Further to my post from yesterday, my colleague Lionel Wirth has written an interesting article on this issue here: Ongoing issues with VCAT’s jurisdiction and the length of VCAT’s lists One of Lionel’s point is that transfer to a judicial member of VCAT exercising both VCAT and state court jurisdiction might not work because VCAT cannot […]

Many readers will be aware already of the Court of Appeal’s decision in Thurin v Krongold Constructions (Aust) Pty Ltd [2022] VSCA 226. For those who haven’t heard, the upshot of the decision is that VCAT cannot hear a case that raises a bona fides issue under federal legislation. An excellent summary of the decision by my colleague at […]

My colleague Matthew McCarthy from the firm McCarthy Lawyers has pointed out that the May 2021 revision of the LIV standard lease seeks to fix the problems discussed in my previous post here. Clause 12.2 of the new revision states that: 12.2     The lease for a further term: … 12.2.2. has a starting rent determined in accordance with […]

There is a construction issue that keeps coming up in retail and commercial leasing cases about whether a market rent review is required at the commencement of a new term in the standard LIV copyright lease when the Schedule says there are no market reviews.  Different versions of the same issue keep cropping in different version […]

Until recently, there were no cases about s 35 of the RLA 2003 – and now there are two in the last few weeks! The first held case that a clause that reviews the rent by CPI with a ‘cap’ did not comply with sub-s 35(2) of the RLA 2003.  The second held that a rent […]

Justice Quigley, sitting as the President of VCAT, sitting with Deputy President Wilson confirmed on Friday that VCAT is bound by the decision of Lanigan v Circus Oz & Ors [2022] VSC 35, in which McDonald J held that proceedings in VCAT were not an ‘action’ for the purposes of s 5 of the Limitation of Actions Act 1958 (Vic)(Limitation Act).   […]

Some amendments to the Retail Leases Regulations 2022 (Vic) have been published that come into effect on 1 December 2022. A copy of the amending regulations is attached to this post. The amendments bring in some changes to landlord’s disclosure statements. I suggest that practitioners check the Victorian Government legislation website to see when the […]

Remember when all we had to think about was whether or not a lease was retail and there was no such thing as the CTRS to occupy our minds on a Friday afternoon?  Well, as we return to a post-Covid normal we can start thinking about these things again. For those who need a refresher, have […]

The Victorian Supreme Court has announced that it has started a dedicated commercial and retail leases list to promote an efficient approach to the management of commercial and retail lease disputes. The Judge in charge of the list is Justice M Osborne. The list will deal with disputes involving commercial leases that are issued at […]

In the recent decision of Lanigan v Circus Oz & Ors [2022] VSC 35, McDonald J in the Supreme Court of Victoria held that VCAT was not a Court for the purposes of the Limitation of Actions Act 1958 (Vic)(Limitation Act) and, as a result, the limitations periods imposed by that statute did not apply to proceedings issued […]