The Court of Appeal last week ruled that a liquidator appointed to a land owning company could use the disclaimer power in s 568 of the Corporations Act to extinguish leases granted by that company. This decision may have significant consequences for tenants and their financiers if their landlords are placed into liquidation. The case […]

In the next development in the debate over whether a serviced apartment is a retail premises lease, Justice Croft last week held that the lease of a ‘serviced apartment’ as part of a ‘resort accommodation facility’ was a retail premises lease, but sounded a note of caution against applying the finding to all leases of […]

The Office of the Small Business Commissioner has recently published two new information sheets about: exercising options;  and assignment of retail premises leases. The information sheets provide an overview of the operation of the Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic) in those areas and are expressed in layman’s terms. They should be a useful resource for landlords and […]

I recently wrote a short note, available here, in relation to an issue that has emerged about the operation of s 251 of the Building Act on the landlord’s ability to recover certain outgoings. Robert Hay has added another post to his blog on this topic that further advances the debate, available here. Unfortunately, I […]

A recent journal article has suggested that landlords cannot recover as an outgoing the cost of complying with essential safety measures under the Building Act. Essential safety measures overlap with a significant number of repair and maintenance costs that may otherwise be recoverable by a landlord under the terms of a lease. This has lead […]

ED – readers referring to this post should also refer to the later, related post here. I am often asked whether a lease to a serviced apartment operator is a retail premises lease for the purposes of the Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic) (RLA). At this stage, the only indication we have from the Tribunal was […]

An earlier post on this blog noted a decision from the Supreme Court of Victoria finding that the liquidator of a landlord company could not use the disclaimer power in the Corporations Act to extinguish leases granted by the landlord company. The decision has been appealed.  The Victorian Court of Appeal heard arguments on the […]

VCAT has recently considered the impact of a Calderbank offer on liability for costs under s 92 of the Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic). Calderbank offers can arise in various circumstances.  They are usually expressed as being ‘without prejudice, save as to costs’ and conclude with a threat like: ‘the plaintiff/defendant will rely on this letter in an application […]

Last month I acted for a tenant whose shop was performing badly.  When I asked how his website was performing, he said the shop had a website, but that it was not updated, showed only a small amount of stock and did not allow customers to purchase online. This is not unusual.  I often hear […]

The website thenewlawyer.com.au has today published an article titled ‘Lawyers call for national property laws‘. The article discusses a draft Uniform Torrens Title Act prepared by the renowned property law academic Professor Peter Butt. Any readers who are interested in the article can find a copy here.