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 […]

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 […]