Robert Hay just added the following post to his blog: Michael Redfern died last Thursday night. Many readers will know Michael either personally or as one of Australia’s leading property lawyers. Michael had been ill for a number of years. Michael was a fine lawyer, a gentlemen, a mentor to many, generous and kind.  Any person who knew Michael could not help but like […]

Further to the post below, it appears to be possible to obtain leave of the Court to issue a fresh warrant: see Perpetual Ltd v Field [2010] VSC 445. This prevents the need for a new proceeding.  However, it appears that a court appearance is still required (see paragraph [11] of the judgment above). Thanks to […]

I have recently been told that the Sheriff views a warrant for possession as capable of being exercised only once, after which the warrant goes stale. This is probably correct in principal because any continuing trespass is broken by the Sheriff giving possession to the land owner, and a new cause of action accrues against […]

  [ED – the decision in this case has been overturned by the Court of Appeal – see subsequent post here.] Her Honour Davies J in the Victorian Supreme Court has ruled that the liquidator appointed to a land owning company cannot use the disclaimer power under the Corporations Act to disclaim leases over that […]

The Governor in Council has today appointed VCAT Deputy President Michael Francis MacNamara as a Judge of the County Court of Victoria. Deputy President Macnamara has been a long standing Deputy President at the Tribunal and has been responsible for the retail tenancies list for many years. Congratulations to his Honour on his appointment. It […]

For those who were interested in my last post about the impact of online sales on retail leasing rental values, here is a link to a post on a similar topic by my colleague and friend Mark McKillop. Mark’s post summarises and contains a link to a document by Ferrier Hodgson that touches on the […]

Hello all, and welcome back to the new legal year. During January, The Age published an interesting comment by an economic analyst about the impact of the shift towards online shopping on rent for retail shops, particularly in light of the recent announcement by Myer that it does not intend to renew a number of […]

A few people have requested a copy of the reasons in the recent County Court decision in Evans & Ors v Thurau Pty Ltd [2011] VCC 1444 on the meaning of the word ‘use’ in an Alpine lease. An earlier post on the decision is available here. The decision has not made its way to AustLii […]

Further to yesterday’s post, Australian listed companies and their subsidiaries are excluded from the Act (see s 4(2)(c) of the RLA). This is consistent with the purpose of the RLA to be a form of consumer protection for small businesses. Section 4(2)(d) of the RLA states that leases of the following premises are not retail premises […]

In a Victorian Government Gazette entry today, the Minister for Innovation, Services and Small Business determined that premises the tenant of which is a company (or a subsidiary of such a company) registered on the New Zealand Stock Exchange Ltd is excluded from the operation of the Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic). The determination has […]