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 […]

My friend Robert Hay just added a post to his blog on a new decision in which VCAT held that a landlord repudiated the lease by failing to comply with its repair and maintenance obligations under s 52 of the RLA. Read Robert’s post here. VCAT’s decision is available here. Acceptance of the landlord’s repudiation […]

Here is a link to an article reporting that the WA Parliament is debating the introduction of mandatory disclosure requirements to prospective retail tenants. The article suggests that landlords in WA require tenants to disclose their turnover figures and that landlords may be obliged under the proposed legislation to disclose rents (presumably for comparable premises) […]

In the past week or so a debate has been brewing between shopping centre retailers and landlords, fuelled by comments made in the media by Mark McInnes and Solomon Lew of Premier Investments. McInnes is employing a strategy of closing stores to reduce losses in his ‘ongoing cost-reduction program’.   In some cases where Premier Investments […]

Greens List (my clerk) has just launched a new website with resources that followers of this blog might be interested in. Michael Green had this to say about the new site: Especially valuable to solicitors is the library with over 90 papers in it, many of which can have been filmed and can be viewed. There is […]

Many retail operators occupy their shops under a franchise agreement and outlet licence granted to them by the franchisor who holds a head lease of the property.   As it is usually associated with terminated leases, relief from forfeiture is often overlooked by both franchisors and franchisees when a franchise agreement and outlet licence are terminated. […]