In the decision of Phillips v Abel [2019] VCAT 1031, handed down last week, VCAT held that: a lease of a quarry where the tenant processed and sold to members of the public sand extracted from the site was a lease of retail premises under the Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic) (RLA 2003); and late provision […]

Legislation came in force on 1 July 2018 that prevents a party terminating a contract under an insolvency clause, also known as an “ipso facto” clause if the other party is a company and has a receiver appointed or is placed into administration. Much has been written about the legislation. However, one of the most […]

Clients often want to challenge a determination of the current market rent under a retail premises lease. The grounds for setting aside a rental determination are quite narrow. However, three recent cases have seen rental determinations under the RLA 2003 set aside because the specialist retail valuer failed to provide ‘detailed reasons’ as required under […]

Robert Hay QC has written an excellent blog post here commenting on a recent VCAT case about the requirements of a notice of default under s 27 of the RLA 2003. You should read Robert’s note before reading post any further. Whether a tenant has validly exercised an option in a retail premises lease often […]

His Honour Judge Macnamara in the County Court of Victoria recently handed down a decision that considers and applies the controversial “ultimate consumer” test under s 4 of the RLA 2003. For some background, see my earlier post here. In the recent case of Access Solutions International Pty Ltd v Gamet Pty Ltd [2017] VCC […]

The Victorian Court of Appeal today handed down its decision dismissing the much-anticipated C B Cold Storage appeal. The decision is cited as IMCC Group (Australia) Pty Ltd v CB Cold Storage Pty Ltd [2017] VSCA 178 and is available online. The background to the decision is in earlier posts on my blog here.  If […]

In a previous post here I discussed problems with the reference to the World Federation of Exchanges in sub-s 4(2)(d) of the RLA 2003 and the Ministerial determination that excludes overseas listed companies and their subsidiaries from the operation of the RLA 2003 effective from12 August 2016. The recent decision of AMJE Pty Ltd v […]

An earlier blog post here discussed the recent decision of CB Cold Storage Pty Ltd v IMCC Group (Australia) Pty Ltd [2016] VCAT 1866, in which Senior Member Walker held that a lease of a premises used to provide cold storage and logistics services to other businesses was not a retail premises under the Retail […]

An issue has emerged in recent years about the extent to which overseas listed companies and their subsidiaries are excluded from the operation of the Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic) (RLA 2003). Sub-section 4(1) of the RLA 2003 defines ‘retail premises’ for the purposes of that Act.   Sub-section 4(2) then contains a number of exceptions […]

Answer: when it turns into a laneway. In an earlier post here, I discussed adverse possession of an unused laneway where the paper title remains with the old developer who subdivided the land. Last week’s decision of McMillan J in Anderson v City of Stonnington [2016] VSC 374 highlights another issue that needs to be considered before […]