Insights
Insights & Updates
Practical legal commentary from the Abbots Legal team.
Latest articles
Retail Leases in Victoria: The Complete Guide for Landlords and Tenants
An overview of retail leases in Victoria, including the Retail Leases Act 2003, disclosure statements, rent, outgoings, repairs, make-good, assignments, renewals, defaults and VCAT disputes.
Am I a Commercial or Retail Tenant? And Why Does It Matter?
The classification of your lease changes your rights, your obligations, and the laws that apply to you – often in ways that carry significant financial consequences. Many tenants assume this is a straightforward question. It is not.
Lost Trust Deed: What Happens and What You Must Do
The trust deed is the founding document of every family trust. Without it, the trust has no rules. Losing it can be expensive, disruptive, and – in some cases – fatal to the trust itself.
Shareholder agreements: the document founders always wish they had earlier.
What a shareholder agreement does, why a template will not cut it, and the clauses that prevent the most disputes. Most business disputes that end up in litigation could have been avoided – or resolved far more cheaply – if a properly drafted shareholder agreement had been in place from the start.
The Australian Consumer Law and Leasing: What Tenants Should Know
The ACL gives tenants a powerful tool that operates independently of lease exclusion clauses. Here is what landlords and tenants should understand before signing — or disputing — a lease.
Rent review caps survive: Court of Appeal draws the line
Whether a retail lease may cap the extent to which rent increases on review has been a source of uncertainty for landlords and tenants in Victoria. The Court of Appeal's refusal of leave in Northcote Shopping Centre v Aldi Foods makes the position considerably clearer.
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