The Victorian Government yesterday announced the appointment of 20 new members to VCAT. A copy of the Government press release is available here: https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/new-vcat-members-clear-backlog-and-reduce-wait-times 16 of the new members will be appointed to the residential tenancies list and 4 to planning and environment. There is no mention of members being appointed to the building and […]

Readers will be aware of the ongoings problems with the length of the lists in the Building and Property List at VCAT.  Practitioners should be aware that the Building and Property List has implemented a new practice as of yesterday listing matters for trial only after interlocutory steps have been completed up to (but not […]

Most practitioners will be aware that the RLA 2003 does not apply to leases predominantly for the provision of services above the third storey, generally known as the Third Storey Exclusion.   However, the definition of ‘storey’ has caused consternation within the leasing community, as ‘storey’ does not equate to ‘floor’ or ‘level’.  This issue was considered earlier this year by Deputy President […]

Many practitioners in this area have observed in recent years an increasing number of cases of current market rent determinations for retail premises being set aside. Many of those cases involved determinations being set aside due to shortcomings in the valuer’s reasons.   In response, some specialist retail valuers have added a clause in their standard […]

In an earlier post here I wrote about the Justice Legislation Amendment Bill 2023 (Vic) that was currently before the Victorian Parliament. A few people have asked for an update on the Bill’s progress. The Victorian Government legislation website notes that the Bill passed through the upper house last Tuesday, 3 October 2023. The same website […]

Earlier posts here and here discussed a construction issue that keeps coming up in the LIV copyright lease about the interaction between:  In the recent case of Amazing Accommodations Pty Ltd v OU (Building and Property) [2023] VCAT 986 a similar issue arose under the August 2014 revision of the LIV copyright lease. In that lease, clause 11 contains the market […]

Many readers will be aware of the ongoing issues at VCAT resulting from certain limits to its jurisdiction.  I recently wrote a post here relevant to the exercise by the Tribunal of ACL jurisdiction.  That does not address the ongoing issues with the Statute of Limitations and contribution claims under the Wrongs Act.  However, a legislative fix to those problems is now working […]

I have recently received a few inquiries about my earlier posts here and here, particularly about whether VCAT has jurisdiction to hear and determine a retail tenancies dispute that includes a claim under the ACL. Readers considering this issue should be aware of the following:

Justice Croft in the Supreme Court of Victoria has recently handed down his decision in the curious case of Koronczyk v Victorian Small Business Commissioner & Ors [2023] VSC 431 that sheds a practical light on the operation of the technical dispute resolution provisions in Part 10 of the RLA 2003. The plaintiff was the sole director of the […]

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 […]