The main issue that comes out of today’s announcements is the question of which industries must close, which can open and which can continue with restricted operations. For those trying to work this out, you might want to have a look at this link to the Premier’s website that contains: the Premier’s press statement on business restrictions;  and  […]

In 48 hours of announcements that just seemed to get worse and worse, the ever-diligent young property barrister Callum Dawlings caught the Premier’s only reference to the CTRS in light of Lockdown Mark 2.   In answer to a question about the Government’s tenancy protections, the Premier was heard to say: ‘We will have more to say […]

Hi all and welcome to lockdown mark 2. I am not yet aware of any new measures for landlords and tenants coming out of the second wave of this awful pandemic.  Practitioners already operating in this area should be familiar by now with the basic layout of the Commercial Tenancy Relief Scheme and the materials […]

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 […]

On 2 June 2020 I presented a seminar on the Code, the Act and the Regulations for the LIV that has been made available to subscribers to this blog. My colleague David Lloyd also spoke about the impact of COVID-19 on other real estate transactions, so you guys might be interested that too. I have […]

The Victorian Government has published a guidance note that addresses some of the key areas of debate arising out of the COVID-19 Omnibus (Emergency Measures) (Commercial Leases and Licences) Regulations 2020 (Regulations) and the Act and Code that preceded it. A copy of Victoria’s commercial tenancies relief scheme: Policy guidance on eligible participants and documentation requirements is available here: Guideline. It is […]

The Victorian Small Business Commission has published a FAQ guideline on the operation of the COVID-19 Omnibus (Emergency Measures) (Commercial Leases and Licences) Regulations 2020 (Vic). The Commission’s FAQs are available here: https://www.vsbc.vic.gov.au/fact-sheets-and-resources/faqs/ The FAQs address many the important questions that practitioners are asking about the Regulations.  All practitioners dealing with applications for rent relief (whether […]

In an earlier note I suggested that the landlord needs to offer to its tenant an extension of the lease term by up to 24 months.  However, it has been pointed out to me that the extension that the landlord needs to offer may be less than that. Regulation 13 states that (emphasis added): Extension […]

Click to access Australian%20Jurisdictions%20responses%20to%20COVID-19-5May2020.pdf

Well, the new Regulations contain a few surprises with some wins for each of landlords and tenants respectively. The Regulations broadly follow the scheme of the Code with a number of notable exceptions. Abi and my preliminary comments are set out below. First, as expected, the Regulations operate for the period 29 March 2020 to […]