Lookout Commercial Landlords - you need to know this
Are you a Commercial Landlord or Tenant? This video is a must-watch. A groundbreaking decision in the Victorian courts will impact you. Spoiler alert It has to do with maintaining a commercial property. Tune in below as I explain the change.
Remember, if you have any questions, contact me or any other team members at Millens.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Ross Millen:
Hi, welcome to another edition or update or whatever we call these things. But this one's for all you commercial landlords and tenants, because there's been actually quite an important decision in the Victorian courts about what happens in leases.
Now, sometimes you hear about the landlord having to repair and maintain a commercial property. Now, what the court decided was... Repair, everyone understands that, something breaks, you repair it. But what does maintain mean? And so, what they said for maintain was that it was a positive obligation to keep maintaining the property and having a maintenance plan. So, let's say something that maybe needed to be checked every 10 years, you need to check it every 10 years, but there might be things you need to check every year, and so, you have to have a plan to check it every year or else you're not maintaining the property. So this is, I think, a bit of a surprise to landlords, that they actually have a positive obligation in commercial leasing to have a plan to maintain the property. And if they don't, then they're technically in breach of the lease.
Now, in this case, it was very extreme, but it was an office building where potentially the structure of the building was unsafe, and the tenant stopped occupying the property and wrote many, many letters to the landlord, sent a report, and the landlord just ignored it all. What happened? The tenant stopped paying. Said, "Look, you, the landlord, have walked away from this lease," and the court agreed with them. So, they were able to get out of their lease and get damages from their landlord. So, that's a lesson for everyone, whether you're a tenant or a landlord, that the landlord has obligations to maintain the property.
Now, we've prepared what I'm sure is a highly interesting note about all this, and if you want it, just contact us below and we'll send it to you. So, for all your commercial leasing needs, remember to contact me, Ross Millen, or any other member of the Millen's team, and we'll be able to help. Thanks for listening.
