I have just heard that VCAT is adjourning all face-to-face hearings up to and including 15 May 2020. The previous position was that face-to-fact hearings up to 17 April 2020 were adjourned. The notice I received applied to the Building and Property List.  If you have matters in other lists of the Tribunal, you should […]

The Prime Minister’s press release from today is available here: https://www.pm.gov.au/media/update-coronavirus-measures-070420 The paragraphs relevant to commercial tenants are as follows: The National Cabinet agreed that states and territories would implement the attached mandatory Code of Conduct (the Code), including via legislation or regulation as appropriate, to implement the principles agreed on Friday 3 April. The […]

The Prime Minister has given us more details of the model for commercial landlords and tenants. In summary: There is to be a mandatory code to be legislated state-by-state. The code will apply where the landlord or the tenant is eligible for JobKeeper (ie in financial distress) and has a turnover of $50M or less. […]

The Tasmanian Parliament has passed legislation allowing regulations to prevent termination for non-payment rent and rent increases in commercial tenancies during the Covid-19 emergency. Although not as broad, it adopts a similar model to that adopted by the NSW Parliament (discussed in an earlier post here: https://samhopperbarrister.com/2020/03/30/nsw-emergency-legislation/). Section 22 of the COVID-19 Disease Emergency (Miscellaneous […]

The press release from last Friday’s announcements on the proposed response to the Covid-19 is available here: https://www.pm.gov.au/media/update-coronavirus-measures-030420 The press release gives a bit more detail than the Prime Minister’s speech.  Importantly, it appears that the code will prevent landlords from calling on bank guarantees and security deposits for non-payment of rent. Keep an eye […]

We received a circular summarising technology used by the different jurisdictions in Victoria for hearings in light the new social distancing rules. At this stage, for retail tenancies disputes VCAT is only using telephone calls for urgent matters.  As far as I can tell, at this stage the system only allows for two-parties to call […]

After meeting with the National Cabinet this morning, this afternoon the Prime Minister announced as follows in relation to a proposed Industry Code for commercial and retail leases.  The Prime Minister said (in summary): They have been working on this issue for some time and are close to resolving issues regarding commercial leases. An industry […]

In an earlier post we referred to NSW legislation giving the Minister power to create emergency regulations to prevent the termination of leases during the COVID-19 crisis. The NSW legislation is now available here: https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/acts/2020-1.pdf The text relevant to commercial and retail tenancies is set out below. It is worth noting that: Although a state-by-state […]

The Age has published that: Banks will allow commercial landlords with loans of up to $10 million to delay their loan repayments by up to six months, on the condition tenants are not evicted due to the coronavirus crisis. For more information, see https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/coronavirus-victoria-updates-live-stricter-social-distancing-measures-kick-in-as-australia-s-covid-19-infection-rate-falls-20200329-p54ezy.html See also: https://www.ausbanking.org.au/banks-to-help-commercial-landlords-who-help-tenants/  

The Prime Minister has just announced a 6 month moratorium on termination of commercial and residential tenancies for non-payment of rent. The term commercial, presumably, also includes retail leases. The Age website has reported this: Mr Morrison has also announced a moratorium on evictions from commercial and residential rental properties. He says states and territories […]