A client of mine received summary judgment for possession in an interesting case today. The judgment suggests that it is harder for a rogue tenant to resist summary judgment for possession since the introduction of the Civil Procedure Act 2010 (Vic). In today’s case: the defendant had entered into a vendor’s terms contract; both the […]

This is the next post in my series on recent cases on relief from forfeiture. I will be posting some comments on lessons learned from these cases in a later post. The material facts of this case are: the tenant had made a previous application for relief from forfeiture in September 2009, which was granted […]

In Burd & Cooper Pty Ltd (ACN 119 808 034) v C & P Cooper Pty Ltd (ACN 119 813 133) and Ors (Retail Tenancies) [2011] VCAT 1416, the tenant filed a counterclaim based on an alleged payment to the landlord of $210,000, then withdrew the counterclaim at the 11th hour before trial. The landlord sought […]

The Tribunal has handed down two interesting cases on costs in the retail tenancies list in the last few weeks. In Jones and Anor v Globeoz Consultant Pty Ltd and Anor (Retail Tenancies) [2011] VCAT 2102, Senior Member Walker ordered the respondent to pay costs under s 92 of the RLA 2003 because it failed to […]

In an interesting recent judgment, Richmond Football Club was able to recover a significant amount of land tax paid under a retail lease. The Tribunal held that a deed of variation constituted a surrender and re-grant of the lease and that the re-granted lease was a retail premises lease under the RLA 2003.  Consequently, there […]

The next few posts on this site will consider some recent cases on relief from forfeiture. The decision of Mukhtar AsJ can be found here. The material facts are: the tenant had acquired a car wash business at the leased premises and was in breach of numerous covenants under the lease, including being in arrears of […]

I am presenting a paper on recent developments in relief against forfeiture as part of the Greens List breakfast briefing series. My paper will be presented from 7.45 on 3 November 2011 at Level 1, 205 William Street, Melbourne. I will be talking about: some recent cases in which relief against forfeiture has been obtain […]

In earlier posts here and here I have discussed the FEA decisions about the whether the words ‘without any deduction whatsoever‘ in a rental covenant are sufficient to exclude an equitable set-off. An application for special leave to appeal from the decision of the Full Court of the Federal Court to the High Court of Australia has been filed […]

Given developments over the last few days, I thought it would be worth doing a single post on the validity of the third floor determination. The relevant dates are as follows: 15 April 2003 – the RLA 2003 received Royal assent; 29 April 2003 – date of third floor determination; 30 April 2003 – Gazette […]

Geoff Browne has been appointed as the next Small Business Commissioner. I have been told that Mr Browne was formerly a Deputy Director of Consumer Affairs Victoria and that his appointment was effective yesterday. Peter Lisle has been Acting Small Business Commissioner for about the last 18 months.  Mr Lisle did an excellent job as […]