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 […]

With land tax increasing and its consequential effect on rent, more and more tenants are turning their minds to the question of whether the Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic) applies to their leases. A few month ago, fellow barrister Ben Kelly and I presented a paper on this topic to the Legal Practitioners Liability Committee. […]

In the recent decision of Paramount Investments Group Pty Ltd v Club Fogolar Furlan Melbourne [2025] VSC 90, Croft J in the Supreme Court considered VCAT’s power to vary conditions on an order for relief against forfeiture after the order was made and after the tenant had failed to comply with the conditions.  His Honour […]

A number of readers have told me that are interested in following developments in the Wollert Lifestyle Community case, discussed in an earlier post here, and have requested updates on the case as it develops. For those who are following the case, the respondents applied to VCAT for a stay of the Tribunal’s orders until hearing […]