My friend, colleague and fellow blogger Robert Hay QC recently wrote a post here about the Supreme Court decision in Richmond Football Club Ltd v Verraty Pty Ltd [2019] VSC 597. The decision is significant for a number of reasons. First, the decision is the last decision about retail leasing from his Honour Justice Croft, […]

Following recent uncertainty about the application of the Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic), the Minster for Small Business today published a determination under s 5(1)(e) and 4(2)(h) of the RLA 2003 that exempts farm leases from the operation of the RLA 2003, effective from 29 October 2019. A copy of the determination is available here. Again, […]

A new Retail Leases Amendment Bill 2019 (Vic) was tabled before Victorian Parliament yesterday and had its second reading today. A copy of the Bill is available here: RLA Bill 2019. The Bill is not a wholesale review of the Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic).  The purpose of the Bill is to (see clause 1): (a) to […]

This is the second post in a series that I am publishing on the application of the RLA 2003 and the ultimate consumer test since the CB Cold Storage appeal. In Bulk Powders Pty Ltd v Seicon Pty Ltd (Building and Property) [2018] VCAT 2000 from December 2018, Senior Member Forde at VCAT considered a […]

Noman Mermelstein of the firm Law Ink Pty Ltd has recently published an article in the Law Institute Journal that asks whether, in light of a string of recent decisions, there is really a need for retail tenancies legislation in our community. A copy of Norman’s article is available here. The article is excellent and […]

My good friend and fellow retail leasing blogger Robert Hay QC has just posted a note here about the recent decision of Senior Member Forde at VCAT in Verraty Pty Ltd v Richmond Football Club Ltd [2019] VCAT 1073, which confirmed that a retail premises lease can ‘jump out’ of, or have a ‘late exit’ from the RLA […]

In the decision of Phillips v Abel [2019] VCAT 1031, handed down last week, VCAT held that: a lease of a quarry where the tenant processed and sold to members of the public sand extracted from the site was a lease of retail premises under the Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic) (RLA 2003); and late provision […]

Deputy President Lulham at VCAT has on 12 April 2019 handed down a decision that is potentially significant in the ongoing issue over the operation of both s 52 of the Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic) and s 251 of the Building Act 1993 (Vic). For background to that issue, see here. Since President Garde […]

In the significant recent decision of S3 Sth Melb Pty Ltd v Red Pepper Property Group Pty Ltd [2018] VCAT 1684, Deputy President Riegler held that a landlord’s failure to repair an air conditioning unit was a repudiation of the lease by the landlord, allowing the tenant to accept that repudiation and terminate the lease. […]

Legislation came in force on 1 July 2018 that prevents a party terminating a contract under an insolvency clause, also known as an “ipso facto” clause if the other party is a company and has a receiver appointed or is placed into administration. Much has been written about the legislation. However, one of the most […]