now” instead of “not” in my last post. I have now fixed it. Grrrrrrrr – autocorrect!!!!!!!! No news on the Regulations yet.

I am reliably informed that the Commercial Tenancy Relief Scheme Bill 2021 (Vic) has passed through both houses of Parliament and has now received Royal Assent, although the Act is not yet on the Parliamentary website. No news yet on when the new Regulations will be passed. I will post as soon as I hear anything.

OK – so this is one with a bit of a history to it. Since about 2015, it became clear that s 251 of the Building Act 1991 (Vic) prevented landlords from recovering from their tenants the cost of essential safety measures and other costs of complying with that Act (see https://samhopperbarrister.com/2015/05/01/landlords-ability-to-recover-outgoings-curtailed/). Amendments were made […]