The Lifestyles appeal (discussed here) was dismissed by the Court of Appeal today.  The Court of Appeal held that the provisions for calculating a Deferred Management Fee in the four Site Agreements before the Court did not comply with s 206S of the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 (Vic) because the Deferred Management Fee was calculated by reference to either the sale price […]

Another case that many readers are interested in is the decision LFRACM INC v Halski Pty Ltd & Anor [2025] VCC 1506 discussed here. The decision considers the Ministerial determination that excludes from the Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic) certain leases with a term of 15 years or more and related leases, which are commonplace in certain […]

A lot of readers of this blog have been asking about when judgment will be delivered in the Lifestyles appeal, discussed here. The Court has today announced that the decision will be handed down on Friday, 21 August 2026 at 9:45am. I will post a link to the decision and let readers know the result […]

The appeal in the Lifestyles matter (discussed here) was heard by the Court of Appeal today and the Court has reserved its decision, which is likely to be handed down in the next few weeks. I will let readers know as soon as I can after judgement as handed down.

The Court of Appeal (Niall CJ, Richards and Donoghue JJA) published Northcote Shopping Centre Pty Ltd v Aldi Foods Pty Ltd [2026] VSCA 140 this morning.  The case was an application to overturn Croft J’s decision, referred to in this blog post, where his Honour had held that it was permissible under s 35(2) of the Retail Leases Act […]

A number of readers have been asking about the appeal of the decision in the Wollert Lifestyle Community case, discussed here. The appeal is listed for a hearing in the Court of Appeal on 23 June 2026, following which the Court is likely to reserve for a few weeks before handing down its judgment.  I will […]

A reminder that our CPD session with Greens List is this Wednesday, 10 June 2026. If you haven’t done so already, you can register here. In the last post, we introduced the question of whether restricting the permitted use in a lease can prevent the Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic) from applying, and summarised two recent decisions addressing […]

A vexing issue in retail and commercial leasing has been the extent to which a restriction on the permitted use in a lease can prevent the Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic) (RLA 2003) from applying. The decision in Sofos v Coburn (1992) V ConvR 54-439 suggests that the Act will not apply when the lease […]

This question has vexed the leasing community for some time, and has recently been addressed (in part at least) by a VCAT decision that was published in the last week or so. There are, by and large, two questions: Does the Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic) continue to apply to the lease if, say, the […]

Many readers will be familiar with the Ministerial determination that excludes lease with a term of 15 years or more (and certain other related leases) from the Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic).  For those who are not, a copy of that determination is available by following the link here. The 15 year determination has been a […]