A tenant is holding over after the expiry of a fixed term for a retail shop. Negotiations are taking place for a new short-term lease for the tenant, since the landlord wishes to redevelop the premises soon. The landlord writes to the tenant to set out the proposed terms of the short-term lease and invoices [...]

In a previous article we alluded to a reluctance on the part of some landlords of retail premises to issue leases to their tenants following amendments to the Retail Leases Act that prevented lease preparation cost recovery from tenants.
While there is legislative protection for some tenants, their position is not comfortable. That is particularly so [...]

Many of us will remember that before the changes to the Retail Leases Act in 2006, landlords of retail premises could recover their legal and other costs of preparing formal leases from their tenants. The amendments severely limited that ability and some interesting practices have since developed. A natural consequence of the changes, but needless [...]

The Australian Tax Office (“ATO”) has warned that co-owners of leased commercial property, acting as a tax law partnership or in an individual capacity, may need to review their GST registration.
The ATO sets out its views on when a tax law partnership carries on the enterprise as opposed to when each owner carries on the [...]

There is recent case law authority in the form of an NSW Court of Appeal decision for the notion that an option for renewal of lease can be exercised orally even where the lease stipulates that the option must be exercised in writing. That position is quite clearly not one that tenants would wish to [...]

Where parties had lengthy negotiations about a lease site for use to conduct outdoor advertising but the draft leases were unsigned, the NSW Supreme Court has held that the lack of intention to be immediately bound was fatal to there being an agreement for lease. That is despite some of the draft leases having been [...]

Legislation gives purchasers of residential property in NSW the opportunity to seek legal advice before they bind themselves in buying property. That is done under a mechanism that gives them five days after the date of their purchase contract to end that contract and to get back the bulk of their deposit under that contract.
In [...]

Business owners, also would-be business owners, are aware of the importance of having any premises leases in respect of the business assigned when the business changes hands. That is, the vendor will arrange with the landlord for the business premises lease to be passed on to the purchaser. The need for that is self-evident; without [...]

The Retail Leases legislation was recently amended to require that security deposits taken by landlords under the Retail Leases Act be lodged with the so-called Retail Lease Bond Scheme. Any interest on security deposits is forfeited to the NSW Government. If there is any disagreement between the tenant and landlord on the allocation of funds [...]

The common law rule is that any difference between the land described in the contract and the land to be actually conveyed constitutes a defect that entitles the purchaser to rescind. Vendors must be careful to protect themselves with effective defects clauses to avoid having contracts terminated in reliance on this rule. 
In Vella v Ayshan [...]