The Victorian Court of Appeal today handed down its decision dismissing the much-anticipated C B Cold Storage appeal. The decision is cited as IMCC Group (Australia) Pty Ltd v CB Cold Storage Pty Ltd [2017] VSCA 178 and is available online. The background to the decision is in earlier posts on my blog here.  If […]

In a previous post here I discussed problems with the reference to the World Federation of Exchanges in sub-s 4(2)(d) of the RLA 2003 and the Ministerial determination that excludes overseas listed companies and their subsidiaries from the operation of the RLA 2003 effective from12 August 2016. The recent decision of AMJE Pty Ltd v […]

An earlier blog post here discussed the recent decision of CB Cold Storage Pty Ltd v IMCC Group (Australia) Pty Ltd [2016] VCAT 1866, in which Senior Member Walker held that a lease of a premises used to provide cold storage and logistics services to other businesses was not a retail premises under the Retail […]

The recent trend in retail leasing cases has seen a gradual broadening of leases that fall within the definition of “retail” under the Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic) (RLA 2003). Many commentators, myself included, have suggested that all businesses that wholly or predominantly supply services will be considered retail, whether or not these services are […]

An issue has emerged in recent years about the extent to which overseas listed companies and their subsidiaries are excluded from the operation of the Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic) (RLA 2003). Sub-section 4(1) of the RLA 2003 defines ‘retail premises’ for the purposes of that Act.   Sub-section 4(2) then contains a number of exceptions […]

Answer: when it turns into a laneway. In an earlier post here, I discussed adverse possession of an unused laneway where the paper title remains with the old developer who subdivided the land. Last week’s decision of McMillan J in Anderson v City of Stonnington [2016] VSC 374 highlights another issue that needs to be considered before […]

There has been a long running controversy in the retail leasing community over the effect of the word ‘or‘ in a Ministerial determination that excludes certain leases from the operation of the Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic). Some of the background to the dispute is contained in an earlier post here and in documents linked to […]

In an earlier post here, I reported that an appeal had been filed in the Victorian Supreme Court challenging a decision of a VCAT member holding that the occupation of a room by an AirBnB guest was not a sublease. As a result the VCAT member held that a notice to vacate served by the […]

An appeal has been filed in the Supreme Court from the VCAT decision in Swan v Uecker (Residential Tenancies) [2016] VCAT 483 and should be heard later this year. In Swan v Uecker a residential tenant put the leased property on Airbnb without the landlord’s consent. The landlord then served a notice to vacate on […]

Readers should be aware of a hidden trap in the operation of s 28(2)(a) of the RLA 2003. The idea behind s 28 of the RLA 2003 is that: a retail tenant should have at least six months notice in writing of the last date to exercise its option; and if the notice is given […]